Episodio 5: Road Trips (Viajes de carretera)

Duolingo English for Spanish Speakers Podcast

El año pasado, Sam Walker recibió un mensaje de video de su mamá.

Ella acababa de mudarse a los Estados Unidos y estaba recién instalada en su nueva casa en el estado de Arizona.

The subject of the video message was “Do not watch with the children.” I thought she was planning a surprise trip for one of my kids’ birthdays.

Instead, she told me she had lung cancer.

She needed to have a major operation to remove a tumor.

Aunque el tumor o tumor ya era bastante grande, Susan, la mamá de Sam, le dijo que los médicos tenían esperanzas de que la operación podía salir bien.

I’m my mother’s only child.

She raised me in England, but she moved to Australia when I was 22 years old.

So, her operation was in Perth, which is in western Australia.

That’s a 20-hour plane trip from where I live in the United States.

But no one else could help her after the operation, only me.

So, of course, I flew to be with her.

La operación tuvo lugar en un hospital muy grande, muy ajetreado.

I had to wait, alone, in the depressing hospital cafeteria for seven hours.

Because I waited for so long, I became very worried.

When the doctor finally came to talk to me, he explained that the tumor was very aggressive.

My mum only had a few months to live.

And I had to tell her this bad news.

She didn’t cry.

I didn’t cry.

We were in shock.

Los médicos le dijeron a Sam y a Susan que regresaran a casa, que ya las contactarían para contarles sobre los cuidados paliativos.

I don’t remember a lot about the days after my mother’s operation.

We stayed in her apartment, watching movies, eating, and drinking.

Then I realized she only had a few months left to live, so we needed to enjoy the little time she had.

I had an idea.

I wanted to take a road trip with my mother.

I wanted us to travel and create memories — and we couldn’t do that while sitting in her apartment.

Welcome, bienvenidos y bienvenidas a “Relatos en inglés”, un podcast de Duolingo.

Soy Diana Gameros.

En cada episodio podrás practicar inglés a tu propio ritmo, escuchando historias reales y fascinantes contadas por las personas que las vivieron.

Los protagonistas hablan en un inglés sencillo y fácil de entender para quienes están aprendiendo el idioma.

En cada capítulo, yo te acompañaré para asegurarme de que entiendas todo.

En este episodio escucharemos dos relatos diferentes sobre viajes por carretera, o road trips.

Nuestra primera protagonista, Sam, es del Reino Unido, por lo que sus Rs tienen un sonido más suave.

Por ejemplo, al decir cáncer, Sam pronuncia: cancer o cumpleaños, Sam lo pronuncia: birthday.

Después de que el médico le diera permiso, Sam y su madre se prepararon para un viaje de nueve días.

Viajar en una casa rodante o campervan es muy popular en Australia, donde las carreteras son muy anchas y están vacías.

I rented a campervan, and I filled it with games and food and beer and wine.

On our first night in the campervan, we drove to a town called Geraldton.

It rained the whole way there, but the next morning was beautiful.

We woke up early and drank hot tea while we watched the sun rise over the ocean.

Sam y su mamá pasaban cada noche en un campamento diferente.

La mayoría tenían agua, electricidad y hasta duchas y pequeñas tiendas donde comprar comida.

While we drove, we talked and sang songs.

Other times, we just sat in silence with our thoughts.

Often, we were the only vehicle on the road, and the vast Australian bush was all around us.

Muy pocas personas viven en the bush, que es como se le conoce al campo en Australia.

Sometimes we felt so sad, Mum asked, “Why are we doing this? I can’t take these memories with me when I die.” But other times — actually, most of the time — we enjoyed all the beauty of the world around us.

We were amazed when we saw the pink lake at Hutt Lagoon.

We shouted into the wind while we stood on the dramatic rocks at Kalbarri.

We laughed when we saw a family of emus, the giant birds, running near the road.

