| Article Index |
|---|
| Skate Across South America..!! |
| Page 2 |
| All Pages |
|
|
|
We take our boards to the worlds largest salt flat: Salar De Uyuni. in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, 11,975 feet high.
|
|
|
|
In 2008, Paul Kent and Aaron Enevoldsen from Calgary, Canada decide to chase Adam Colton through the heart of South America…..on skateboards. This route could very well be capped as the hardest paved bicycle-touring route the world. The terrains obstacles of the Alto Plano are the high altitude, averaging at 10,800ft and higher, (very little oxygen). The Alto Plano is a channel of farmland through the Andes where the ancient Incan Empire was established. At this altitude, very little grows naturally except cactus grass and the options for food are scarce.
Paul Kent is a new world record holder, Adam Colton is a world famous longboarder, and Aaron Enevoldsen of the three, an extreme sports junky, writes about this insane journey as the tale unfolds. (Click on image to enlarge gallery)
For more all images please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/fartinabag/sets/72157615824227354/
By: Aaron Enevoldsen
Paul and I fly into the coastal desert city of Lima, Peru, with no return tickets and 1200 dollars, our hearts pulse anxiously like juicers blending our blood. Paul and I are scared. Two pretty young ladies approach us in the terminal and asked if we are the two guys about to skate across Peru. Paul and I look at each other in confused amazement, thinking we had attained stardom in Peru without even trying. Nope, it’s Adam Colton’s sister Deanna, and her good friend Erica who are on vacation and waiting for Adam to arrive 1 hour after us.
Erica, a Peruvian citizen courteously scolds us, letting us know we are going to get robbed, hit by a car, kidnapped and held for ransom. Exactly what we were hearing from friends in Canada, now from someone who lives here! Nonetheless, 3 days later Paul, Adam and I throw our longboards down onto the Pan American Highway.
1st goal: Nazca, Peru. Final Goal: Somewhere in Bolivia.
Between Lima and Nazca we get our first and bitter taste of the journey. We sit down to only two cooked meals. Otherwise our diet consisted 50% of cookies (Oreo-like), 30% of tropical fruit, and 20% of soda pop and flat bread. We skateboard across the driest desert in the world. I had fallen twice, Paul once, and Adam had the first fit of Diarrhea. After checking into the first vacant hostel we have our very first shower in 6 days, Paul and I get wacked on Coca-leaves, while Adam continues his battle with profuse diarrhea. The poor bastard has to sit in our first traditional Peruvian bathroom, dirty, scummy, and very ill in design. The bathroom door closed three inches from the toilet bowl, therefore your legs must spread eagle into the splits so the door will close. This must have been terrible for Adam, who insisted the next day we leave to camp.
Just outside of Nazca, three silhouettes appear slammed in the glare of a 100volt light. A dog in the distance is barking and Adam, Paul and I are shocked with a decision to try and run from the farmers field or do what? Spanish voices are mumbling from the light and Adam squeaks out an “hola,” in return. Our tents are all freshly pitched and we have no chance of a getaway, so we put out our hands in surrender walking through the brush towards the blinding light. We approach two small, humble-looking mustached men. They smile and mumble “Gringos!” to each other. Immediately we tell them we skateboarded from Lima to Nazca three hundred miles in six days and we need a place to sleep. “Skateboard?” So excited the farmer runs into his field and plucks a watermelon the size of that rock that killed Piggy in Lord of the Flies. I get my utility knife to dice up the watermelon and the 5 of us share it smiling attempting to converse terribly in Spanish while spitting out black seeds. What a beautiful night it was…..
….. The next morning we took on a whole new challenge: The Andes.
2ND Goal: Cusco, Peru.
I wait in the Puquio town hospital with my Spanish-English dictionary looking up how to say “insurance” and “falling off skateboard.” Somewhat neglected by the nurses and doctors, I sit with an inch-deep laceration in my elbow. The road had turned into dirt 10 miles before the mud ridden city. I ate the rocks attempting to dodge an elderly couple obstructing the smooth side of the road. After Paul’s first-aid treatment, I hopped in a took-took (3 wheeled cab), off-roaded for 2 miles, and paid my 30 cent fair to the town hospital. I was exhausted. Three days before I had 2nd degree sun burn on my chest and now I feel useless.
