On the trail of the Spanish explorers forgotten
Our past is full of Quixotes looking beyond the horizon even at the risk of dying misunderstood or forgotten. It seems that his time has passed, that air transport would have filled the world passenger. But it is still possible to explore. The lone rider appears today as the heir of a knight-errant. Could move in a more comfortable, but chooses to suffer because swallowing dust, wind and sand becomes nomadic, explorer, part of the landscape and history that tells.
Miquel Wild begins an exploration of the five continents to know who they were and what they saw such amazing characters as Captain Francisco de Cuellar, wreck of the Armada in Ireland that the British managed to escape and reach Antwerp to write an account of his misadventures addressed to Philip II; the Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the greatest wanderer, who was shipwrecked off Mexico and had to walk for years for America to find a way to return with his.
Continue with your BMW GS 1200 the militares, as Juan Bautista de Anza, achieved the first white man to cross the desert to get from Arizona to California, or Colonel lever that guarded Saigon in the forgotten War of Cochin; They will not be short on his religious journey as Fray Junipero Serra, founder of the missions along the Pacific coast in U.S. bank; San Francisco Javier, missionary in Japan, wandering soul by the Pacific and today is buried in Goa; Jesuit Pedro Paez or, discoverer of the sources in Ethiopia Blue Nile.
Miquel visit the Philippines with their 350 years of Spanish presence and hear the legacy of apricot, language also spoken in Malaysia and educated in a 50% for Spanish words.
Accompany diplomats as Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, who in the fifteenth century came to Samarkand in Uzbekistan today; Also look at who wrote on paper but not in stone, as the architect Fernando de Aranda, who built more than seventy large buildings in Syria, including the beautiful Hijaz Station in Damascus, o el Zenobia, first hotel in Palmyra.
The only thing I know for sure is that the world is full of borders and I have a habit of wanting to see what's crossing across.
How many countries have you traveled so far on a bike?
About sixty. I can not give an exact figure because it depends more on political issues that geographical. ¿Kosovo is a country or a province of Serbia? Does the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognized as a state or region occupied? What about the Western Sahara? And the Palestinian Territories? Defining country on a map is meaningless on the ground, and even going on a bike. The only thing I know for sure is that the world is full of borders and I have a habit of wanting to see what's crossing across.
Was that the reason for going to Iraq?
Not quite. It is true that when I tried to enter Iraqi Kurdistan Secret Service agent asked me why I wanted to go there and I answered with a question. Do you watch TV? “Sí, clear ", he replied. Well I do not, I replied, I do not believe it. I like to see for myself. But there was another reason.
What?
I got the trail of a unique Spanish, Adolfo Ridavedeneyra. Born in 1841, he mastered eleven languages. With twenty years without pay requested to be contracted in the Spanish consulate in Beirut. Well traveled throughout the Middle East. And as a diplomat, will trace the Tigris reminding Nearco, admiral of Alexander the Great that just came to Basra. Once in Babylon, the current Iraq, come to visit Mosul and Nineveh.
How do you start to pursue this passion Spanish explorers?
Beginning in Sidi Ifni. With the discovery of the letter of Captain Francisco de Cuellar. After the disaster of the Armada, around 25 Spanish ships were wrecked with ten thousand men on board off the coast of Ireland. Francisco de Cuellar, Captain of the galleon San Pedro, escaped to Flanders after seven months of hardship and write a letter of his adventure to Philip II. His story is amazing, tells how the English killed almost all the Spanish, as the natives stole what little they had, count as life was hard in those lands in the sixteenth century, realizes how he defended his life and how difficult it was, but does so with humor, masterly literary anecdotes and funny as when you win a life time reading fortunes in the hands of the Irish. A true figure.
What has to do with Ireland Sidi Ifni?
The manuscript remained hidden Cuellar three hundred years in the archives of the Royal Academy of History, until 1884 Captain rescued him Cesareo Fernandez Duro, was learned that in addition to browser. The commanded Blasco de Garay, sent to determine the exact position in the Saharan coast of Borx er Rumi, the ruins of a castle built by the Catholic Monarchs. Hard Fernandez said they were at the mouth of Ifni. A result of which, the territory was ceded to the Spanish sovereignty. Discover this weird loop between Cuellar, Fernandez Duro and Sidi Ifni was very curious to me because if one day I got interested in these little hidden stories was when I had to do military service in the Paratrooper Brigade, whose hymn begins by saying that "In Ifni opened the book of our history". And is that the Ifni War was the last fought by Spain. The discovery 22 years that had fought wars that taught me in school led me to think that existed outside of history textbooks almost clandestine worth exploring.
Comments (1)
eduardo
| #
Hello Miguel, I just found this page and I found it interesting. The same as you, I am an inveterate seeker of that history it does not appear in textbooks, and that, however, He says much about us, as a nation and as individuals. Some time ago I round the idea of following in my old Suzuki in the footsteps of Colonel Palanca, and my own great-grandfather who served in Manila and after the surrender of Baler stayed on an island in the north along with several companions, and organized guerrillas against US, stories I have come very blurred to pass from parent to child verbally. In order, I encourage you to go diving in the waters forgotten our history and to share, You know that you count today with a follower more, and to give encouragement to the bmw kilometers. A hug.
Answer