Después de tres días en camino, llegaron a la Bahía del Coral, Coral Bay, un pequeño pueblo de pescadores.

It was paradise.

There was turquoise water filled with coral and fish in every color you can imagine.

And the white sand was so soft that it felt like walking on sugar.

Para Sam era un lugar especial.

Ella ya había estado allí muchos años antes.

I was in Coral Bay 30 years earlier, when I was traveling in Australia by myself.

It was before my mum moved there.

I thought a lot about how quickly time passes.

My mum was thinking a lot about time too.

My heart broke when she told me about all the things she still wanted to do.

She said, “Don’t wait.

Don’t be afraid to take risks.

If you wait until tomorrow to do what you love, it may be too late.”

“No esperes demasiado.

Nunca tengas miedo de tomar riesgos”.

Sam se tomó ese consejo muy en serio.

I know that might sound sad, but really, most of our days in Coral Bay were wonderful.

We stayed for four amazing days.

We imagined we were just on a vacation, like any other regular family.

Then, although it was difficult, we started the long drive home.

En el camino de regreso a Perth vieron canguros y se detuvieron ante un misterioso campo de rocas.

As we got closer to Perth, I just wanted to turn the van around.

I didn’t want to go to the hospital and talk to doctors.

I didn’t want to hear more bad news about my mum’s cancer.

I wanted to go back to our adventure.

But I am a mother too, and I knew my young children needed me.

It broke my heart to say goodbye to my mum.

But it was time for me to go home to the United States.

Decir adiós a su mamá fue muy difícil para Sam.

Pero después de volver a los Estados Unidos, Sam recibió una buena noticia sobre el tratamiento o treatment que ella podía recibir.

After I left Australia, something amazing happened.

One of the doctors noticed something strange about my mum’s cancer.

They discovered that she actually could get treatment.

Now, many months later, she’s still alive.

I really want to see her again, but I can’t at the moment because of the global pandemic.

I can only wait and hope.

But I will always be thankful for the gift of that road trip, and the gift of our time together.

Los viajes en carretera nos dan una oportunidad de acercarnos a los demás, pero también pueden ser una manera de descubrirse a sí mismo.

En el 2016, Greg Cayea se fijó una meta: romper el récord mundial del viaje por carretera más largo dentro de un solo país.

La idea le llegó mientras escuchaba un audiolibro de un orador motivacional.

The book is about creating ambitious goals.

At that time, I didn’t have a lot of those.

I lived in Los Angeles and I worked as a publicist for an interior design agency.

I wanted to have a big goal, so I Googled world records for traveling.

I found one for the longest road trip in one country.

It was only 19,000 miles.

I thought, “Are you joking? I can do better than that!”

En un primer momento, Greg pensó que el récord de 19,000 millas, o 30,000 kilómetros, sería fácil de batir.

Especialmente si su novia, Heather, estaba a su lado para hacerle compañía.

Heather and I were together for maybe four years before then.

When I told her my idea, she said she wanted to come, although it was her first road trip.

We didn’t think about how this trip could change our relationship.

Para poder ser considerados por el comité del Récord Guinness debían documentar su viaje muy detalladamente.

We had to record a 10-minute video every 24 hours, which we decided to do with our phones.

We also needed to use a GPS to show all of the miles we traveled.

We weren’t allowed to stop anywhere for more than 13 days.

And we had to drive in one direction — without going back.

Greg y Heather comenzaron su viaje el 11 de julio del 2016.

La ruta más rápida para cruzar el país normalmente toma cinco o seis días.

Pero para lograr el Récord Guiness debían demorarse mucho, mucho más.

In the first three days, we only drove 200 miles.

That usually takes about three hours, but Heather and I stopped at lakes often.

We loved jumping in! We did that a lot on the trip.

It took us a full two weeks to get to Las Vegas.

En Las Vegas, Greg y Heather manejaron “the Strip” — el famoso camino lleno de hoteles y casinos para apostar, o gamble.

