The Motorcycle Diaries

Guevara describes the genesis of his and Alberto Granado's travel plans.

The story opens on a morning around October 17, the Argentinean national holiday celebrating Juan Perón's 1945 release from prison. Drinking mate and talking about life while working on Granado's motorcycle, La Poderosa II, the two newly-unemployed friends spontaneously decide to drive the motorcycle to North America.

The two devote themselves to making their dream come true: they secure all the necessary visas and documents and plan the route, Guevara takes as many of his exams as he can, and Granado prepares the motorcycle. Just in case they fail to reach their destination, the friends tell everyone they are only going to Chile.

The narrative jumps forward to a point 1,200 km (~745 miles) into the journey.

Guevara and Granado visit Guevara's uncle at Villa Gesell, near Mar del Plata. Here Granado sees the sea for the first time and “is overwhelmed by this discovery that signifies an infinite number of paths to all ends of the earth” (33). Guevara, who has seen the ocean before, describes it as “a confidant […] always giving the best advice–its meaningful noises can be interpreted any way you choose” (33).

At this point on the trip, Guevara and Granado understand that the plans they made before setting out will have to change: according to the plan, they should already be close to the end of their journey, but they have actually barely started.

Guevara writes that these first 1,200 km were “apparently the easiest” (33).

The two are accompanied by a hardy little dog, Comeback, whom Guevara intends to give as a gift to his girlfriend, Chichina, who is vacationing in nearby Miramar. They leave Gesell supplied with tins of meat from Guevara's uncle.

Guevara and Granado travel to Miramar, so that Guevara can see his girlfriend, Chichina, and bring Comeback to her. What was supposed to be a two-day visit becomes eight days as Guevara vacillates, tempted to give up the journey and stay with Chichina. However, finally he heeds the ocean's "warning" (35) and, with a poem by Otero Silva in mind, decides to continue on.

Before leaving, Guevara asks Chichina to give him her gold bracelet to remind him of her. After some hesitation, she gives him the bracelet; Guevara says that she hesitates only because she is thinking of the love that motivated him to ask for the bracelet. Granado, however, suggests that she is reluctant to give up a valuable piece of jewelry.

Guevara and Granado leave Miramar and stop in Necochea to visit a university friend of Granado's. Here they encounter political and personal tensions. The wife of Granado's friend, having "spotted the danger in [their] resolutely bohemian ways" (36), expresses incredulity and hostility about the fact that Guevara, who will be able to qualify as a doctor in one year, has abandoned his medical studies for an open-ended journey.

Granado's friend is faithful to the Radical party; another friend in nearby Mar del Plata has become a Peronist. Guevara notes that both these political affiliations are untenable for him and Granado, and notes that he felt "a good deal more free" (36) after leaving the area for Bahía Blanca.

The two spend several days Bahía Blanca with some of Guevara's friends, eating well and preparing for the lean times ahead. Guevara spends one day sick with a fever and a cough. When they do set out, they face a hot, sandy struggle at the sand dunes at Médanos, where the bike crashes six times. After they finally cross the dunes, Guevara takes over driving, attempts to make up for lost time, and crashes the bike again. This time the accident is serious, and Guevara injures his foot.

Caught in a downpour, Guevara and Granado go to a ranch to wait out the storm, crashing twice again on their way. They receive a warm welcome from the ranchers and go to bed looking "into the future with impatient joy" (37). As Guevara struggles to fall asleep, he feels haunted by the "green spots" of Chichina's eyes, which "[mock] the so-called liberation [he] sought" (37).

After a long, boring, and taxing drive on a gravel road, Guevara and Granado stop in Benjamin Zorilla and sleep at the train station. Early the next morning Guevara begins to shake uncontrollably and vomit. In the evening, he and Granado make their way to Choele Choel, where the director of the local hospital, Dr. Barrera, gives the two men lodging and treats Guevara with penicillin.

Dr. Barrera forbids the friends to leave until Guevara has recovered. Several days later, they finally depart. In the middle of the night, on an uninhabited road, La Poderosa makes a strange noise and the two men set camp. A strong wind dismantles their tent, and they pass a cold and uncomfortable night.

In the morning, they see the source of the noise La Poderosa had made the night before: the front part of the bike frame is broken. After making a temporary repair with wire, the friends set off to find a place where they can fix the bike more completely. They quickly find a house whose inhabitants offer them a good meal; then, after a roughlytwelve-mile walk to a mechanic's shop in Piedra del Águila, they are able to weld the bike. They spend the night there and depart in the morning.

Guevara and Granado have almost reached San Martín de los Andes when they have a serious accident. La Poderosa sustains major bodywork damage and a tire puncture. After fixing the flat, the two drive to a ranch where they catch and eat fish, then sleep in the workers' quarters.

The next morning, they meet the farm workers, who interact with them only grudgingly due to a "deep suspicion of the white man who in the past has brought them so much misfortune and now continues to exploit them" (39). Guevara and Granado eat their fill of fruit before resuming their ride to San Martín de los Andes. They reach their destination at dusk.

