Jorge and Sergio are @uptoyou.tv, two people from Madrid who have left everything to embark on an adventure and show the world that there are no excuses for traveling. His challenge is based on traveling from Madrid to Bali without resources: without money, hitchhiking and looking for a way to eat and sleep thanks to solidarity. They are our #TúDecides this month.
These two friends proposed this challenge despite having “comfortable” lives and formal jobs. Sergio, in addition to being a judo teacher, has worked as a professional photographer for more than 7 years. On the other hand, Jorge considers himself a “passionate traveler” which has led him to live in different parts of the world, such as in London, where he graduated and worked as a flight attendant.
Through this experience they want to demonstrate that to travel you only need desire and that the obstacles we put in place to see the world should not be an impediment, they cannot stop us, much less if we consider that our biggest obstacle is money.
During the interview they told us that the fact of traveling without financial resources is what generates the most “disbelief” and distrust in their history and that is why they want to teach a lesson to those who call them “crazy.” In this case, the only monetary expense will be the internet rate on mobile phones once they leave the European Union. Thus, they will be able to continue communicating with their family and friends in addition to broadcasting their adventure through Instagram.
Jorge and Sergio, why did you decide to leave your lives in Madrid and undertake this challenge?
Sergio: There are many reasons that pushed us to do it. The first is that to know what you have, you must first learn to live without it. From the moment we are born, they give us a crib, food, and hot water. What you have as a habit is something that is truly a luxury.
Another reason was that without wanting to, we get into a spiral of work, friendships and surroundings, which indirectly mark your path. And it is difficult to decide when to stop and take control of your life, get rid of prejudices, and find not what your body asks of you, but what your soul needs.
The challenge of this trip, beyond the act of hitchhiking, has a lot of philosophical part. I compare it a little with the ideology of judo (Ju- way; Do- flexibility) because on this trip nothing depends on you, whether they pick you up or not, where they leave you, you don’t know it, you don’t know where you can camp, nor What you are going to eat, or what can happen, we leave everything to chance. The search for flow is something that worries me and I have been pursuing for years, and in my work as a freelancer I am the one who makes the decisions. And I think the beauty of this is that nothing depends on me, that things turn out the way they have to. Because it doesn’t matter what “what” happens but rather “how” you take it.
When did you start the trip and how many countries have you visited? Where are you right now?
Jorge and Sergio: We mentally started the trip in March, but it wasn’t until Friday, September 13, that we took our backpacks and left the comfort zone behind. We have a total of 6 countries: Spain, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine.
We are located in kyiv, Ukraine.
In your experience, what has been the most difficult?
Jorge: The most difficult thing has been leaving home without having properly prepared the visas for the countries we are going to pass through. We have been stuck in Ukraine for several days trying to get a visa to Russia and it is impossible for us from here. Wanting to move forward and not being able to, looking for alternative routes and none of this working.
What was your biggest fear before starting the adventure?
Jorge: The weight and size of the backpack. It weighs 30kg and takes up a lot of space, which makes things difficult for us if they want to pick us up by car or if we decide to walk many kilometers. It becomes very heavy to carry something that big and forces us to stop every so often to rest our back and hips. We carry the house on our backs, clothing for all weather conditions (since we passed through very diverse countries), kitchen utensils, survival, hammock, etc…
Sergio: I think you always have fears when you do something new and you are never prepared enough to take the step until you take it. Maybe we were afraid of failing, of not moving forward, of sleeping on the street, not knowing the areas, of being stranded at some point, of getting sick… Anything could happen to us by passing through, but something told us “trust” and “live.” that this is not going to be repeated.
Have you had any really necessary economic costs apart from the internet on phones?
Sergio: Right now we are stuck in Ukraine, it has been impossible for us to advance along the scheduled route due to visas, and we have to skip a bit of Russia and China (and that we will possibly return to in the future) and we had no other option than to take a flight . And to be able to pay for it we have solved it with a (voluntary) donation system from our followers, and the truth is that it has turned out better than we thought, covering almost 50% of the cost.
What learning have you achieved in this first leg of the journey?
Jorge: There are many things we are learning. One of them is the flow in life. There are times that no matter how much we try to do something, that something doesn’t work, it’s not the time. We are learning to interpret the signs to know what to do and where to be at all times. To that we must add intuition, which is one of the most important things in this type of trip.
Humor, positivity and the way you see things is one of the factors that keeps us going every day. “To bad weather, good face”.
On the other hand, we are learning about generosity and empathy. I have learned that generosity and doing acts of kindness reward two parties, for the one who receives it and for the one who gives it. It is something precious, how so many people have helped us on our path, everything they have offered us without knowing us, and the friendships we have made. Some have even joined the challenge of living the same way we live for a few days. Living with practically nothing and feeling so full and complete… I think in this way we are valuing everything that happens and the way it happens in our lives. There are times when you have to walk away and lose everything to then have it all.
Why did you decide to tell your adventure through Instagram?
Jorge: One of them is to show all people the good side of the world. I have heard other countries called dangerous, cold and crazy, and then we get there and they help us, they take us, they treat us great… Our experience is very far from what we have heard about.
On the other hand, it is a way of encouraging people to travel, as there are no excuses not to do so. Traveling is what teaches you the most, opens your mind and socializes (from my point of view). We make the trip this way to teach that money is no longer an excuse not to do it, but you just have to see us. When we are young we don’t travel because we don’t have money. When we have money we are too old to make these types of trips, and we no longer have the health or energy we used to. In the end, life ends up being summed up in studying and working… and we forget to enjoy, experience and travel. They educate us to be the richest in the cemetery
Upon your return to Spain, who would you like to share a Ponche Caballero with?
Jorge: Good question! I would like to be able to share it with all the people who have contributed in some way to this journey, from family members, our followers, our haters and with all those we met and helped us along the way to reach our goal. Seeing that we were only going to play one drop per person, I think I would end up sharing a Ponche Caballero with Antonio Banderas. And because? Because I like his philosophy of life and improvement, and I would like to learn from the advice he can give me.
Sergio: With the whole world… I wish we could give a sip to each person who has made this trip possible… But to choose one, Mario Alonso Puig, one of my references for his philosophy and lectures on attitude, aspects that have been fundamental to carry out certain parts of the trip.
