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1948 - 1952 University and explorations
Aleida 2013.10.11. 09:45
The Guevara family bought an old house on the corner of Calle Aráoz and Mansilla, and Ernesto received a job at the Buenos Aires City Council's Supplies Division. So besides studying at the university, he could work and support himself, and he also spent a lot of time on reading and writing his own philosophical dictionary in which he clarified his ideas and readings. His essays about Marx and Engels were published in 2007 (with the title A Biographical Synthesis of Marx and Engels).
Then he gave up his job and started his own business with an old friend of his, Carlos Figueroa in the garage of the Guevara home. They produced a kind of insecticide that was useful and a lot of housewives bought it. But soon they had to give it up because the whole house was smelling from it, and both Ernesto and his assistant were suffering from mild poisoning.
Soon Ernesto received a new job: he could work beside Dr Salvador Pisani, a famous scientist, being specialised in allergies.
After one of the test Ernesto made, he became ill with high fever and he had to stay in bed for days. No matter how sick he was, he got up one day and he went to take his exams. No one in his family dared to stop him.
In 1947 he became eligible for National Military Service - but he didn't want to waste one year in the army. So he took a very cold shower before leaving so he could produce a severe asthma attack at the medical examination. He was exempted as physically unfit.
"For once, my shitty lungs have done something useful for me."
[His first asthma attack happened in a similar situation - after his mother took him swimming at the San Isidro Club.]
At the Faculty of Medicine of the National University, where Ernesto studied from 1947 to 1953, he met a Communist girl, Tita Infante and they became great friends. They studied and spent a lot of time together and when he left Argentina, they had a life-long correspondence - but they never had a romantic relationship.
On 1st January 1950, on his summer holiday, Ernesto made a bicycle trip in Northern Argentina. He had no money for the trip, he relied on his luck and on the hospitality of the people. Sometimes he offered his medical help for food or sleeping place.
Before leaving he took a photo of himself, sitting on his bike, wearing sunglasses, a cap and a leather jacket. This photo appeared later in the sports magazine El Gráfico.
His bicycle had a small Micron motor on it. After the trip, he sent the motor back to the importers asking them to repair it for him and he also mentioned to them that he travelled 4,700 kilometres. The letter and the photo were used for advertisements to promote the motor.
Actually Ernesto turned the motor off after San Isidro and he kept on pedalling. He pushed his limits to the extreme and happily enjoyed his freedom despite the bad weather and being really tired. Just 41 hours after his leaving, he met the Granado brothers and they continued the trip together for a while. Later he met Alberto Granado and they travelled together - Ernesto on his bicycle, Alberto on his motorbike.
During the trip, he continued reading, he started a diary (this became a habit of him for the rest of his life) and letters to his family. He had a lot of punctures and adventures, he visited a lot of cities and explored the beauties of the nature, he slept in hospitals and at police stations, and he met a lot of people. From Mendoza he went home.
Once he removed worms and larvae out of the scalp of a little Indian boy. For the first time he met the poverty and deprivation of the native population of Argentina - it deeply moved him and taught him a lesson.
 In October 1950 the Guevara family attended a wedding in Córdoba - here at a party Ernesto met Carmen "Chichina" Ferreyra, his first love.
The girl's family was extremely rich and her parents - though fancying Ernesto's charming personality and intelligence - were not happy with the idea that he wanted to marry their underage daughter and to travel with her.
They also disliked how he criticised everything they believed in - like religion and Winston Churchill. [Ernesto considered him as a conservative and backward politician - he admired Gandhi instead.] However, the young lovers kept their relationship through letters and personal encounters.
In early 1951 Ernesto became a male nurse on an Argentine merchant ship called Anna C. He took part in four trips during which he could reach Brazil, Trinidad, Tobago, Curaçao, British Guiana and Venezuela. But he didn't enjoy the life of a sailor, being at sea for weeks and being unable to visit the places properly.
During one of the trips he wrote a short story about his adventures in Trinidad, titled Angustia (Eso es cierto) / Anguish (The only certainty).
After Ernesto passed his exams, on 29th December 1951 he and Alberto set off on a journey through South America, riding on Alberto's motorcycle, La Poderosa II (meaning the Powerful). (Ernesto wanted to travel with Chichina, but she refused to join him.]
They left Córdoba, then went to Buenos Aires to spend New Year's Eve with the Guevara family, then to say goodbye to Chichina [to her, Ernesto took a small mongrel puppy callled Come Back as a farewell gift who was sick during the trip to her home, and even fell off from the motorbike a few times. After the goodbye, Chichina dumped Ernesto in a letter.].