Finally I get some attention and the doctor takes a look at my wound. He asks what I did and I tell him “accidente con un patineta.” He seems worried as he pulls out a tray with a cloth, as he unravels the cloth he beholds sharp scissors and scalpels and nasty looking hook tongs. My heart is racing as I have no fucking clue which one of those he’s going to use, and I have no idea how to ask in Spanish if I’m getting stitches, flesh removal or what be it. He just sterilizes my wound, thankfully!
The extremity of this trip should be considered. The highest pass we skate over was 14,857 ft (over half the height of Mt. Everest). This altitude leaves us gasping for air as we push, hoping that we would reach the summit and drop down to lower altitude before night-fall. If not, we have to endure a freezing cold sleepless night with trouble breathing. Our tents become frosted over on the frozen ground. To make things more of a dilemma, we also hope we packed enough food and water to last us until the next town with a store. This is a self-supported trip, all of our survival gear is in our backpacks, that weight was on our legs all day for 2 months. Options for food are little, restaurants and bodegas are mud houses with dirt floors, and a table. We seldom eat the meat because they don’t have refrigerators, and when you ask for vegetarian food they still try to sneak you chicken.
At the top of a steep 15km incline into the city of Abancay, I notice something different about Paul and Adam. They are machines that lost a little piece of their mental health. In cities we’re attacked constantly by domestic dogs, local’s stares, and we have no way to shield ourselves; we are totally vulnerable to our surroundings. Five times a day a dog lashes at our heels bearing its full load of teeth. Combined with people whistling, pointing, and shouting “Gringos,” it is inevitable we are going to lose our patience. I don’t know what happened to Paul this day, screaming at the top of his lungs “I’m a fucking gringo, YO SOY UNA GRINGO, LOOK A GRINGO! AHHHH,” he persisted to drag on the attention by chasing a barking dog through the neighborhood on foot. What a miraculous entry to the city.
Adam Colton has skated across USA, France, and New Zealand. As a very well practiced longboarder and filmographer, his online videos Whirling Dervish and The Loaded Dancer have reached the most viewed longboarding videos in the world. Mr. Colton is a master of pushing and downhill, and holds no inhibitions whatsoever riding totally unprotected. Paul Kent is of similar attributes, a very “straight edge willy” who is the top Canadian for long distance push racing. He recently broke the distance skateboarding record of 250 miles in 24 hours. For 4 years he trained in covert ops and espionage wearing nuclear fallout suites with the Military. He has an outstanding ability to push his physical and mental realm to its absolute limit. Then Me, who has been long-boarding for 8 months prior and just recovered from a broken foot. My sports career was started with an off-road racing device called Dirtsurfer.
Abancay is just 126 Miles from a major goal of ours, the famous Incan city of Cusco. To my recollection, food is the primary drive behind this goal. We want non-authentic gourmet tourist dining. Our diet consists now of 40% French fries, white rice and eggs, 60% cookies, chocolate bars and flat bread. Instantly, in Cusco, we gorge on 3 dinners in 2 hours at an unbelievable café. I get so sick from eating too much and all I do to cure it is go out and eat more. We spend the equivalent of $25 each meal, which is almost unimaginable in Peru.
When we aren’t updating our blogs in internet cafés, we‘re hitting tourists with water balloons. I film Adam hitting 2 cops and then waving with a panicked whimpering laugh. From our hostel balcony with the last water balloon of 200, Adam almost got arrested, hitting the wrong guy right in the back of the head while his picture was being taken. The balding, stocky Argentinean man hears us shrieking like little girls with laughter and persisted to try and enter the hostel to kill Adam. After the police warned us, they escorted him to our room where he spoke slow and angrily, calling Adam a small child and a coward who hides like a little boy. All I can think about is seeing the amazing picture.
3RD Goal: La Paz, Bolivia
We continue to almost get arrested. Lost in the dirty muddy back streets of Cusco, we venture into neighborhoods no Gringo has ever gone before. We ask “donde es la calle afuera la ciudad?” Where is the street outside the city? Confused with our intentions and mode of transportation, people point us in the right direction. We come to a brick wall and the three of us climb over being watched by a very worried man. Crouching in the grass we witnessed a real life Boeing 737 touch down at what we now realized is the Cusco International Airport. Only 200 yards across the tarmac is another brick wall that separates us from the Highway out of Cusco. It is the most exciting moment of my life when we are all about to do it, run for the sake of not getting an international criminal record. Just then 2 fueling trucks come in our direction as we take cover shitting our pants in the grass. They slowly roll by, we squeak and hold our breaths. I must say it was a hard thing to do, climb back over the fence, but mostly because our bags are really heavy.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