We did what everyone does in Vegas — we went to the Strip.

We gambled in different casinos all night, which probably wasn’t a good idea.

But it was fun! And the next morning, we went to the Grand Canyon.

El Gran Cañón o Grand Canyon, es la garganta del río Colorado… y es considerado una de las siete maravillas del mundo.

Years before the road trip, I hiked the Grand Canyon.

And I almost died… So, with Heather, I only hiked down a short distance.

We were amazed by the enormous size of the canyon.

We took some pictures, and then we started driving again.

Greg y Heather estaban visitando esos lugares tan fascinantes, lugares que mucha gente solo sueña con ver, pero al pasar tanto tiempo juntos, tenían que esforzarse para no discutir.

We were basically in the car together all day, every day.

And usually, it was fine.

But because we spent so much time together, we started arguing about stupid, insignificant things.

Al igual que muchas personas que conducen largas distancias en los Estados Unidos, Greg y Heather estaban durmiendo dentro de su auto.

Most nights, to save money, we slept in the back of the car.

Our car wasn’t tiny…but it wasn’t big! If we wanted to sleep, we had to put the seats down and put all of our bags in the front of the car.

But that was hard to do because Heather brought too much stuff.

So, we fought about that.

And other small things.

Greg comenzó a levantarse muy temprano para meditar, y ver si así no le molestaban tanto esos pequeños detalles.

But after traveling for two months, we were tired of using public bathrooms and sleeping in our car.

Sometimes we were also tired of each other.

Then we got to Yellowstone.

Yellowstone, el primer parque nacional en la historia de los Estados Unidos.

Es famoso por sus géiseres, o geysers, que expulsan al aire chorros gigantes de agua hirviendo.

Los visitantes solo pueden acercarse por medio de una red de pasarelas o walkways.

Heather was standing on one of these walkways, taking a picture of a geyser.

And then suddenly, she dropped the phone.

All the videos of our trip from the past two months were on that phone.

Todos los videos y fotos de su viaje estaban en ese teléfono.

Sin él, ¡no podrían romper el récord mundial!

I didn’t really think about the danger.

I immediately just turned around and stepped off of the walkway.

I picked up the phone.

It was hot and wet.

I was pretty upset because I didn’t know if the phone was going to work.

Greg y Heather corrieron de regreso al auto y pusieron el teléfono dentro de una bolsa de arroz para que se secara.

After a while, we turned the phone back on.

Nothing happened at first.

But after a few seconds, the screen turned on.

The phone worked! Our videos were safe! We both felt so, so happy.

After this experience, we realized that finishing the trip was really important to us.

Después de aquel accidente, Greg y Heather se aseguraron de tener siempre un plan B.

Por ejemplo, siempre, siempre harían una copia de seguridad del teléfono en el disco duro de la computadora.

From Yellowstone, we went south, to the state of Colorado.

And then we traveled east.

We learned a lot about each other during those couple of months.

For example, we recognized the little things that annoyed each other.

And we knew what time of day the other person was in a bad mood.

By the time we got to New York, on November 9, 2016, we actually enjoyed being together.

Les había tomado 122 días y una cantidad incontable de peleas, pero finalmente habían logrado su objetivo: ¡habían roto el Récord Guiness!

Heather and I were really happy that we achieved our goal! And we still have the Guinness World record for the longest road trip in one country.

We drove more than 36,000 miles.

That’s like driving almost one and a half times around the Earth! And I think we both learned a lot about living with another person.

Greg aprendió cómo convivir con alguien tan de cerca en aquellas 36,000 largas millas… aunque al final, él y Heather se separaron.

We didn’t actually stay together.

Three months after the trip, we broke up.

But now I know that the road trip was a transformative experience.

And I learned that the goal isn’t as important as the journey.

“Relatos en inglés” es una producción de Duolingo y Adonde Media.

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Yo soy Diana Gameros.

Thank you for listening!