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Chris Ratay works on the engine of his BMW bike
Erin and Chris Ratay have been traveling on their motorcycles for the past four years all over the world. Their tour
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QUIT YOUR JOB, sell your house, buy a motorcycle and travel around the world. It's something many people think about, but Erin and Chris Ratay did just that.
Chris Ratay quit his job in the lipstick business, and Erin Ratay completed her master's degree at Columbia University, sold their Manhattan apartment, and flew with their motorcycles to Morocco, thinking they'd be back in 15 months, tops.
Fifty-one months later they're finally back in the United States, rich with memories, but just about penniless, and they couldn't be happier.
"After we were on the road for six months we realized we were going too fast," Chris Ratay, 36, said. "We realized we were doing two-week trip after two-week trip. We finally learned to slow down."
On motorcycles--BMW F650s--the two went first to Morocco, then to Spain. The trip continued through Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, New Zealand, then all over Latin America. And that's not the complete itinerary.
"The hardest part about it is making the decision to do it," Erin Ratay, 38, said. "Once you've made that decision, it's really not that hard."
The newly married couple made the decision in the late 1990s. Once decided, the couple sold their upper west-side apartment for $265,000, providing them with $100,000 profit.
At first they thought they'd go to Latin America for three months. But as they looked at maps, they realized that wouldn't be enough to satisfy their adventure appetite. And their travel plans wouldn't be satisfied on a bus, car or cruise ship either. They wanted to feel, smell and be able to touch the people of the countries they went to.
That's when the two motorcycle riders knew their bikes had to be their mode of transportation.
"We are motorcycles riders before the trip. We were doing two-week trips every year. For us a motorcycle is a way to meet people," Chris Ratay said.
"You're out in the open. You can stop people, you smell everything. You feel hot or cold. When you're driving through a sewage plant, you smell it. I can't imagine traveling by another means." While away they were missing friends, family, diner food and U.S. newspapers.
They made a quiet return through the New Mexico-Mexico border.
"It was very uneventful," Chris Ratay said.
So uneventful, in fact, that immigration officials didn't even check their passports.
The couple returned home to New York before setting out to Fredericksburg last week to visit family, and figure out what to do next.
They say getting a 9-to-5 job and buying a house with a picket fence is probably not likely, at least for the immediate future.
Some of the plans on tap are writing a book exclusively for bikers who want to travel.
"It'll probably be a lot of different things," says Erin Ratay of their future.
But whatever it is will have to wait. The two have been gone from the United States for more than four years. Before they left they could see the World Trade Center from their New York City apartment.
The 9/11 terrorist attack, "blew our minds," Chris Ratay said.
Imagine being in New Zealand on that day and native New Zealanders are calling you on your cell phone, telling you not to worry or how sorry they are. The Ratays had no idea what they were talking about until midafternoon New Zealand time, when they met a friend who worked at a hotel and had access to CNN.
"We were watching the news, watching the plane ram into the first building, and we were waiting for them to say 'Starring Bruce Willis,'" Chris Ratay said.
"Imagine what it was like for us," he said. "We were clear on the opposite side of the world and this is our hometown."
The Ratays wanted to fly home immediately, but knew they couldn't be of any help.
Within a month there was a family emergency and they did go back to their changed hometown for a brief stay.
"We were very lucky. None of our friends were killed. But in my hometown of Manhassett [Long Island] there were 42 cars in the parking lot [of the commuter train station] of people who didn't come home," Chris Ratay said.
The Ratays continued their travels, the last part of the trip being in Latin America. For Chris Ratay it was the best part of the trip.
South America is a continent I'd like to get back to," he said. "It's the mix of cultures, the people, the geography. There's a little of everything--you have mountains, beaches. You have deserts, and the people are so friendly."
The couple had bike trouble on a country road in the middle of Argentina. After spending the night on the side of the road, a cattle driver, picked them up and took them home. He helped them get the vehicle fixed, put them up for a week, and fed and pampered them.
"They couldn't do enough for us," Erin Ratay said. "We wanted to give them money and they wouldn't hear of it."
They ended up spending a week with the man and his family, going to barbecues and taking in the countryside.
Despite boycotts, riots and one of the most severe peso devaluations yet, the couple found Latin America intriguing and alluring. They even learned Portu-guese while in Brazil.
But there are many countries they miss and yearn to go back to, particularly the food in Malaysia, or the body language in Nepal.
But the memories are theirs, and something tells them this bike trip will not be their last adventure.
To reach JODI BIZAR: 540/374-5000 ext. 5627 jbizar@freelancestar.com