Then they visited the South Patagonian lakes, and continued the journey through Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. They made new friendships and met old friends, worked in hospitals and leprosariums, and even joined a football club and their matches. They had a lot of exciting and frightening adventures and also had lot of accidents when they fell but received no serious injuries. Ernesto even had some serious asthma attacks. They visited mines, museums, libraries, Machu Picchu and other Incan ruins. It was near Machu Picchu where Ernesto said to his friend: "Revolution without firing a shot? You're crazy."
La Poderosa broke down and had to be repaired several times, and in Chile it died. The two men had to continue their journey the way as they could: on foot, by bus, by ship, by plane or by lorry.
 Besides their adventures, they also met the poverty and horrible condition of the poor, of the miners and of the Native Indian population, and it had a deep influence on Ernesto - just as his working in the leprosium in San Pablo in June. The patients loved him and Alberto so much that they built a raft for the young men named Mambo-Tango and even gave them a huge pile of presents of food. (Ernesto and Alberto treated the patients like healthy people and they refused to wear gloves while touching them - unlike most people.)
The diary of this journey was published by the title Diarios de Motocicleta / The Motorcycle Diary – and it was filmed in 2004, starring Gael García Bernal (playing Ernesto) and Ernesto's nephew, Rodrigo de la Serna (playing Alberto).
Alberto accepted a job, so Ernesto flied alone from Caracas to Buenos Aires - through Miami where he had to stay for a month until the airplane was repaired. He had no money, he had only a cup of milky coffee for a day while reading passionately at libraries and being disgusted by the luxurian American lifestyle.
After returning home, he had twelve exams left - during November and December he passed them all.
Itinerary of the journey:
1951. 29 December Córdoba - Buenos Aires - ARGENTINA
1952. 4 January Leaving Buenos Aires
1952. 6 January Villa Gesell
1952. 13 January Miramar
1952. 14 January Necochea
1952. 16 - 21 January Bahía Blanca
1952. 22 January On the way to Choele Choel
1952. 25 January Choele Choel
1952. 29 January Piedra del Aguila
1952. 31 January San Martín de los Andes
1952. 8 February Nahuel Huapí
1952. 11 February San Carlos de Bariloche
1952. 14 February Aboard (of Modesta Victoria) to Peulla - CHILE
1952. 18 February Temuco
1952. 21 February Lautaro
1952. 27 February Los Angeles
1952. 1 March Santiago de Chile
1952. 7 March Valparaíso
1952. 8 - 10 March Aboard of San Antonio
1952. 11 March Antofagasta
1952. 12 March Baquedano
1952. 13 - 15 March Chuquicamata
1952. 20 March Iquique (Toco, La Rica Aventura, Prosperidad Nitrate Companies)
1952. 22 March Arica
1952. 24 March Tacna - PERU
1952. 25 March Tarata
1952. 26 March Puno
1952. 27 March Sailing on Lake Titicaca
1952. 28 March Juliaca
1952. 30 March Sicuani
1952. 31 March - 3 April Cuzco
1952. 4 - 5 April Machu Picchu
1952. 6 - 7 April Cuzco
1952. 11 April Abancay
1952. 13 April Huancarama
1952. 14 April Huambo
1952. 15 April Huancarama
1952. 16 - 19 April Andahuaylas
1952. 22 - 24 April Ayacucho - Huancallo
1952. 25 - 26 April La Merced
1952. 27 April Oxapampa - San Ramón
1952. 28 April San Ramón
1952. 30 April Tarma
1952. 1 - 17 May Lima
1952. 19 May Cerro de Pasco
1952. 24 May Pucallpa
1952. 25 - 31 May Aboard of La Cenepa along Río Ucayali
1952. 1 - 5 June Iquitos
1952. 6 - 7 June Aboard of El Cisne to San Pablo
1952. 8 - 20 June San Pablo (leprosium)
1952. 21 June Aboard of Mambo-Tango along the Amazonas
1952. 23 June - 1 July Leticia - COLUMBIA
1952. 2 July Leaving Leticia by plane
1952. 2 - 10 July Bogotá
1952. 12 - 13 July Cúcuta
1952. 14 July San Cristóbal - VENEZUELA
1952. 16 July Barquisimeto - Corona
1952. 17 - 26 July Caracas
1952. end of July - Che alone in Miami - USA
1952. August - Che returns to his family to Córdoba - ARGENTINA
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In October 1950 the Guevara family attended a wedding in Córdoba - here at a party Ernesto met Carmen "Chichina" Ferreyra, his first love.
Besides their adventures, they also met the poverty and horrible condition of the poor, of the miners and of the Native Indian population, and it had a deep influence on Ernesto - just as his working in the leprosium in San Pablo in June. The patients loved him and Alberto so much that they built a raft for the young men named Mambo-Tango and even gave them a huge pile of presents of food. (Ernesto and Alberto treated the patients like healthy people and they refused to wear gloves while touching them - unlike most people.)