UPDATE: This is an extensive update to the 2017 post about Pedro and Carlos Rocasalvo’s 1946-1949 trip from Argentina to Alaska and back.
CREDIT: February 1955 issue of the Willys News. The photo shows Pedro Rocasalvo and some helpers using boards and a railroad track to help the jeep cross a deep gorge. This was part of the return trip to Argentina.
On June 5, 1946, two brothers, 24-year-old Pedro and 19-year-old Carlos Rocasalvo, mounted bicycles at their home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and began an adventure north. They carried 80lbs of baggage and $100. Their ultimate goal was to reach Fairbanks, Alaska. They expected the trip to last five years. Their father, a clothing goods salesman, was against the trip, but the boys were confident that they’d be okay.
CREDIT: March 16th, 1948, issue the Wilmington Daily Press journal, Wilmington, California.
A budding journalist and photographer, Pedro and his brother supported their trip through serialized and syndicated reports to twenty-six newspapers back in Argentina. The pair planned to film their journey and use their notes and articles to write a book about their adventure.
During their trek to the United States, the pair survived four crossings of the Andes, a “ringside seat at Bolivia’s revolution”, and hacking their way through 300 miles of Colombian Jungle that proved the worst part of their trip. During their 26 days in the jungle, they shot and cooked their own food. In the evenings, the brothers slept in trees, but had to select the trees carefully due to snakes and other animals.
At Colon, Panama, the exhausted boys were diagnosed with Malaria; they were treated for the disease and slept for four days.
Once in the United States, the pair’s lack of English didn’t slow them down. Eventually, after twenty-seven months of riding, they reached Los Angeles, arriving in March of 1948. While in Hollywood, Pedro studied photography at Paramount’s photography school for a month.
CREDIT: Pomona Progress Bulletin, Pomona, California. Pedro and Carlos Rocasalvo receive American Youth Hostel passes.
Soon, they were back on their bikes again, arriving at the YMCA in Portland, Oregon, in June of 1948. There, an interpreter named Celita Dextre, fluent in Spanish and English, was brought in to help the boys tell their story. There may have been some sparks between Pedro and twenty-three-year-old Celita, because she surfaced again later in the trip.
June 17, 1948, issue of the Dayton Herald, Dayton, Ohio.
After additional stops in Seattle and Vancouver, the pair made a hard ride for Fairbanks.
