Schools Of Guatemala

Not all schools are created equal... but too many look like this...

Travels Through Central America

Photos from Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua:
http://www.alexandertolchinsky.com/main/?page_id=768

Skies of Nicaragua

Map of my travels through Nicaragua

Map of Nicaragua: http://www.alexandertolchinsky.com/main/?page_id=761

For other maps from my journeys, check out: http://www.alexandertolchinsky.com/main/?page_id=25

Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pot... Putin

So, Putin, who is ex KGB, first was like: Stalin is not so bad, he was just doing his best in the situation, you know (secretly rounding people off, shipping them to Siberia or straight killing them, because he did not like their thoughts, or their hats). Then he was like: Gays aren’t cool, lets put some laws into place, which may be contrary to the Russian constitution, but fuck it, I’m Sta… I mean Putin, I can do what I want (like Stalin did with Jews, and anyone with a different opinion). Now he’s like: report on your neighbors if you think they are bad for Russia because they different (gay), or if you don’t like their cooking.
Step for step what Stalin did.
You want to know what’s next? He is going to start sending people to Siberia for having a different opinion, and start searching peoples homes and arresting them… oh wait, that’s already happening:

http://www.advocate.com/news/world-news/2013/08/28/russia-raids-gay-peoples-homes

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2221738/Pussy-Riot-members-sent-hellish-prison-camps-Siberia-losing-appeal.html

The next step is mass murder. This is not an opinion, that is what will happen if he is not stopped. History is cyclical. People always say they wished they could go back in time and kill Hitler before he did all of his shit. Well, here is your next Hitler (or Stalin, who was actually worse)

Celebrating 2 Years and 40,075km on the Road!!

Pacific sunset from San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua

...and 40,075km = circumference of the earth!!

Ometepe, Nicaragua

The ever concealed peak of Vulcan Concepcion on the world largest fresh water volcanic Island.

The (Less Glorious) Realities of Motorcycle Travel

What people think:

“This is so amazing, I wish I could drop everything and travel the world, you are so lucky, I am soo jealous. I wish I could be as free as you.”

“You are so brave to do this. You are doing what millions wish they could do.”

”You get to see incredible places, and meet all kinds of different people, and you don’t have to lead a mundane life and go to a stupid job you hate. “

“You are doing this on a motorcycle? That is so cool!...”

Though I am lucky and I do get to experience and see and eat what others never will, there is a whole other side to my reality which people do not realize, and which, I am guessing, would make them slightly less jealous of me…

What it actually is:

My face is burned from the sun and in constant pain from rocks and bugs of various sizes and densities hitting it at 70mph.

My hands vibrate for hours after dismounting from my single cylinder’s attempt to satiate my desire for ever greater velocity around mountain bends.

I am either hot and sweaty or freezing cold most of the time; rare is the day when I comfortably ride in the clothes I have on. And once wet and cold only a hot shower can restore my body – and that is not always so easy to find.

I am never relaxed as absolutely everything, from rocks, sand, weather, the road, cars and trucks to stray dogs, birds, and other wild animals… and even the very tires that are supposed to keep me upright, is constantly threatening my life.

Every border crossing or checkpoint leaves me a little breathless and wondering how much money it will take for me to continue (though thankfully so far I have only had to pay 2 bribes).

My lips are burned and chapped and I’m in a general state of dehydration because often there is just not a good place to pull over and drink.

My head hurts from the constant squeezing of a helmet.

My back, neck and shoulders are in constant pain from not being able to move to a comfortable sitting position, again, for hours on end.

My eyes are dry from the wind finding its way around glasses and goggles, no matter how tightly they are wrapped around my head.

I have hemorrhoids the size of fists from sitting for endless hours on a hard, viciously vibrating leather seat.

I go for days without showering or changing shirt and underwear – the resulting funk is enough to distract me from the keeping my bike on two wheels.

I sleep in questionable places, under questionable conditions – usually uncomfortably, which results in few hours of sleep per night and a perpetual state of exhaustion, magnified by the after-effects of a constant rush of adrenaline from being on a motorcycle.

