The chronicles of the big-hearted, big-tyred Hummer Expedition,
from the diary of Dr Enrique Suarez Cabrera

Thanks to its tough US Army-proven credentials, the Hummer H1 is the ultimate tool for adventure-seekers: it goes where few other off-roaders would dare venture and it's a trustworthy workhorse with unbeatable off-road skills. Add a team of enthusiastic adventurers who want to travel the world and meet different cultures and you've got an unbeatable combination of man and machine.
The Hummer Expeditions (www.hummerexpeditions.net) is a non-profit Venezuelan organization dedicated to the exploration of the most interesting places in the world and involves visiting developing countries and the orphanages there, which they sponsor. By exploring remote areas they also try and understand and help people that are less fortunate.
At the helm of this team of socially conscious explorers, is Tony Velazquez who is a specialist in international affairs and an entrepreneur connected with the oil industry. He loves travelling and adventure sports and has toured more than 300,000km in his Hummer and has been through places most people would even dread at the thought of visiting. But Tony thrives on this as he finds it an important exchange of culture and knowledge.

The Hummer Expeditions have been to many interesting places. Their first expedition in 1997 was Alaska, the remotest part of planet and since then they have travelled to La Amazonia and Los Andes (1998), Teyuna, the lost city in Colombia and the African Sahara (1999), Australia (2000), South-West Asia (2001), Venezuela (2003) and recently the Trans-American expedition (2003-2004) crossed the entire American continent, from the South Pole to the North Pole.
But expeditions like this obviously cost a lot, and would not be possible without the support of sponsors like AM General, Warn, Goodyear, GlobalStar, Osklen, Armor, Hella, Telport, Motorola, and Casio to name a few.
In 2005, they set their sights on India, where they’d be hosted by Goodyear. From Venezuela they shipped their Hummer to Chennai and after going down to the southern-most tip of the sub-continent, they took the coastal route up to the commercial capital, Mumbai. This is where we caught up with them and persuaded the team to share its Indian experience with us. Here is the story of the first leg of their journey, Chennai to Delhi – straight from their diary! To be precise, from the diary of Dr Enrique Suarez Cabrera, the second member of the four-man India Expedition Team, an ophthalmologist who loves adventure and is a certified deep-water diver. Apart from this he is also trained for survival manoeuvres in choppers, jungle and water survival! He is also a keen marathon runner and loves trekking.
“On 8th September, ’05, Tony Velazquez and I took a flight to Chennai, where Project India 2005 began. About 40 hours later, we arrived at our destination. That day Angel Bajares left for Paris where he met us; Pedro Castro Amare flew to Frankfurt, and after a maze of connecting flights, we finally reached Chennai.
“Next day, a Sunday, we met with our guide and the rest of the people assisting us, including the local secretary of tourism, who organised a tour of the places of interest in Chennai for us. We visited the Temple of Kapaliswarar in Mylapore, the Basilica and the grave of Saint Thomas, the Government Museum and also the Islamic palace. Early the following day, we went to the customs office and filled all the forms that were necessary (quite a number!), to clear our Hummer. The next afternoon the car was released and we started to assemble its parts that had been dismantled when it embarked on its voyage in La Guaira. We addressed a press conference the next day and that night we packed, loaded the car and were all set to head out on the designated route and begin our five-week expedition.
“September 15th. We left Chennai very early in the morning and headed for Madurai. Soon we got our first lesson in ‘the art of driving in India.’ This was an extreme experience. The main highways are barely two lanes (one for each direction), where animals, pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles and vehicles of all sizes, go in every direction, especially head-on, forcing the oncoming driver to throw himself onto the nonexistent shoulder of the road (sometimes replaced by modest homes or badly parked cars).
I’d never seen or experienced anything like this, anywhere.
“After twelve hours of non-stop driving, not even a halt for lunch, we did barely 460km, arriving in Madurai after nightfall, exhausted and completely stressed by the chaotic driving conditions.
“September 16th. Early morning, the temple of Sri Meenakshi, wife of Lord Shiva, protectors of the city. It was impressive to see the faith of the ten thousand-odd devotees, and the kindness with which they welcome strangers and proudly introduce them to Hinduism.
“September 17th. Fortified and armed with the blessings of the Gods, we joined the highway again and headed for Cape Comorin or Kanyakumari, the most austral point of the subcontinent. Enroute we explored the interiors, going further into rural areas close to Nanguneri. Here we went off-road, and chanced upon a fascinating temple, within a huge patio that must get flooded in the monsoon.
“By mid-afternoon we arrived in Kanyakumari, where the waters of the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea meet to the west and the Bay of Bengal to the east. This is also the place where the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi were immersed in the seas, in honour of which the Gandhi Memorial was built on the coast here.
We also saw a gigantic statue-monument, standing on two rocks 400 metres off the coast, in honour of the philosopher Swami Vivekananda. A magical place.
“We carried on, and had our first taste of night driving in India. Which was even worse. Oncoming lights that blind you, men, machines and animals that jump out of the dark, Darth Vader-like stealth vehicles moving around with no lights, and drunks floating in the middle of the road. What a drive it was! It was pitch dark when we crossed the interstate frontier and arrived in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum.) Though it was quite late here we were honoured with a cultural act Ottamthullal (drama-dance) which they perform during the festival of Onam, a major event in Kerala. And we were there to enjoy it. What an amazing country.
