Isai Madriz pedaling toward Venezuela goal
After spending nearly two years on the road, suburbanite Isai Madriz said he is still resolved to complete his mission to bike across Latin America.
He also said, however, that it's more difficult to get back on his bicycle every time he makes a lengthy stop.
"I feel good, but it's hard to get back in the habit (of being on the road) after you have been sleeping in a bed and showering," he said.
The upside? Madriz has acquired a traveling companion, an Argentine man named Adrian whom he met in southern Argentina earlier this year. He and Madriz are the same age, 27.
"He's a very cool guy. He lived in Mexico for about eight months, so we have a lot in common," said Madriz, a native of Mexico. "He quit his job last week and he will be with me until the end (of the trip, in Venezuela)."
Madriz set off from Montgomery in September 2007, has biked all along the coast of Central and South America, and is now in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He wants to raise awareness for the St. Charles-based Jesus Guadalupe Foundation, whose scholarship money helped him earn a college degree.
So far, he's logged about 13,000 miles on his bike. Along the way, he has stopped to volunteer for a couple of months at a time at various wildlife refuges. His goal is to bike all the way to Caracas, Venezuela.
In mid-June Madriz and his companion made it to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, and Madriz has been waiting for a visa to enter Brazil.
From early March to late May, Madriz volunteered at the Fundacion Patagonia Natural, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of the wildlife of Patagonia, in southern Argentina.
His task was to track the movements of mountain lions in an area of about 10 square miles. Madriz, who has a degree in zoology and marine biology, analyzed the remnants of the mountain lions' prey by using flies, beetles and other insects he found in the carcasses.
"The flies' eggs hatch in less than 24 hours, and then you can measure the maggots to see how much time has passed," he said.
He also tried to catch a glimpse of the mountain lions during long stakeouts. "I created this hideout where I would barely fit, and I just stayed there and waited. I was hoping to catch a picture," he said.
Once, he even spent an entire weekend in the hideout, eating very little and urinating in a plastic bottle, he said, but the closest he ever got to the animals was coming upon tracks that had been left one, perhaps two hours earlier.
While volunteering at the Fundacion, he slept in an old ranch converted into spartan living quarters without heat, electricity or running water.
"It was really old-style. I got water from a wind-powered well that was about half a kilometer (one third of a mile) from the house," he said. "There was a generator that we turned on for cooking or analyzing data."
Despite the physical hardships - temperatures dipped into the 30s at night - Madriz said the experience was priceless. "I felt really useful because they really, really needed my help," he said.
Throughout his trip, Madriz has communicated with his family about once a week, sometimes more infrequently, using the free voice-over-IP service Skype at Internet cafes.
His mother, Guadalupe Villanueva, who lives in Montgomery, said she is constantly worried about her son's well-being, but she knows this trip is not just for the adventure, but to work in the field he loves.
"I hope there are people that sponsor and support people, like my son, who are examples of discipline, courage and determination," she said.
So when does Madriz think the journey will end? "I would like to finish by the end of the year," he said. "After that, I'll go back to research, or go to Mexico for grad school."
• To support Madriz during his trip, you can make a deposit into Chase Bank account 4440502733. To support Madriz's cause, mail a check made to the Jesus Guadalupe Foundation to 902 S. Randall Road, Suite C-322, St. Charles, IL 60174. You can also visit isaimadriz.com.