There is rarely a ready reprieve from the dirt, wind, rain, mud, salt, loneliness, danger or discomfort. It comes and goes, but almost never when I need it most.

The water and food are always changing, never giving my stomach a rest or time to catch up and get used to the place’s particular family of bacteria and parasites. The effects need not be mentioned.

But lets mention them anyway: in three months (out of 2 years now) I took more antibiotics than in the last 16 years. I’ve had throat, lung and stomach infections, which have left me writhing in pain for days.

Best of all: I’ve had dengue. Though I am alive today, there were a few days where I was not so sure…

I got tendinitis in my hand which forced me to get an injection of anti-inflammatory meds. The pain is not something I can accurately describe – but I did consider chopping off my hand just to stop it.

As a writer I am beset by the constant flux of incredible events from which I must separate myself in order to write about them – hence the paradox.

The bike is such an incredible drain on my resources I may as well have stayed in New York with a girlfriend.

There is a loneliness which is omnipresent - no matter with how many people I find myself, nor how wonderful they may be, all relationships on the road are ephemeral, and hence are dissatisfying to some degree from beginning to end.

Then again…

These are just a few of the difficulties I face, almost on a daily basis. After 10 years and 100,000 miles you get used to a lot of it; the hard part is not having a break from it. But in the end it is this shared struggle with other bikers from around the world which brings so much meaning, and so much joy, to every wave we share as we pass each other on the long road. It is this struggle which binds us as an international, inclusive community of incredibly diverse people. And of course what I see in months, 99% of people won’t see in 9 lifetimes. And the people I meet are so wonderful that my faith in humanity is renewed on a daily basis. So I say it’s worth it, but then again I’m a little insane.

Simple things I have come to miss while traveling

It’s been 2 years now since I left my small, yet comfortable, apartment in Brooklyn. And though I’m glad to have simplified my life to a single duffel  bag, and a Timbuktu for my computer, there are certain, simple, comforts I miss about having a home.

1.       A toilet seat: I don’t want to go into too many details, but let me assure you – this is one thing you only think about when you don’t have it. Running water to make it flush is also a bonus.

2.       A soft towel: I don’t care how fancy and advanced travel towels are, nothing beats, or dries better than, a soft cotton towel you can wrap yourself in after drying off

3.       A hot shower: to be fair, it is usually so freaking hot that you can’t even think of getting into a hot shower, but in the mountains, or on cold days, or when you want a shave, its absence is sorely felt

4.       A bed: I would say I have slept in a bed more often than not in the last two years. Though I do have a great deal of experience with floors, hammocks, couches of various sizes, inflatable mattresses, and tents. The beds are often worse than the floor, with springs poking me in the ribs, or the middle entirely collapsed, or smelling of questionable previous guests. All in all I have spent less than 3 weeks out of the last 2 years not missing my Tempurpedic.

5.       A good knife in the kitchen: nothing drives me more crazy than not having a good knife. Cutting surfaces can be improvised, as can the use for various pots and pans, even plates and cups are overrated, but nothing can replace a good knife. Even in some of the better homes I have stayed, the knives, for some reason have been horrible- making the cooking process longer and more tedious than you want it to be, especially when everything else is pretty tedious already.

Some other things I wish I had: freshly ground pepper, a good olive oil, a Turkish coffee pot or French press, a lack of insects (and screens on windows), a good fan, a properly proportioned table and chair combo for writing. But these are luxuries, I know.

To be sure, I’m not complaining… well, maybe a little, I just wanted to take a moment and remind you of the simple things you have, which you may take for granted, but which are not a given in other parts of the world.

Trinity Alps, California - Beautiful and Deadly

This picture was taken just before we started climbing for our lives - literally. A nice almost last thing to see, wouldn't you agree?


www.alexandertolchinsky.com

The Many Lakes of Nicaragua

This one is of below average beauty, if you can imagine that! 

