pilgrim of the south

Frank Herbert

My dearest friends,

I live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After Mexico City, it is the most violent city in South America. Robbings, kidnappings, murder and corruption are the daily specials here. Twice I had a gun pointed at me, and escaped death by handing over about 20 reais; the equivalent of 8 US dollars. After living this nightmare for almost nine years, anybody starts to have his serious doubts.

And that´s just for starters.

Tired of 14 hour shifts at work, tired of working weekends, holidays, evenings and even nights, I decided a couple of months ago to take a break from my nerve wrecking job; Executive Chef de Cuisine in one of Rio de Janeiro´s buisiest restaurants. Time for a change.

I discovered within myself the need to do something completely different, but exactly what, I couldn´t find out. Something in photography maybe? Then, one night in the restaurant, I met a nice couple; she is a painter, and he is an author, named Geoffrey Carpenter, who - to cut the story short -just advised me to travel. And so I decided to travel. I read Geoffrey´s book, called "Pilgrim of the Sublime", wich became an inspiration for my travel plans, and even the titel of my blog.

As I am dating the most spectacular, beatiful and lovely woman on the face of earth, who is Argentinean, the destination was obvious; Patagonia, in the south of Argentine. And slowly, little by little, things fell in place. Why don´t we drive all the way to Ushuaia, through the lush lowlands of the Missiones and Entre Rios states, then indulge ourselves in Worlds´ best Malbec - wines, lamb and parilla in Mendoza. And why don´t we just cross the Andes, and sample Chilean salmon and oysters in Puerto Montt, Chile? Back into Argentine over more than a thousand miles on dirt roads through the state of Chubut and Rio Negro, and finally encounter the bizarre vegetation in Tierra del Fuego. Why not?

Why don´t we, on our way back north, take the Autopista 3, wich passes along beautiful shores, where we can see whales and orca´s? And sit down on Peninsula Valdez, amoung more than 50.000 pinguins, if we´re lucky? We can hang out a few days in Buenos Aires with its European feel, we can visit Montevideo, in Uruguay, and the white beaches of the Santa Catarina state, in the South-eastern part of Brazil. And when we´re finally back in Rio de Janeiro, somewhere in February 2007, we can look back at 16.000 KM of pure beauty.

So an awesome adventure took shape, and me and Fernanda realized that we needed a thorough preparation. First things first; I got myself new toy; a Land Rover Defender 110 Turbo Diesel. Equipped with a Garmin GPS, Satfone, Rescue equipment, an Mp3 player, and the full collection of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Deep Purple and Dream Theater. It looked like we´re all set.

Fernanda flew to Buenos Aires, to renew her drivers´ licence, and brought back a lot of information, road maps and so on. Slowly, our route was determined, and with the use of our maps, I downloaded the coordinates into my GPS.

A very fine young man by the name of Jairo de Arroxellas Costa, of Land Brasil in Rio de Janeiro took care of the preparation of my Land Rover. He equipped it with All Terrain tyres, a winch, extra fuel gallons, and all the other gadgets. We talked for hours about what to do in all possible situations, and a week ago, as the "icing on the cake" I took an "Off Road" course, to know the car´s possibilities, like "How-deep-a-Land Rover-can-be-submerged-in-water-before-your-feet-get-wet".

Then I talked to some people at Fuji Film, and they were happy to donate as many film as I need for my expedition. (Apparently, Fuji is getting a bit nervous, with all those great digital cameras on the market.......) YPF in Argentina is willing to give us some discount on diesel fuel. The date is set on December 12th. We´ll hit the road at 5 AM, and hopefully arrive in Curitiba, in the south of Brazil at 5 PM, 850 KM away from Rio de Janeiro. Next day it´s on to Foz de Iguaçu, and the Brazilian - Argentinean border.

Anyway, the coming weeks we will spend preparing our documents, getting international insurance for the car, and health insurance for ourselves. But for the rest; We´re all set. The clock is ticking.......