From www.jordiblanco.com-
¨Un viaje sólo en bicicleta desde Santa Cruz, California hasta Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, la punta del mundo. Mi objetivo es cubrir aproximadamente 17600 Km (10600 millas) en 12 meses pasando por montañas de 15000 pies. Para realizar esta expedición en el tiempo deseado, tengo que hacer una media de 80/100 km 60/70 millas por día.

El propósito de este viaje es experienciar diferentes culturas y nuevas formas de vivir con el reto físico y emocional de completarlo sólo y en bici.¨

I had the opportunity to meet this man on a much different journey than I am.

He is traveling by bicycle only from Santa Cruz, CA to Tierra del Fuego, at the end of the world. His objective is to cover 10,600 miles in 12 months passing over mountains of 15,000 feet. To complete this journey in the time desired, he has to travel an average of 60-70 miles per day.

But that´s not the purpose.

It´s to experience different cultures and experience the physical and emotional challenges that come along with completing the journey alone and on a bicycle.

That´s not so different than my purpose in traveling, but I tend to avoid the pain inherent in these particular challenges.

Jordi Blanco and I watched a horrible Mexican hidden camera reality TV show together called ¨Infarto¨ at the Pensione California lodging. The title literally means ¨Heartattack.¨

They play pranks on unsuspecting victims such as new security guards being horrified watching their superiviser being killed by a knife wielding killer.

Other pranks followed. There was the girl who was given a heart attack thinking the crazy neighbors were going to kill her with axes, shovels, and other tools during a sudden blackout after the neighbors complained her guests were making too much noise.

Or the two girls that had to watch their host on a recorded movie strangle a different girl in his bed, only to have the host come in immediately afterwards and put his hands on one of the girls´ throat. There are other episodes too of this Infarto.

They are really terribly disgusting pranks, and it can be quite akward watching the victim of the prank find out from the actors that its just a hidden camera TV show. I guess they don´t get the joke.

There are other forms of this trash on TV, cultural garbage in the form of celebrity gossip magazines, Smut magazines sold at the little newstand (Below the candy, at eye level for children.) If this is the different culture you adventurers are looking for, stay home!

It is culture imported from the United States with a Mexican flavor. I prefer to see it as additional proof that people in the world are more alike than we tend to think them to be. A culture of garbarge universally appealing to Human Nature, part of Global Culture. More could be said about this BASURA in Mexican culture but I´ll save it for another time.

When I met him, Jordi was resting at the Pensione, here in La Paz, BCS Mexico, submitting to the physical challenges of a bad tummy. It´s been almost a month since he gave me his business card, and I only just today looked up his website. It´s an impressive website, www.jordiblanco.com, and you can follow him on his journey that started almost the same time as mine.

Good luck, Jordi, take care of that tummy and keep on peddling.