Choosing The Truth of Our Humanity

Rain doesn’t start as a drop; a cloud begins to empty its content of moisture in a torrential release, like a damn breaking. But no matter how hard or how much it rains we feel it one drop at a time. When we soak, we are soaked by individual droplets: small pieces of that release broken from the whole and falling desperately towards earth. When rivers rise and flood, and land tears away from the slopes of mountains, when the sea engulfs us – it all happens one drop at a time. So we too, a living mass of billions of people, do not destroy as a whole, do not irrigate as a whole, we do so individually. All the horrors of which we are capable are enacted one person at a time. All the good that we bring, all the beauty we create, is done so by individuals. And just like each drop of water is indistinguishable from any other, though unique it may be, so we too are just single parts of a whole – a whole from which we are not really all that different.

Each person, regardless of race or creed, carries within themselves all of what a human being is capable. Our being a part of the greater mass ensures that we are just a small, yet an exact, manifestation of humanity’s whole. The power to inundate, the power to create and grow, the power to choose which of those paths are ours, is something contained within each of us as well.

The water, once released, once born, immediately takes on a course towards earth. That course is altered from the second of release by dozens of factors, like wind, other drops of water, pressures rising from earth itself. So we too, from the moment we are born have our trajectories constantly affected by our environment. But just as the water has no choice but to eventually hit earth and bring its effect, whether that of destruction of irrigation, regardless of influence on where it will land, so we too, inevitably, leave our mark upon the planet.

There is only one difference between us and the rain, similar to the difference between ourselves and the other species who live on this rock, and that is choice. Our trajectory is hard to break, the influences of the world, with its winds and pressures and other peoples, are hard to navigate, but in the end we are capable of doing so. We are capable of choosing our effect, we are capable of deciding where on this planet we will land. That is an enormous power that each individual holds. No matter how insignificant we feel, there is no denying that we are a very real part of a whole which cannot function without us, that when we are gone, or when we decide to leave, we must be replaced for the whole to continue to function.

Regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, or any other “something” we choose to differentiate ourselves, the fact remains that we came from the same place, and that we are going in the same direction and we will bring our effect to bear. For any person to claim they are the right form of human, is for a droplet of rain to say it is more rain than another. We come from the same place, though our manifestations are slightly different, at the end of the day we are just copies and mutations of the same genetic code. Even from the point of religion, if we are all children of God, then we cannot be made wrong. There are no sins worse than others, except for the 7 deadly sins, none of which say anything about sex, religion, race, sexual preference or anything else that defines who we are – the deadly sins only define choices and actions. There is no religion on this planet which claims that the “sins” of who we are, are worse than the sins of our choices.

This makes who we are irrelevant. The only important thing to consider about a human being when deciding whether they are good or evil, right or wrong, is their actions toward our home and toward each of us. Does it matter whether the person who saves your drowning child is a homosexual Mongoloid Christian male, or a heterosexual Caucasoid Jewish female, or a bi-sexual Negroid Muslim hermaphrodite? Will you be any less grateful to one than another?

As long as we continue to judge people based on aspects of their lives over which they have little to no control, we continue to keep open the doors of inequality and injustice – which are the only things which stand in the way of our development as a species. If today White, Christian males are in power, but the doors for inequality are open, it means one day some other group will take control. And as long as those doors stay open, the grip of control will continue to shift. This does nothing to improve our lives, it only perpetuates actions, like war, theft of natural resources, and exploitation, which destroy lives. And if we are willing to destroy the lives of others so that we may save our own, or worse, to make ours better, then we again, in the face of truth and justice, blatantly state that though we come from the same place, though we are part of the same whole, one droplet of rain is more important, is better, than another.

To me that is more than nonsensical, it is idiotic. And if we believe people who make such claims, claims which are contrary to logic and contrary to what is claimed to be the word of God, what does that make us? If we stand by and allow pure, exposed, lies to be thrown in our face, when we are fully aware that they are lies, what does that make us? If we continue to benefit from things which we have not earned, realities for which we have not worked to create – which are so simply because of where and from whom we were born, what kind of people are we? When we have to continue to fight to grant individual groups equal rights, one at a time, how stupid does that makes us? If we realize that we cannot discriminate against one group (i.e. Women, Blacks…), how have we not come to the conclusion that we cannot discriminate against anybody? We claim to be intelligent, but have remained blind to that simple truth for thousands of years. Instead of focusing time, money and energy on the very real problems of our world, we continue to waste our resources battling over something which is self evident: equality.

