Travelling with Che Guevara

Book excerpt: Published for the first time in English, an account of Che Guevara’s 1952 motorcycle tour of South America, written by his close friend and travelling companion. In 1952, Alberto Granado, a young doctor and his friend Ernesto Guevara, a 23-year-old medical student from a distinguished Buenos Aires family decided to explore their continent. They set off from Cordoba in Argentina on a 1949 Norton 500cc motorbike and travelled through Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. Along the way, they worked as casual labourers, football coaches, medical assistants, and haulage hands. What the two young men encountered on their journey – the poverty and exploitation of the native population – changed them forever. This crucial turning point was to turn Ernesto – the debonair, fun-loving student – into Che, the man who fought for the liberation of Cuba. To this day, Che Guevara remains Latin America’s foremost hero and one of the world’s great revolutionaries. In this companion to Che’s Motorcycle Diaries, Alberto Granado’s book is a moving and at times hilarious account of how two carefree young men found their true purpose in life.