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CANARIASENMOTO
José Ángel, a world Indiano on two wheels
There are travelers who journey around the world, and others who, on top of that, manage to make us travel with them.
To start a great journey you only have to take the first step. But when that step is taken from La Palma, the push required is far greater. For a Palma native, any continental adventure begins by crossing the immensity of the Atlantic that separates them from the rest of the world.
From Los Llanos de Aridane, José Ángel Pais's hometown, you have to spend several hours on a plane or face a long sea crossing before you even begin to rack up the miles. A circumstance that, far from holding our protagonist back, seems to have fed his curiosity to discover what lies beyond the horizon.
Los Llanos de Aridane, in the west of La Isla Bonita, is a town open to the ocean and surrounded by spectacular volcanic geography. Perhaps growing up among bends, ravines and mountains, gazing every day at that endless horizon, awakened in José Ángel the need to find out what lay on the other side of the sea.
An Indiano of the 21st century
La Palma's history is deeply tied to emigration. For generations, thousands of islanders crossed the Atlantic towards Cuba, Venezuela and other American countries in search of opportunities and a better future.
That history also gave birth to the figure of the indiano, the emigrant who returned to his homeland after making his fortune in the Americas, an image still very present in the island's popular culture.
And right there we find a beautiful parallel with our protagonist.
José Ángel Pais is, in his own way, an Indiano of the world. An islander who has traded the great transatlantic liners for a motorcycle, suitcases for panniers, and the search for fortune for something far harder to measure: the satisfaction of getting to know the planet, discovering other cultures and coming home laden with stories.
Because José Ángel is not content simply to arrive at places. He needs to know them, mix with their people, understand their customs and discover what lies behind every border.
And, above all, he needs to tell it.
The generosity of sharing the road
Those of us lucky enough to know him are aware that one of his great virtues is his ability to pass on his passion for travel.
His stories are full of anecdotes, unexpected situations, setbacks, extraordinary encounters and that particular sense of humor with which he manages to laugh off even the most complicated moments.
Through his chronicles he has let us ride along endless roads, cross borders, discover countries we can barely place on a map and live adventures many of us would hardly dare to attempt.
For those of us who turn every motorcycle route around the islands into our own particular journey, his experiences are an open window onto a different way of understanding the world.
But José Ángel has decided to go one step further.
After so many years accumulating miles, experiences and knowledge, he now wants to share everything he has learned with those who dream of setting off on their first great motorcycle adventure.
And that means far more than explaining how to pack your luggage, plan a route, process a visa or fix a breakdown thousands of kilometers from home. It means passing on the experience of someone who has already been through situations no manual can foresee.
Because to travel, besides time, money and courage, you need something fundamental: the spirit required to take that first step.
The best luggage is experience
There are people who spend their lives accumulating things, and others who prefer to accumulate experiences. José Ángel clearly belongs to the latter, with one particularity: he never keeps his adventures to himself.
Now, with his new educational project, he opens his own travel notebook so that others can learn from his successes, his mistakes and all those miles that have turned him into a true globetrotter.
Through his social media we have had the privilege of joining him on his journeys. That is why we celebrate this new initiative and wish him success in awakening in many other riders that same curiosity that once led him to look beyond the horizon.
Because the true value of a great journey lies not only in the places we visit, but also in everything we learn and are able to share when we return.
Congratulations, José Ángel.
May that curiosity that drives you to travel to where the waves splash against the sky never go out!
