It’s winter 2021 and the world is slowly emerging from the pandemic (screw you Omicron). It has been three years since I came back from a pure world travels trip and lets just say, that I REALLY miss travel. I have been avoiding any of my favorite travel films as to not amp up any travel hype when most countries aren’t exactly open.

I’ve really missed extensive travel. It’s now been a year and a half since my canceled world travel plans of 2020. I am going to be 34 years old real soon and if you take a pandemic out of this picture, I more than likely would have traveled many additional Pacific Islands, lived in Australia and possibly have crossed South East Asia off the list. Hell, I probably would have been on a different part of the globe.

Coming back to my very room in Hawai’i, I decided to choose ONE travel film for the night after a long day of feeling stagnant at a job I planned to leave for travel during covid. Out of the many options, I chose The Motorcycle Diaries, a film about a young Che Guevarra and his companion traveling across South America on their motorcycle, their journey, mishaps, joys, and purpose on this expedition. If there is any greater journey out there that is actually a true story, it is this one.

The film recounts the very first journey of a young Che Guevarra and his companion Alberto Granado leaving Buenos Aires to travel on their small motorbike. They crossed Argentina over to Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and concluding the voyage in Venezuela where the pair parted ways for 8 years. The journey like any long rugged journey had a multitude of experiences.

Ernesto Che Guevarra & his travel companion Alberto Granado

They experienced good and happy moments together riding the beautiful South American terrain across Patagonia, the Atacama desert, hiking up to Machu Picchu, drinking and dancing. Rough ones like losing a tent in the cold, getting sick, crashing their bike a number of times, and seeing the turmoil native peoples faced. They experiences love and lust on the road and of course viewing the divide between classes of people, from rich to poor and healthy to sick. Out of this voyage, birthed the Che legacy we know today, and that is of “REVOLUCION”.

Eventually leading the Cuban revolution alongside Fidel Castro which is reflected during my time voyaging across Cuba.

Crossing a lake in Patagonia

Machu Picchu, Peru

I watched this back in 2012 or 2013 for the first time while I was polishing up my Spanish. The goal was to listen carefully to the word to help my Spanish. But little did I know, this was very much a travel film that reflected everything I look for in a voyage and what I stand for as a traveler. Not so much by what you see, but the experiences to be had between A and Z. The high times, low times, the unexpected, anticipated, and the story that can be told in the end. The person it shapes you into — someone who may never have existed if the journey had never begun.

Left: Map of Che Guevara’s Motorcycle Journey in 1952. 

Right: My Dream Trip Around Latin America

This film was the very story that kickstarted an insane wanderlust for extensive travel. Better yet, it helped to map out my very first dream trip (still is..) to South America. I may not have considered buying a motorcycle and doing a reverse trip on two wheels, but my trip consisted of starting in El Salvador to Colombia, then down to Ushuaia region in Chile, up Argentina, through Paraguay, and around Brazil before making it to the Guianas. My travels have shifted dramatically since, having been to Eastern Europe, across the states, New Zealand, Pacific islands to where I live now in Hawai’i. Even today, this film shaped how I think about travel — starting in one place and ending somewhere completely different.

This is what defines my name…A. Perez VOYAGES.

Gustavo Santaolalla is an Argentinean musical composer that has featured music in films such as Beautiful, Brokeback Mountain, Babel. TV shows such as Narcos: Mexico & Making A Murderer to even a video game called The Last of Us. But nothing captures the true emotion and heart of the ronroco & charango in the Motorcycle Diaries, especially at the end of the movie with the song titled: De Ushuaia de la Quiaca, one of my favorite songs to this day.

Every time I hear it, nothing else in the world matters. It brings me back to myself and reminds me what I live for: travel. That no setbacks or obstacles in the past and present are relevant to the great world there is out there. The years leading up to travel, to the days on the road, to the very chair I sit on in my room in Hawai’i, De Ushuaia de la Quiaca & many other songs with the same emotional sound ALWAYS moves me, putting my mind back on track where I need to be in life.

The last time I watched this was in 2017 in New Zealand, ironically before going off on a motorcycle journey around the South Island. Side note: The Motorcycle diaries 1000% inspired me to buy a motorcycle in New Zealand.

My motorcycle on Lake Hawea, New Zealand & The Map of my travels around New Zealand. The Motorcycle Diaries had everything to do with this dream come true.

A couple of years later plus a stressful pandemic later, I sat down to rewatch this movie with intentions of rekindling the travel spirit as a whole during a tough time. And it really did bring that spirit, energy, and spark of euphoria back to life. It pushed me to explore new places here on O’ahu as if I were out there in the world. It gave me the push to take a trip to Belize with my family, even if it meant working extra hard and bending some of my finances.  I still did it!!!

Films like The Motorcycle Diaries or The Secret Life of Walter Mitty remind us that travel is more than movement across the map — it’s a journey toward understanding ourselves. The greatest breakthrough after watching this, is that I truly have so much to look forward to in world travel. The cities, the people, the flights, the passport stamps and the endless hours on google maps planning out where I want to go. It’s back!

I’m back!

Some journeys begin with a plane ticket. Others begin with a film that reminds us the world is still out there waiting.

Enjoyed this movie review, check out my review on The Secret Life of Walter Mitty