It is in cases like this when a doctor knows he is powerless in such circumstances that he longs

It is in cases like this, when a doctor knows he is powerless in such circumstances, that he longs for change; a change which would prevent the injustice of a system in which until a month ago this poor old woman had had to earn her living as a waitress, wheezing and panting but facing life with dignity. The poor thing was in an awful state, breathing the smell of stale sweat and dirty feet that filled her room, mixed with the dust from a couple of armchairs, the only luxuries in her house As well as her asthma, she had a bad heart. On the first steep hill – one of the many on that road – La Poderosa finally gave up the ghost. It was our last day as “motorised bums”; the next stage, as “non-motorised bums”, looked like being more difficult.LA GIOCONDAValparaiso, 7 MarchTHAT afternoon in Valparaiso we went separate ways: Alberto following up the doctors while I went to see an old woman with asthma, a customer at La Gioconda [a restaurant the pair patronised].

The bike packed it in halfway up and we wasted the whole day waiting for some charitable soul in the form of a lorry to take us to the top. We slept in the town of Cullipulli (after the lift materialised) and left early, expecting catastrophe. We began the climb to Malleco where there is a railway bridge the Chileans say is the highest in the Americas. The next morning I looked out to see the effect and saw that two metres below was a large tin roof with peaches on it drying in the sun; the spectacle added by me was impressive. We beat a speedy retreat.Although at first the accident hadn’t seemed important, it was now clear that we had underestimated it The bike did strange things every time it had to go uphill. During the night I had a bad case of the runs and, not wanting to leave a souvenir in the pot under the bed, I positioned myself at the window and delivered the contents of my aching guts to the darkness beyond.

I steered the bike on to the side of the road and it flew up the two-metre bank, ending up lodged between two rocks, but we were unhurt.Still reaping the benefit of the letter of recommendation from the press [Che, a medical student, and Alberto, a doctor some years older than Che, had been featured as "leprology experts" in a local newspaper, and had become neighbourhood stars], we were put up by some Germans who treated us very well. By an absolute miracle, all we touched was the leg of the last cow. In the distance there was a river which seemed to be beckoning us with terrifying certainty. For a moment I saw nothing but the shapes of cattle flashing by on the sides, while poor Poderosa gathered speed down the steep hill.