We have in our hands the greatest tool yet created by man: the ability to communicate with the world – without censorship. Can we, for a moment, take that ability, leave the cats and the memes alone for just a day, and proclaim our realization of the truth of our equality. Can we take a moment and in a voice almost every person on the planet will hear, say that we are not the fools we seem to be, that we know the truth, and that we will have no more lies? Can we say to each other that we realize how important each of us are, that each of us deserves the respect of everyone else simply for the reason that we, each of us, are human? That the choices we make, the decisions we enact on the world and each other, are the only thing which matter and determine the quality of our humanity? And that anyone who says otherwise is an enemy of humanity, and therefore an enemy of each one of us, and that we will not stand to have enemies controlling our lives and the future of our race.

I believe we can because I believe in the fact that deep down inside each one of us, beyond the greed and jealousy and misunderstanding and unfounded hate, we are capable of every good which is possible for our species. I believe that within each of us there lies justice, truth and respect. I believe that we all have the ability to change and grow and know what is right, not what is easy, but what is right.

I believe in us.

The Many, Active, Faces of Nicaraguas Volcanoes

Volcano Boarding in Nicaragua!

Amazing views atop of an extremely active volcano which is set to erupt very soon... at least we has a quick way of getting down!

Rescuing Sea Turtles in Oaxaca

At about 4a.m. I helped more than 50 sea turtles find their way to the ocean.
This one I saved from a dog's mouth.

One of the sweetest moments in my last 2 years of travel.


www.alexandertolchinsky.com 

A Poem from the Road: Rain

Sometimes my travels give me the gift of someone who inspires me:

Rain

When clouds sit low upon the land,
When earth and sky are wet with rain,
The titter tatter on the roof,
The pitter patter on the pane.

I like it cold and wet beyond
For all the reason more
That after whetted by days of sun
I’ve covered hours to look ‘fore.

When all is dark and bleak outside
And all is warm and bright within,
I thank the rain for time upon
Your breast to lay my weary chin.

By city, sea or mountain pass
I like to lay my head beside,
On floor of straw or fine mattress,
And fly with you – our dreams untied.

With you my dreams forever soar
And neither place I wish to leave,
For hard or soft, on bed or floor,
I find my bliss and wish to keep.

What easy joy the rain does bring
To those already swelled with love
To steam away the wet we keep
The fire burning in our heart.

Forced Child Labor in Mexico

She sits for hours, well into the night, carving beautiful animals from palm leaves... no one knows who or where her mother or father are...

Orizaba, Mexico

www.alexandertolchinsky.com

An Explosion of Art in Morelia, Mexico

A new story on my site about my time in magical Morelia!

http://www.alexandertolchinsky.com/main/?p=672

Oregon Riding

The sun running interference with my riding - how could I possibly continue without stopping to gaze? No matter the miles, or times that I’ve seen it, a sunset will always arrest and amaze.

-Oregon, USA

www.alexandertolchinsky.com

People vs. Cargo

A fine line in Central America

Fun on Caribbean Beaches...

is not limited to swimming and sunning:

Most Dangerous Countries

3 weeks in 2 of the worlds most dangerous countries - have been some of the most peaceful so far on my journey.
Here is a view of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador

Country #7: Honduras!

7 countries, in 23 months, over 37,000km, on 2 motorcycles... and it's just the beginning

www.alexandertolchinsky.com

As Burning Man Approaches...

...and I am far away

I miss the hugs and heat and dust,

I miss the joy, the art, the trust.

I miss the music - blasting at all times,

I miss the spirit, temple and the chimes.

I see my fam'ly everywhere I go,

I see their smiles, their hearts, and so I know

The playa is not so confined and far away

if to a cuddle puddle i can find a way.

But none the less this distance does me sad,

It hurts to think of moments I'll not have had,

What art will come and then forever burn away,

Will touch me not, won't brighten up my day.

Sometimes the danger of my travels doesn't come from riding, other vehicles, roads, weather, corrupt cops, drug dealers or guerrillas... 

AlexanderTolchinsky.com
My website - full of more photos and longer stories from my journeys, as well as other writing and photography.
I hope you enjoy!