Chasing Che

In 1952, 24-year-old Ernesto Guevara and a friend left their native Argentina to motorcycle the back roads of South America.  Eight months later, Ernesto returned transformed.  The freewheeling youth had evolved into the man known as Che, and became the revolutionary who would later inspire followers from Cuba to Congo--an icon to this day.  His account of his road trip, The Motorcycle Diaries, has become a classic.

Nearly half a century later, journalist Patrick Symmes set off on his BMW R80 G/S and retraces the future revolutionary's path.  On the way he runs out of gas in an Argentine desert, talks a Peruvian guerrilla out of taking him hostage, wipes out in the Andes, and, in Cuba, drinks himself blind with Che's travel partner, Alberto Granado.

Here is the unforgettable story of a wanderer's quest for food, shelter, and wisdom. Here, too, is the portrait of a continent whose dreams of utopia give birth not only to freedom fighters, but also to tyrants whose methods include torture and mass killing. Masterfully detailed, insightful, unforgettable, Chasing Che transfixes us with the glory of the open road, where man and machine traverse the unknown in search of the spirit's keenest desires.