In San Martín de los Andes, Guevara and Granado find a National Park superintendent who allows them to sleep in a shed. The next night, night watchman, Don Pedro Olate, treats them to a big barbecue dinner and offers them a job: in exchange for helping out at a large barbecue at a car race that weekend, Guevara and Granado can take as much meat as they like.

When the day of the barbecue arrives, the friends begin work at 6 am. When the meal is finally served, they are allowed to take as much as they like for their journey. They also devise a seemingly ingenious plan for stealing wine: Guevara pretends to get increasingly drunk, feigning nausea to run toward a nearby stream, each time with a bottle of wine tucked into his jacket. When the guests have left, Guevara and Granado eagerly seek out their hidden wine – only to find that the bottles are gone. Either somebody had followed Guevara and taken the wine, or they had seen through his performance all along. Guevara and Granado are deeply embarrassed.

The next day, after the car race, some of Granado's friends arrive and invite the two friends to visit them in Junín de los Andes. Leaving their supplies behind in the shed, Guevara and Granado set out on La Poderosa to visit them.

Guevara and Granado spend several days staying in Junín de los Andes. The pass the first night by drinking wine with Granado's friends, who quickly become Guevara's friends as well. The next day, Guevara and Granado make repairs to La Poderosa and then enjoy a goodbye barbecue.

After leaving Junín, Guevara and Granado take a slow, difficult road to a lake called Carrué Grande. Having left the bike at a park ranger's cabin, they spontaneously shoot and eat a duck before climbing a nearby mountain peak. The climb is difficult without proper supplies, and the friends are beleaguered by biting flies. Eventually, however, they reach the top, only to find that they are surrounded by still more mountain peaks.

The way down the mountain proves as difficult as the way up, especially once darkness falls and the two men must move slowly to avoid accidents. The friends return to the park ranger's cabin after midnight and sleep there before returning to San Martín. In San Martín they collect 10 pesos from Don Pendón for their work at the barbecue, then head south.

In January 1952, on the way to Bariloche, Guevara writes to his mother, worried because he has not heard from her. He tells of his illness in Bahía Blanca, his treatment with penicillin in Choele Choel, and his recovery.

He also reports that he and Granado made it to San Martín de los Andes and refers to "using our usual resourcefulness to solve the thousand problems that plagued us along the way" (44), omitting the episode with the wine, and recommends his mother to visit the area's beautiful lakes.

Guevara tells his mother about the hospitality he and Granado have encountered, and reports that he happened to diagnose a brain tumor "in the occipital zone […] probably of hydatid origin" (44) in one of their hosts. He shares his plans to travel slowly to Bariloche, asks his mother to write and tell him whether his father is also in the south, and declares that the next letter he will write is to Chichina. The letter is signed "a loving hug from your son" (44).

Guevara and Granado take the Seven Lakes Road to Bariloche. Along the way, they spend a cold night in a roadside hut, where they are visited by a pair of campers who come to borrow blankets.

The next day they ride through an ancient forest, past the lakes that give the road its name, and Guevara expresses his boredom with seeing the landscape in passing, which "only captures its boring uniformity, not allowing you to immerse yourself in the spirit of the place" (45).

After repeated difficulties with a punctured tire, the two men stay the night in a shed with a broken Dutch door (the bottom half closes, but the top remains open). Before leaving them for the night, the caretaker of the property warns Guevara and Granado that a puma has been spotted in the area. Just in case, Guevara keeps a revolver by his side throughout the night.

At dawn Guevara is awakened by the sound of claws at the half-door and sees a pair of eyes gazing in, then lunging toward him. Acting on instinct, he shoots the creature dead – only to realize that the animal he has shot is no puma, but the caretaker's wife's dog.

Granado takes the bike to town for repairs. Chagrined, Guevara resolves to find different lodgings. In the night, sharing a room with a stranger, he uses his asthma inhaler and accidentally startles his sleeping companion, who is clutching a knife under the covers. Although Guevara wants to go outside to cover La Poderosa with a tarp against the pounding rain, he stays still rather than risk a knife attack.

The next day, Guevara and Granado ride to San Carlos de Bariloche and sleep in the police station overnight while they wait for a ship, the Modesta Victoria, which will take them to the Chilean border.

In the police station in San Carlos de Bariloche, Guevara reads and rereads a breakup letter from Chichina: "Just like that, all my dreams of home, bound up with those eyes that saw me off in Miramar, came crashing down for what seemed like no reason" (46). Guevara experiences many different feelings, ranging from "exhaustion" to "profound unease" to fear and the sense that he is "incapable of feeling anything" (46). Finally he realizes that, although he had thought he loved Chichina, he actually feels nothing. Despite his desperation to do so, he cannot "summon her back with [his] mind" (46).

In the morning Guevara and Granado load La Poderosa onto the Modesta Victoria and leave Argentina. They pass into Chile and cross Lake Esmeralda, where Guevara finds "the task of bathing enjoyable and much more enticing" (46). Then they reach a lookout at Casa Pangue with a striking panorama of Chile. Guevara writes: "It is a kind of crossroads; at least in that moment it was for me. I was looking to the future, through the narrow band of Chile and to what lay beyond, turning the lines of the Otero Silva poem over in my mind" (46-47).