The Visitor From The Sierra Madre
Meet Julian Anguiano, from Saltillo Mexico – (here is his tour website).
Julian lives in the Sierra Madre, a mountain range made popular in the US by the classic movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, starring Humphrey Bogart:
Gold Hat (Alfonso Bedoya): “We are Federales… you know, the mounted police.”
Dobbs (Bogart): “If you’re the police, where are your badges?”
Gold Hat (Bedoya): “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!”
I was a Warmshowers host for Julian over the weekend and we had a wonderful time.
Julian is on a 1 year long tour from his home in Mexico.
For the last three months, he has toured about 2,400 km through Texas, along the Gulf Coast, across northern Florida and up the East Coast. He arrived at my house on Sunday afternoon and was heading to NY City, where he had a flight out of JFK to Manchester England.
He planned to spend at least 3 months in Europe and then fly to Japan for a 6 month tour there.
We really hit it off and were able to talk at length, sometimes incredibly closely.
Julian explained the reason for his tour: he’s a 42 year old man, with a wife and 12 year old son, but his job was high pressure, on call 24/7, and that he did not want to live his life that way anymore.
So, one day, despite the fact that he had never ridden a bike before and bicycle touring in not popular in Mexico, he decided to go on a world tour and began planning to do so.
He told me he wanted to be more to his son than just an example of a hard worker – he wanted to give him a legacy. In a very touching moment, Julian told me that now that he is away from home on his tour, he actually spends more quality time talking to his son and they have grown closer.
He enjoys the support of his wife and son, and told me the small hometown papers made him somewhat of a celebrity and gave him a grand send off on his journey.
Julian shared his joy in meeting people and especially talking to them about their hopes and dreams and their way of life and their families. He emphasized that he never labelled or judged people, he focused on learning about them and listening to their stories.
He felt that bicycle touring and Warmshowers hosts provided a unique opportunity to break down the barriers that exist between people. He said he was totally in love with his US tour and all the great people he met along the way.
I took him to visit Liberty State Park, Statute of Liberty and Ellis Island.
When he left, I rode with him up the D&R Canal to Kingston.
We stopped to tour Princeton and the University – he was blown away by the architecture and beauty of the place.
It was the best time I’ve had in a long time –
I gave him a gift off my library shelf – I chose John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath – but that Library of America volume also had The Sea of Cortez, which I’m sure Julian will enjoy.
Be well, Julian my friend! A real treasure of the Sierra Madre!
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