Trivia for
Diarios de motocicleta (2004) More at IMDbPro »

• When Ernesto and Alberto are at the Chuquicamata copper mine in Chile the foreman shouts that the mine isn't a tourist attraction. These days it is.
  
  
• "Al otro lado del río", by Uruguayan composer Jorge Drexler became the second song in a language other than English to win an Oscar (the first was "Ta paidia toy Peiraia" (Children of Piraeus) by Greek composer Manos Hatzidakis from the film Pote tin Kyriaki (1960) (aka "Never on Sunday"). Jorge Drexler, who wrote and recorded "Al otro lado del río" for the film was asked not to perform it during the Oscar Ceremony, with the producers citing "commercial reasons" (i.e. he's not famous). The song was performed by Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana instead. However, Drexler managed to get back at the Academy and sing his song during the ceremony as he won the Oscar for Best Song and when he went on stage to accept it instead of giving a speech he sang about 30 seconds of the song a capella.
  
  
• Despite being based upon an Argentinean book, about a Cuban-Argentinean legend, with a Mexican and an Argentinean actor in the leading roles and spoken in Spanish, the film represented Brazil in many film festivals worldwide. Only the director, Walter Salles, is Brazilian.
  
  
• The motorcycle used by the real life pair was a British-made Norton International, which had a 500cc single cylinder engine. The director revealed that they found, restored and used such Nortons except for the crash scenes where modern Suzukis were made up to look like Nortons and christened "Nortsukis". The director revealed that whereas the old Nortons were unfailingly reliable, the modern Suzukis were forever breaking down.
  
  
• When Ernesto and Alberto are walking with the bike in Temuco city and reading the newspaper "El Diario Austral" Alberto complains because they misspelled his surname, instead of Granado, they wrote "Granados". The Austral newspaper still exists in Temuco and it is the most important in the Araucanía Region in southern Chile, so, when the movie was being filmed in Temuco, the newspaper wrote a new article about the making of the film and (this time deliberately) misspelled Alberto's surname again, 50 years later.
  
  
• As some scenes could not be filmed in Temuco because of the change of the city over the years, (specifically the fight in the Temuco city council, where the mechanic's wife was involved, and the one in which Alberto and Ernesto runs for their lives after the fight) were filmed in a near city called Lautaro, and coincidentally the real mechanic's wife was living in a house just few meters from the filming. This is one of the facts that appear in "In viaggio con Che Guevara" an Italian documentary that was filmed at the same time, and their staff was traveling with the film production.
  
  
• The real Alberto Granado flew from Cuba to the city of Temuco in Chile to help as a technical consultant for some scenes. Alberto went to the real "Diario Austral" in Temuco, where he was interviewed by Gianni Miná for the Italian documentary "In viaggio con Che Guevara", outside of the building where he and Ernesto were interviewed half a century before.
  
  

Related Links