No other book fits Around The World for Argentina more than The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey, written by probably one of the most famous & influential Argentinians ever. The travelogue and memoir by Ernesto “Che” Guevara, was from a time many years before his revolutionary days.
Ernesto and his friend, two young, privileged doctors, embark on a road trip on a bike across South America to find the soul of the land. Often working small jobs or relying on the kindness of strangers and a very rickety motorbike, they somehow span the length of the continent. The plight of the common people they meet along the way — the miners, the farmers, and the doctors/patients in the leper colonies — informs the way Ernesto looks at the state, corporations, and power. Even if politics doesn’t interest you, Ernesto writes an engaging, absorbing journal that should make it into your travel bag.
And while the memoir is so much more about Argentina, it is from the perspective of an upper class, conscientious Argentinean city boy.
Guevara (right) with Alberto Granado (left) in June 1952 on the Amazon River aboard their “Mambo-Tango” wooden raft, which was a gift from the lepers whom they had treated[46] Source: Wikipedia
