Product Description

In 1952, 24-year-old Ernesto Guevara left his native Argentina to motorcycle the back roads of South America. Eight months later, Ernesto returned transformed into "Che" the revolutionary. His account of that journey, "Motorcycle Diaries", has become a classic. Nearly half a century later Patrick Symmes set off on his BMW R80/GS along the same route in search of the people and the places encountered by Che. Symme's own adventures - he runs out of petrol in an Argentine desert, breaks down in the Andes, and drinks himself blind in Cuba with Che's travel partner, Alberto Granado - counterpoint those of the great revolutionary. The book gives an insight into the moulding of the great Latin American hero and paints a portrait of a continent whose dreams of utopia give birth not only to freedom fighters but also tyrants. But above all it is the story of a journey on the open road, where man and machine traverse the unknown in search of the spirit's keenest desires.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #287505 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
A motorcycle trip in 1952 marked a turning point for Ernesto Guevara Lynch de la Serna, a medical student returning from a journey into poverty and oppression with a vision of guerilla-style change and a new name, Che Guevara. Going on to help overthrow the Cuban government, align himself with Castro and become elevated to martyred hero status when he was executed in Bolivia in 1967, Guevara's likeness is now commercialised and captured on T-shirts, castanets and watches.

In Chasing Che New York writer Patrick Symmes embarks on a motorcycle tracing Guevara's route through Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Cuba, seeking insight into what Guevara experienced and what his political movement wrought. Meeting with those who knew the young Che--among them a lover, a leper, and his motorcycle travelling cohort--proves interesting enough, though rarely insightful since some were children at the time, some are confused and others refuse to talk openly. More revealing are Symmes's travels on his bike, nicknamed La Cucaracha. He winds through Buenos Aires' high society and Peruvian poverty, finding a fragmented country where revolutions have brought mountain peasants fleeing to shanty towns, where blind idealism coexists with blatant denouncement of the violent tactics used by Cuban Communists, even by Che's most respected soldiers. Beautifully written, the stories that unfold here reflect the complex contradiction that endures in Latin America three long decades after Ernesto "Che" Guevara's death. --Melissa Rossi

Customer Reviews

well written & a good read to boot !
Probably a mistake to read reviews of a book your thinking of buying but i found the book very good . It starts a bit slowly but i did feel as though i was there with him in the end. Well written & not into che worship , its a truthful story of his journey following the route (as closely as he could) as set out in both the 'motorcycle diaries' & granado's 'travelling with che' .well worth a read.

Motorcycling Needs Writers Like This.
If your knowledge of Che Guevara is limited to one iconic photograph, then like me you probably didn't realise he was a happy go lucky biker first if not foremost. His Mum and Dad may have been concerned when he rode down the drive on a Norton 500, but when he took up being a revolutionary they probably wished he'd stuck to bikes.



Symes journey follows very roughly a route taken by Che and his friend Alberto Granado on board the Norton in 1952. Thankfully Symes writes perceptively observing the nations through which he travels, nations largely left behind his own due to antics not dissimilar to those advocated by Che and his romantic chums. Along the route he strolls into the lives of an ex girlfriend, drinking partners, acquaintances and of course a plethora of dreamers. But Symes is nothing if not intelligent and soon he is able to flesh out an image of the real Che and distinguish him from his global corporate image. The irony is not lost on Symes, nor of Castro's marketing of Che or the fact the photographer of that iconic photo, now an old man (whom he meets) saw precious little return for taking one of the twentieth centuries most famous photographs.



The world through which Symes travelled will have changed beyond recognition in as little as a decade. Here is dispassionate evidence of the globalisation /Americanisation of even the planets remotest corners, not through oppression or military intervention but by the manifestation of millions of minor subconscious acts. For example in the course of his travels he happens upon a corner of the jungle purchased by a sentimental American multi millionaire, his purpose to "preserve" the natives way of life. Symes stays briefly in a community forced to live the way depicted by colour supplements of the weekend papers that adorn the coffee tables of the trendy New York suburbs. The owner drops into the community he's seeking to preserve, pleased they're following his strict orders against T.V. and modernisation. After a few days he steps back on board his flying boat and disappears. Then the natives true selves come out as the panpipes are replaced by tapes of Michael Jackson.



Elsewhere his Beamer is the cause of fascination while children play basketball in a land where their parents make pots and sweaters for American tourists.

Where the bulging cities are the subject of pollution emergencies and one South American country runs its finances so closely to North America that its economists are known as "los chirago boys".



En route he runs into weeping Europeans on "pilgrimage" that even dress like Che.

The fact that he writes without mocking is one of the books great strengths. On finishing one feels like doing such a journey quickly before every twelve year old on the planet has a mobile phone.

An excellent socio-political novel spanning history
I too think that a 1 star rating is undeserved. I found this book to be interesting and informative, covering social and political issues as well as giving geographical and historical comparison to Guevara's own trip. I learned plenty about Chi and Ernesto (as he was known at the time of his original trip in 1952) about the Cuban revolution, the state of South America both in the 50's and 60's as well as more recently.

I would recommend this book to any one with an interest in Chi Guevara, the man behind the legend. To people with an interest in South American and even Cuban politics, history and social conditions.

This is not a manuel on how to tour South America by Motorcycle. I'm sure there are better books for this, and this book is better for not trying to be one.

Read with an open mind and enjoy.