A roadkill dinner, black widow spiders and penguins greet cyclist
In 18 months on the road, Isai Madriz has pedaled nearly 12,000 miles from his family's home in Montgomery through Central America and along the western coast of South America.
The 27-year-old Mexican native is doing this both as a personal adventure and a fundraiser for the St. Charles-based Guadalupe Foundation, whose scholarship money helped him earn a college degree in marine biology.
So far, Madriz has biked through 12 Latin American countries, but he was disappointed weather kept him from reaching his original goal: Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of Argentina.
"I was dying to get there, but things happen for a reason and I look forward to the road ahead," he wrote in an e-mail. "Nonetheless I will always think of those 180 miles I was not able to ride."
Madriz is now in Argentina's Peninsula Valdes, where he is being hosted by a young couple he met on the road. For the next few weeks he will be volunteering, doing biological research on local wildlife such as guanacos, marks, pumas, raptors, sea lions and insects for the Fundacion Patagonia Natural, a nonprofit conservation and research organization.
His plan is to ride all the way to Venezuela, a trip he had estimated to be about 22,500 miles. But Madriz shortened his Patagonia route due to strong winds and shaved off about 620 miles by not riding to Tierra del Fuego. He says the final mileage toll will be "very close" to what he had estimated.
What has his recent ride been like? Here's are edited excerpts of his first-person account:
Patagonia, Chile and Argentina
Patagonia has incredible things that have left me amazed.
The first two days I didn't do anything besides push my bicycle, since the 50 mph winds prevented me from moving forward. I got tired of being knocked down, getting back up and pushing the bicycle. The winds made the small grains of sand feel like blows against my body.
There were enormous glaciers that hurt my ears with the constant sounds of their movement, caves full of prehistoric paintings and Patagonian swamps in which I sank up to my waist. The lack of food and the long distances without water were some of the obstacles in this part of the odyssey.
Arriving at the city of Punta Arenas, just 186 miles from Tierra del Fuego, I had to make some of the most disappointing decisions of this trip.
Sitting at the edge of the port, looking closely at the expansive Magellan Strait, it was with sadness that I realized I couldn't make it to the end of the continent.
With just $7 in my pocket and $30 in my bank account, I had to give up on trying to get to Ushuaia, since it would cost me half my money just to cross the Magellan Strait. That is without even mentioning that in Tierra del Fuego everything is even more expensive.
The only food available here on the vast pampas of Patagonia is califate, a small fruit that has a center full of seeds. Llamas, emus and hares are the animals in this region, but they proved to be very difficult to trap.
The moment came when I didn't have anything at hand to eat and, without any calafates or some succulent insect in sight, I turned to looking for those unfortunate critters who had died crossing the road.
Hares adorned the highway, but the majority were flattened or bloated and, without question, I wasn't about to spend another day like that night south of Iquique, in Chile, when I was poisoned by algae.
Fortunately I found a semi-fresh hare.
A frightful encounter
The biggest scare I had in this region was in the early morning hours of Feb. 12, in which I woke with a sensation of small feet walking on my skin.
Very slowly, I opened my sleeping bag just to see with a shock that a black widow spider was walking on my arm.
I got goose bumps from head to toe. At that moment, I remembered how in Mexico a black widow had bitten my cousin Hector, sending him to the emergency room, a thought I really didn't need to have at that moment.
With a lot of careful maneuvering, I was able to get two spiders off me without incident, although as soon as they were safely off me I began to jump around like a crazy person, stomping and screaming like a scared little girl, while I brushed off my whole body with my hands.
Waking up in that way, my sleep was disrupted and I couldn't even get back to sleep, so I took all my things and left that place just as the sun was coming up.
Punta Tombo Penguin Wildlife Reserve, Argentina
Penguins are the most adorable, clumsy little creatures on Earth. In Punta Tombo there are almost 800,000 penguins and they walk all around you and make congested, hornlike calls.
I decided to lie down in the shadow of a bush, covered my face with my hat and closed my eyes to listen to the penguin calls and nothing else.
After a couple of minutes of tranquility I felt something heavy on my stomach. I looked through my mesh hat and I saw a male penguin, who sat down on my tummy, moving its little feet to make himself comfortable as I stayed still.
As the penguin started to fall asleep on my stomach, another one decided to take a closer look. It came over and started to peck the side of the penguin on top of me, who eventually jumped off and started to walk away in the cute way that only a penguin can do.
I uncovered my face and looked at the evil penguin, which stared at me and started to move its neck side to side while keeping its eyes on me, the characteristic sign that a penguin wants to fight.
All I wanted was to hug him and squeeze his tummy, but that would not have been a good idea, so I got up and moved away. The little animal began to chase me but eventually turned around.
<p class="factboxheadblack">To support Isai Madriz</p> <p class="News">To support Madriz during his trip, you can make a deposit into account 4440502733 of Washington Mutual Bank. To support Madriz's cause, mail a check made to the Jesus Guadalupe Foundation, 902 S. Randall Road, suite C-322, St. Charles, IL 60174. You can also <a href="http://www.visitisaimadriz.com" target="new">visitisaimadriz.com</a>.</p> <img src="/graphics/IsaiRoute_mg031209TB.jpg">