“September 18th. Despite the late-night celebrations the Hummer team left at 5am, and headed to Mangalore via Kochi. A distance of 450-some kilometres, on a crowded but beautiful road. We were getting used to the driving, and hit Mangalore before dark. We’d entered the state of Karnataka and were told that the language, customs and food were different from the neighbouring state of Kerala. Not that this made a difference to us foreigners – everything was different anyway.
“September 19th. On the road by 6am and heading towards Goa, one of India's greatest tourist destinations. It was a very scenic drive along the Arabian Sea coast and we saw many communities that depended on the sea for livelihood. Once again we made it to Goa before nightfall. Goa is an erstwhile Portuguese colony, and has a quaint charm. The architecture, the people, the lifestyle, are all fascinating and the beaches are so pretty. Another interesting part is Old Goa, which used to be a port but is now famous for its cathedrals and chapels, and is home to the incorruptible body of St Francis Xavier.
“September 20th. Time to head to Mumbai. Intense rain. Mumbai is the financial hub; this lively city is also known as Bollywood, as it is also the centre of the Hindi film industry that produces the largest number of films in the world. Mumbai is really an incredible city with 17 million people living on an island connected to the mainland with not enough bridges, the trains transport 7 million passengers a day; 25,000 vehicles are sold in this city each month! The best description that I have of Mumbai is ‘functional chaos.’ “September 22nd. Because of the heavy rains, rivers were overflowing in many parts of the country, and driving through the deteriorated roads was a nightmare. But our Hummer was unstoppable, and after a long journey we reached Aurangabad and Ellora, where we found something astonishing: the Cave Temples, a treasure of humanity. The first 12 caves are Buddhist, from the 13th to the 29th are Hindu, and from the 30th to the 34th Jain. All amazing, but for me the masterpiece is Cave 16, the Kailasa Temple,
dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is the biggest monolithic sculpture in the world, carved by 7000 workers over 150 years! “September 23rd. We visited the caves again and departed for Surat in Gujarat by mid-day. Surat is known for its diamond cutters and trading community.
“September 24th. The floods had submerged most bridges and roads here and there was devastation everywhere. Mother Nature was testing India's infrastructure; thanks to the off-roading and water fording abilities of the Hummer, we were able to cross swamps and secondary routes, most semi-submerged, and halfway through the afternoon we arrived in Ahmedabad, a major industrial town of six million. We did a check-up on the H1 and prepared it for the next challenge, the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, where we were to visit the ‘Golden City’ of Jaisalmer.
“September 25th. As we headed north-west the rains began to recede and greenery gave way to the aridness of the Thar.
A welcome respite. But it was so strange. Parts of the country submerged under water and another part starving for it. Strange are the ways of the rain gods that live over India. Halfway through the evening we saw a hill rising out of the desert, crowned with an impressive fort.
It was Jaisalmer, the city extracted from a thousand Arabian Nights… “After touring the fortified walled city, ancient home of the Maharawals – the present one now lives on the outskirts of the city – we decided to eat something typical of Rajasthan, and after going up to an extraordinary terrace, saw the most spectacular sunset over the dunes.The best moment we have ever lived.
“September 26th. We prepared to intern ourselves in the Great Desert of Thar on a caravan of camels. Our new friend and local guide, Pappu, took us to to an auction of camels in a market of nomads. Great fun, like another world. On our way back, we had dinner in Jaisalmer on the terrace of an antique house, under the moon. This must be the most romantic place I have ever been to.
“September 27th. We drove across the sparsely populated desert to Jaipur, the ‘Pink City,’ and part of the Golden Triangle which includes Agra and Delhi. The mansions, palaces, forts, markets and colourful people: India is really a country of so much beauty and so many contrasts.
“September 28th. Unfortunately our plans of visiting Ranthambore National Park to see some tigers were frustrated, when we found out from Roma Singh, director of tourism, that due to the monsoons, all the national parks in the area stay closed until the end of October. Our appointment with the tiger would have to wait for another day.
“September 29th. The second city of the Golden Triangle that we visited was Agra, ancient Moghul capital of India. Of course, the biggest attraction was the Taj Mahal, the most extravagant monument ever constructed for love. Emperor Shah Jahan built it in memory of his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal who died while giving birth. All that has already been said about this monument does not do any justice to the perfection and richness that makes up this magnificent work of art.
“After being richly rewarded we proceeded to complete our Golden Triangle and headed for Delhi, the national capital.
“September 30th. A busy day for PR with some of our sponsors, Good Year and the Tourism Ministry of India organising events. We had two extraordinary press conferences with more than 90 journalists. The interest generated was way over our expectations, seven appearances on television, and various interviews with the print media. The First Secretary of The Venezuelan Embassy in India, Analida Rojas, was also with us and full of appreciation for the expedition.
“October 1st. Today was dedicated to sight-seeing and learning about this extraordinary city of more than 10 million inhabitants (the third most populated city in India). It is also a city with a lot to see: India Gate, the Red Fort, Jama Masjid,
the biggest mosque in India, built by Shah Jahan, and the Lotus Temple.
“Tomorrow we head north, towards the foothills of the Himalayas, in search of the birth of the sacred Ganges river.”
To be continued in the April issue