Brazil’s very own Phileas Fogg and his bike ride to New York

When Jules Verne published Around the World in Eighty Days back in 1873, telling the fictional story of the eccentric Englishman Phileas Fogg and his trip around the world, he might not have expected that people would try to repeat Fogg’s adventure in real life. And one of them was born in Brazil, just a few decades after the book’s release. His name was Rubens Pinheiro, born in the northeastern city of Salvador.

In 1927, nearing his 18th birthday, Rubens decided to embark on an unexpected — and frankly unthinkable — adventure: he would ride his bicycle from Brazil’s Northeast coast all the way to New York City. Some 7,000 kilometers as the crow flies, but easily three times as long by road.

The decision to traverse America was not solely Rubens’ idea. Born with a wild streak, he walked 1,500 kilometers from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s capital at the time, when he was just 16 years old. On this unusual trip, he met a traveler called Mauricio, a pioneer in the noble art of traveling via bicycle. He was reportedly cycling from Pernambuco state all the way to Buenos Aires in Argentina. 

As the story goes, Mauricio tried to get Rubens to join him on his trip, mocking the boy from Salvador’s lack of courage. Though it was not exactly easy for him to find a bicycle in the middle...