The world is compartmentalized in the, enclosed territory where the respective governments exercising what they call "national sovereignty". For most of humanity is theoretical definition means in practice that a dictator holds absolute power over his frightened population to the best of the power of the dictator neighbor. The lines of separation are often lawless territories authentic, realms of arbitrariness or desolate no man's land between warring nations or cold. Our sightseeing tour is not recommended, but on a motorcycle trip around the world it is impossible to avoid them and practice what could be considered a new adventure sport.
Those who tread on the tail
Between the U.S. and Mexico have a long frontier with best advocates are the desert, rattlesnakes and coyotes. In my U.S. tour from coast to coast drive around the desolate curve formed by the Rio Grande, la “Big Bend”. I was repeatedly intercepted by the dreaded "Migra", U.S. border police. The agents are a Spanish passport was perplexing. What the hell was I doing there?
In the Chicano population of Tecate nobody asked me for passport. The first thing I found in Mexico was a branch of Banco Santander and one of the best tacos you've tried. I went to the manager and asked for security. The guy looked at me with some sarcasm and asked if I meant the towering figures murdered in Ciudad Juarez, a few miles away, and that both terrify Americans. "Well", I said, "Here is quiet. What happens is that those who stop at the garbage cans are those already treading the line went ".
The value of a President
African borders are a mess. Tumultuous and lively, seem fair with hundreds of hustlers offering their services as money changers or equipment operators to facilitate the paperwork. In my journey to Cape Town wanted to get into Zimbabwe, a country in decay. In step Chirundu came across a police officer who did not want to miss the bike as, he claimed, could be stolen. We were inside a closed room and dark. I looked incredulous and suggested the intervention of an American president. "Which of them are talking?”, he asked with a toothpick sticking between the teeth. “¿Qué tal Andrew Jackson?”, suggested. “No, ese is no me, Ulisses mejor. S Grant”. And so the president whose face appears on the fifty-dollar bills helped me cross. The persuasive power of good in Jackson, who adorns the twenty, was much lower.
No Man's Land
The most difficult borders separating the former Soviet Republics. Kazakhstan tried to enter without a visa. A huge army of soldiers with peaked caps and flaming me back gimped. After making me sign a statement incriminating and unintelligible, I put out into the no man's land. The commander of the Russian side did not want me back. The tourist visa had expired at the exit. "You have a problem. Nobody wants in Central Asia ", I said, scratching his neck. I replied that while still under its jurisdiction, were two who had a problem. After a moment of doubt, mumbled something I took for a "I do not touch the nose. Return to Russia and complíquele the life of another officer ".
European hotlines
Bathing on the beaches of northern Cyprus, Member State of the Union since the 2004, have to cross a line protected by the United Nations following the Turkish invasion 1974. By the way I entered the Nicosia Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by the Organization of Islamic Conference. Huge red banners with white crescent welcomed me. Turkey is omnipresent. The international condemnation seem to be of little. But the occupation is not the only cause of deprivation of sovereignty of Cyprus on its own island. The Perfidious Albion, former colonial power, has maintained 1961 two military bases accounting for 5% the territory.
Asia Minor. The Labyrinth
In Asia Minor Turkish borders are closed / Armenia, Armenia / y Azerbaijana Ruso / Georgiana; Russian troops are occupying Georgian territory of South Ossetia and consolidating the ghostly soldiers Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh Republic in Azerbaijan, whose capital, Baku, I got in an irregular ferry across the Caspian every seven days. The customs declaration took five hours. The frontera Georgiana of Lagodekhi, however, It was a bureaucratic relief. Europeans do not need a visa and the government has made sincere efforts against corruption. "Do not go north", I was warned, "The Russians are fifteen miles". The Georgians came in the first tavern cured with vodka hangover from the night party. Amaban a Sarkozi. The only Western leader who stood in the capital when Russia invaded the country in 2008.
The temple usurped
Lebanon has regained his capacity as a holiday destination. Has control officially the Lebanese Army, deployed in countless roadside stalls, but soon discovers that the real borders are internal, as paving the Bekaa Valley, whose capital, Zhale is the largest Catholic city in an Arab country. Thirty-five kilometers is Balbeck and fabulous Roman temple. Hezbollah's territory. In the wonderful ruins, World Heritage, terrorists use at will a room attached to proselytize and exhibition. The elegiac Western tourists buy T-shirts and smear group of revolutionary Islamic varnish.
Photos prohibited
Jordan is the only access road to Israel from the north. The peace of 1994 Jordan is unstable and is militarized. We walked from the Dead Sea to the Sheikh Hussein border 90 kilometers from Amman. The soldiers on guard peeked when they heard my engine and I was pleasantly greeted. At the border crossing, Israeli Arabs that cross license plates change their cars so they do not recognize their origin. On the bridge I got off the bike to take a picture of the river. Seconds later I was surrounded by three burly young men in dark glasses and M16. Mossad front of him right in wondering what on earth was photographing. Curious concern in a world where Google Earth puts spy satellites available to anyone.
Nativity scene
Nativity scene, o Bethelem, on the other side of the wall around the Palestinian Territories. It ran with no checkpoint to the very gate of the city, where I stopped the militants of Fatah. They tried me back warning me of security problems. When I arrived at the Church of the Nativity found it full of tourists. But they had no such problems, perhaps because they do religiously paid the very high rates of the few Arab cab drivers allowed to cross to the West Bank.
Beware of souvenirs
Having visited Israel will be impossible to get in most Muslim countries. Solicitation is permitted in the office other than the stamp on paper. But this caution is sometimes not enough. Always there are those who make honest mistakes, as lack of hygiene and taste for souvenirs. This happened to another traveler I met on the ship that took us from Haifa. He complained that the poor still have the pristine passport had not left him to return to Syria. "Maybe," I said softly, "That day would have left due to wash that shirt" I love Jerusalem "not you take off for weeks."
