Cyclists return from South America

This story originally appeared March 18, 2010 in The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware.

Four local adventure cyclists have returned from a nine-month tour of South America and say they're better people for the experience.

What began as a shared journey ended with the former University of Delaware classmates exerting their independence and compromising often.

"We became experts in resolution," said Daniel Lins, team leader of One Road South, the name they gave their expedition. Lins was joined by Michael Beris and Christopher Thompson, along with Dan Wallace of Chestnut Hill, Pa. They left Philadelphia Dec. 2, 2008, bound for Buenos Aires, Argentina. (An article on their preparations for the adventure can be found here.) Three returned home Sept. 1.

Lins traveled alone for an additional two months and returned home in November.

The four trained a year for the trip, but none was prepared for the harsh elements they would encounter: freezing temperatures, rain, clouds of mosquitoes -- plus high winds and altitudes were the norm. Muddy, sandy and washboard roads made cycling a challenge. They recently shared their experience at the Brandywine Hundred Library.

"I was ready to be done with rain all the time," recalled Beris. "It was cold -- frigid -- the entire time."

"That was something that surprised me," he said.

"What used to be excitement and anticipation for the next chapter of our journey has become misery," Beris wrote on the group's Web site about the Carreterra Austral Highway in Chile. "What is worse than the current dripping state of every single piece of gear I have is the lack of hope that anything will improve in the near future."

Thompson described the foot of the Andes Mountains as "more glaciers than you can shake a stick at" and with a deep icy blueness of the cold that froze us to the bone." The cycling was slow-going.

"It was already nearly one in the afternoon and we would be sweating, shivering, pushing, slipping, dragging, and we had barely covered half a mile," Thompson wrote.

Things got better when they arrived in Chile.

They were determined not to cram everything into six weeks. Instead, they focused on meeting locals and were overwhelmed by the generosity of the people. By networking and attending village churches, they were invited for meals and, sometimes, for overnight stays. One Chilean family put them up for a month. They conversed mostly in Spanish although they found that many knew English.

Wallace said the hospitality of the people "bolstered my faith in humanity." Many were large families with limited food, yet they freely shared what they had.

"It totally makes you re-analyze what you spend your money on -- what you would give up for a friend," noted Lins. "This has changed my life. I used to think of myself as part of an American community. I now consider myself part of a global community."

The bikers kept in touch with American schoolchildren through Reach the World, a nonprofit that connects classrooms to travelers. They also had video chats with students.

Locally, students kept current through two of the men's mothers, Judy Thompson and Linda Beris. Thompson is a teacher at North Georgetown Elementary; Beris, a library aide at Truman Elementary in Allentown, Pa.

Lins, who admits to being fearless, talked his way into a bullfight at an annual festival in a tiny village in the Andes Mountains in Peru. "Thousands of people were cheering him on and calling him 'gringo,' " said Beris. "The bull was not a full-sized bull," Lins noted. He didn't kill it, but Lins had earlier helped gauchos (local cowboys) slaughter a bull in a small town in Chile.

The bikers visited the tin-mining city of Potosi in southwestern Bolivia. At 13,420 feet, it's considered the highest city in the world. The bikers felt the effects of the high altitude in their muscles. Lins, a chemical engineer, was disturbed by the air quality in the mine they toured. They were told that the average life expectancy of the mine workers was 10 years after they began working there.

The final stop for all four was Lima, Peru.

"We all feel finished. 6,500 kilometers is enough time in the saddle to warrant a rest," Lins wrote. "The money is finished, too. And nine months living with three other guys as closely as we have is a triumph we're happy to have accomplished."

Lins went on to visit Southwest Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. He left his bike temporarily with a friend and hitch-hiked and took buses to local sites.

All say they would repeat the trip but take less gear with them. They continually off-loaded gear as the weight strained their bicycles. Thompson said he would leave the laptops at home.

"We learned the Internet is everywhere," he said.

"I think all of us are the better for the trip," Wallace concluded. "I feel like I've matured, for sure," adding, "It was not a cake walk."

ONE ROAD SOUTH, THE EPILOGUE

One Road South team members have put long-distance cycling on hold and returned to paying jobs and other lofty pursuits. All say the trip made them rethink their career choices and personal goals.

Daniel Lins, 26, made the most unusual career switch. The former ExxonMobil chemist plans to become a missionary pastor. In August, he will enter The Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Lins was a guest speaker at several churches and a seminary in South America. He's the son of a former Millsboro minister and brother of a pastor in Lock Haven, Pa.

Christopher Thompson, 25, got a promotion at his former workplace, the Institute of Energy Conversion of the University of Delaware. An electrical engineer, Thompson now is a limited-term researcher.

Michael Beris, 27, went from The Rockford Center to the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. Formerly a mental health worker, he is now a research assistant. During the South American trip, Beris became engaged over the Internet to Heidi Johnson of Wilmington. The couple will wed in May.

And Dan Wallace, 24, became an eighth-grade science teacher at Roosevelt Middle School in Germantown, Pa. He speaks often to his students about the trip. Recently, he taught a unit on geology, tying it to the earthquake in Chile.

To read about the trip online, go to One Road South.