12,000 Miles, 21 Months and a Trip of a Lifetime

Some people like to challenge themselves by participating in 100-mile cycling races.

Petaluma residents Mary Schindler and Fabio Mendes, who met and were living in Brazil several years ago, decided it would be fun to bike from the South American country back to Petaluma, where Schindler grew up.

Never mind the Amazon River and rainforest, the oxygen-depriving altitudes of the Andes, Colombian military check points and nine border crossings. For Schindler, 32, and Mendes, 33, the ride was the adventure of a lifetime.

“When you have a job and just living in one place, one day sort of blends into another,” says Schindler, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 2002. “But when you’re traveling, everyday is different and poses a new challenge. You see so many things and meet so many new people…If I think about the best thing I ever did, this would be it.”

The entire journey took the husband and wife nearly two years to complete, during which time they traversed 12,000 miles, all while carrying 100 pound packs on their bikes and sleeping at fire stations or people’s homes along the way.

The journey began in January 2006 in Sao Paulo, where the couple met when Schindler traveled to Brazil to study capoiera, a traditional Brazilian martial art that combines music and singing and can be traced back to African slaves who were brought to the Portugese colony in the 16th century.

Leaving Sao Paulo, the couple traveled along the Atlantic Coast before connecting with the Pan American Highway, a stretch of road that begins at the tip of Argentina and ends in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and which has attained almost mythical status after the likes of Che Guevara traveled on it.

Along the way, Schindler and Mendes pedaled alongside trucks on busy highways, on tropical beaches and abandoned country roads, relying mostly on directions people gave them, which occasionally resulted in a dead end and back tracking. At the mouth of the Amazon River, the couple boarded a boat, which brought them to the Venezuelan border and soon the Andes.

“Before every border, the people would warn us by saying ‘Oh, it’s so dangerous, the people in the other country don’t like Brazilians,’ recalls Mendes, who was born and grew up in Brazil before arriving in Petaluma at the end of 2007. “But when we crossed over, the people were the same as on the other side. There was so much fear and distrust.”

Like all adventures, this one wasn’t without its share of harrowing moments, such as when Mendes and Schindler were caught in a rainstorm in the Andes as night was creeping in.

“It was so cold that we couldn’t even press on the breaks very well and we had to stop every ten feet or so because it was hard to breathe because of the elevation,” Schindler says. “We had this feeling like ‘What are we going to do?’ because there was nowhere to hide from the rain.”

Luckily the couple soon rolled into a town, where they found refuge at a fire station for the night, although it took a while for their fingers and toes to thaw.

The trip was not only memorable because of the people they met along the way, but because of how much they learned about themselves and the countries they visited.

For Schindler, who is part Mexican, biking through Mexico was one of the most impactful parts of the trip.

“A lot of Americans have an impression of Mexico as being one kind of place, where simple, rural folk live, but when you are there, you realize how rich and different the culture of each state is,” she says.

It took the couple three months to traverse the 2,000 miles of Mexico before they were greeted at the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana by Schindler’s parents and grandparents. They finally arrived in Petaluma in December of 2007, with memories to last a lifetime.

Now, Schindler and Mendes’s new adventure is growing their capoeira classes, which they offer at the and several times a week.

Watch a video of them and their students doing capoeira, on the right

Capoeira is comprised of moves like kicks and leg sweeps that capoeristas perform as they play in a circle of other participants, known as the roda. Their dance is accompanied by musicians playing drums and the berimbau, a single string percussion instrument believed to have originated in Africa.

Both Mendes and Schindler's life has been molded by the sport, symbols of which are on display throughout their home. Now, they hope to instill a similar passion for the martial art in others, which they say provides not only a powerful workout, but a spiritual awareness.

“You think you know something, but you go somewhere else and it’s really a chance to learn something about that culture,” Mendes says. “Capoiera is the same way, it challenges us mentally and physically and teaches us to interact with other people.”

For more information on classes, visit capoeirapetaluma.com