The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

The Reader

     I was not a avid book reader. I started reading as a hobby only during second year of my college.

Until then I read a book only if it was famous and trending in social media. It was more out of curiosity in finding out what it is rather than genuine interest in the book itself. Then this habit slowly grew into a hobby. I started out with short yet good books so that I don't lose interest halfway through it. Also time was a constraint during my college days as I wanted to concentrate more on academics than fiction. I then slowly started to read classics like 'The Old Man and the Sea', 'Animal Farm', 'Siddhartha' and many more. I now read about 10 to 15 books a year (Not a great number I know, but not a really bad one either :p). Here is the link to my goodreads account. I now have a good collection of books in my shelf.

I generally read fiction which take me to a different world. Each time I read a new book my mind is buzzing with new ideas and thoughts. It is a refreshing feeling especially when your mind is cluttered with work and life related stuff.

Even though I review some of the book that I have read I haven't shared them in a blog. Now I have decided to share my views on the blog so that anyone who wants an opinion before starting a book would be able to pick books that interests them. I hope to share reviews of  books I have read so far.

I will start with a wonderful non-fiction that I finished reading yesterday. I was looking for a short book to read and found this gem of a book by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara online. I immediately bought it.

The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

The book is a travelogue of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado's adventures while travelling through Latin America. They Started in Argentina and travelled through Chile, Peru, Columbia and Venezuela. They travelled for 7 months, halfway by bike and the rest hitch hiking .

Ernesto was of the same age as me when he wrote this book. In fact the name 'Che' was given to Ernesto much later during the Cuban revolution. Che was a symbol of youth. This book will be close to people who love adventure travelling.

The book starts with these words from Ernesto "This is not a story of incredible heroism, or merely the narrative of a cynic; at least I do not mean it to be". This book was written when Ernesto was still a medical student in Buenos Aires .  As the back cover says this could have been adventure of a lifetime- had his lifetime not turned out to be a greater adventure. 

Book Cover

The First part their journey is on Alberto's motorcycle ''La Pedrosa" an Norton 500 CC bike literally meaning 'The mighty one'. The trip was planned while Ernesto was drinking 'mate' and chilling out with friends. The first part of their journey is about going to new places, finding food and place to sleep. Some times they even camped on roadside as they couldn't find a place to stay. He has recorded his numerous encounters with the people and nature on the way. In his own words :
 "In nine months of a man's life he can think of a lot of thing from loftiest meditations on philosophy to the most desperate longing for a bowl of soup - in total accord  with the state of his stomach. And if, at the same time, he is somewhat of a adventurer, he might live through episodes of interests to other people and his haphazard record might read something like these notes. ".


In the second part of their journey they hitch hike through Chile, Peru and Venezuela. We see through his description the lives of common people in these parts of the world. Since the two had some knowledge of leprosy they helped some patients in most of the places they stopped. We see him mature from a careless traveller to a training doctor who helps his patients in their struggle against diseases. They not only helped in treatment but also lifted their spirits by dining with the patients and playing football with them when most people would be hesitant to come close. We get to read some history about Spanish conquistadors and their conquest of the Inca Empire in the later part. He sympathizes with the Indians who were being treated really badly by the colonial conquerors.


We see the seeds of  revolution being sowed in his minds as he travelled through the Latin American countryside. It was on this journey that he was introduced to the sufferings of common people due to poverty and bad governance.


 This book captures the wonderful travel-adventure that one of the greatest revolutionary heroes of 20th century, Che Guevara undertook along with his friend with all the wit, humour and memories.
I would personally recommend it to anyone.