The Road Less Traveled: Brothers bike from Canada to Mexico to raise AIDS awareness

Surya and Giri Markala are pedaling more than 3,000 miles from Toronto to Mexico City in an effort to raise HIV/AIDS awareness, a project they call AIDS Bike Ride 2008.

The duo has already braved the northern part of the trip in little more than a month and reached Brownsville Tuesday night. They will cross the border into Matamoros this morning to continue south.

But Surya and Giri aren't your likely cross-country cyclists.

Originally from southeast India, the brothers have no professional biking experience and are paying for the trip out-of-pocket.

Strapped to the back of their two outdated touring bikes are the bare necessities: blankets, a tent in a gym bag, duffle bags filled with clothes and a few bottles of water in plastic bags.

Their bundles are beaten and worn from the miles traveled, and the bike handles are peeling.

"Only our determination and concentration keeps us going," Surya said. "We turned ourselves into bike riders. We have no money, but we have bikes. We will keep riding until we reach our destination."

Surya and Giri are riding to Mexico City for the 17th annual International AIDs Conference 2008. Last year's conference was in Toronto, and their journey is a symbolic link between the two cities, they said.

Surya is the director of B'CARE, a nonprofit organization working against HIV/AIDS in India and Canada. He began planning the bicycle ride a year ago when he befriended a "crazy bike rider" who had plenty of stories to share of rides through Europe in search of the best beer.

"I asked him, ‘You do it for beer, why not do it for a cause?'" Surya said.

Surya's friend was supposed to come along but dropped out when his wife learned she was pregnant. Surya and his brother decided to go ahead with the project and traveled from their city Hyderabad in India to Canada. However, they had trouble registering the organization for corporate sponsorship once in the country, which left them at the mercy of their dwindling savings and charitable donations.

Some nights, they ride all until morning, while others they pitch a tent outside city limits or stay at the local homeless shelters. While in Brownsville, they stayed at the Motel 6, but only because they met a friend on the road who offered to pay for their room, Surya said.

"We have met marvelous people in North America," Giri said, as the brothers explained how an elderly woman offered them water in New York.

"We see a persisting stigma to talk about it," Surya said, referring to discussions about AIDS. "We need to keep talking about it. We need to free ourselves from the stigmatization."