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By John Pint
 In the year
2006, Salvador Rodríguez of Granada, Spain, decided to
visit the world by bicycle. Since then, he has covered135,150
kilometers on two wheels, fixed 258 flat tires and written two
fascinating books on what he has learned. Recently he gave a talk on
his adventures at Estación Bici, a popular R&R center for
cyclists, located inside western Mexico's Primavera Forest.
“Salva,” as he is widely known, has a background in sports, but the
outlook of a philosopher. When I asked him why he is engaged in what
might look like a lonely pursuit, he replied, “In Granada, I felt I was
the prisoner of the things I had bought, prisoner of the place where I
lived. So, I wanted to cut this bond and, for a while, live apart from
the world of production and consumption.”
As a result, Rodríguez went off on an 800-day bicycle tour of Africa,
covering some 42,000 kilometers. “People I met all over Africa treated
me so well that before I got back home I wanted to visit Japan and then
I decided I wanted to know all the rest of the world as well. So I
started out in Granada to see the world and Granada will be my last
destination when I finish my tour. Right now, I'm here in Mexico,
stopping for a pause. When winter comes, I'll be off to pedal across
Europe.”
Rodríguez says the life of a nomad has opened his eyes. “I wake up in
the morning without knowing what is going to happen that day, where I
will sleep, who I will meet. Every day I am curious to know what
adventure awaits me around the corner, to know different cultures,
races, landscapes. I look forward to testing my luck in remote places,
tackling life head on, because life is one big gamble, where the more
you risk, the more you stand to gain.”
So far, Salva Rodríguez has written two books on his travels, both of
them published here in Guadalajara and both in Spanish. The series is
titled, La Vuelta al Mundo en Bicicleta, Un Viaje de Cuento (Around the
World on a Bicycle, a Storybook Voyage) and you might think the books
to be technical manuals or tour guides, but they aren't. Instead, this
long-distance pedaler from Granada presents us with a marvelous
collection of wonderful anecdotes and deep, refreshing musings on life
itself.
To prove that these are books that everyone—including you—will enjoy, I
randomly chose two samples and translated them. Read on.
Excerpt
from the Japan chapter in “Asia” by Salva Rodríguez:
Kim is a triathlete who competes in
swimming, cycling and running. The
first three days in his house go by like a dream. His family treats me
like a prince. They want me to try everything and they care for my
every need. Nevertheless, I'm not Japanese, I don't know how to behave
correctly and it's their duty to instruct me, something that doesn't
always turn out pleasantly exotic. After three days, guests are demoted
to level two.
“Salva-san, did you take
a shower this morning?”
“Yes, of course. I was
covered with grease after cleaning my bicycle
and I had to go downtown.”
“Oh, yes, yes, that's
fine. You see, we Japanese are used to bathing at
night, to relax before going to bed... just as you have been doing
these last days.”
“I can't take a shower
any other time?”
“Oh, Salva-san, thank
you! I know this is very difficult for you. I'm
sorry. Thank you!”
As is customary almost
everywhere in Asia, you don't wear shoes inside
a Japanese house. You leave them in the entrance hall. That night...
“Salva-san, we don't
leave our shoes just anywhere in the entrance
hall.”
“Really?”
“It's customary to put
them in order, side by side, with the toes
pointing toward the door and the heels touching the edge of the
entrance step.”
After listening to
Japanese rules and customs for a week, I am about
ready for a nervous breakdown. I am always asking Kim if I'm doing the
right thing and he takes advantage of this at the entrance to a zen
garden.
“Oh no, Salva-san, you
can't just walk into the garden any old way.
It's very disrespectful.”
“What did I do wrong
this time, Kimu-san?”
“Before entering, you
must clap your hands twice and bow: it's a sacred
garden.”
I stand there in silence
thinking this country is really going to drive
me crazy and I'd be better off taking a boat to China. Then I clap
twice, bow my head and walk into the garden, while Kim breaks out into
guffaws of laughter.
“Samimasen, forgive me,
Salva-san. It was a joke! Oh, how funny, how
funny. We Japanese are complicated but not that complicated. It was a
joke—sorry for pulling your leg.”
Excerpt
from the Ghana chapter in “Africa” by Salva Rodríguez:
The zipper on my tent has been broken for
two weeks and I sleep covered
up with a mosquito net. This saves me from getting mosquito bites but
doesn't keep out creeping and crawling creatures and in Ghana there are
plenty of these.
My first visitor is one
of those multicolored caterpillars which, if
they get on your skin, leave the kind of welt you get from the touch of
a jellyfish tentacle. One of these took a late-night stroll from my
left leg to my right side, producing what looks like a whiplash. I am
just glad it didn't wander over any of my tender parts.
My second visitor is
worse. At midnight I wake up from
something tickling my feet. I turn on my flashlight and see an enormous
spider, grayish and hairy, which scares the bejesus out of me. My
thought processes cease instantly and my instinct takes over, trying to
kill the creature with the first thing that comes to hand, which, of
course, is my flashlight. The result of this clever stratagem is the
utter destruction of my only light, with batteries flying left and
right, leaving me and the spider in the absolute darkness of a moonless
night.
“Brilliant move,
Beanie,” I tell myself. Another great idea is to start
feeling around for the batteries in the dark. Finally, I decide to calm
down and stay quiet, hoping that the spider is just as scared as I am.
Sleep does not come
easy, but drowsiness finally wins out and when
daylight comes I discover the poor spider dead on the tent floor. Upon
arriving in Kumasi, the first thing I do is look for a seamstress to
put in a new zipper. This girl turns out to be very talented—believe
me, it's no easy job to sew the door of a tent.
Salva Rodríguez' website is unviajedecuento.weebly.com
and you can
order his books from salva2africa@yahoo.es.
He will send them by
Certified Mail anywhere in Mexico.If you live elsewhere, contact him
for instructions.
Salva says an
English version of his
books will eventually appear. I hope we won't have to wait too long!
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