Valdecir João Vieira, a member of warmshowers.org, has died in Mexico of natural causes

For this weekend (March 19, 2010), he intended to reach San Francisco. I was awaiting the arrival of Valdo, my guest through warmshowers.org. When I heard nothing from Valdo on Monday, I searched the Internet. Through Google News, I discovered the sad facts.

Valdo, a Brazilian former priest, died of natural causes sometime between February 22-24, 2010, in Baja California del Norte, Mexico. Following a day of pedaling through the desert, he passed away in his tent in an isolated place.

His full name was Valdecir João Vieira, but he was known to everyone as Valdo. During his trip, he passed through Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico ... in total more than 11,500 miles.

His body showed no marks of violence, and his belongings were undisturbed. Valdo passed from this world to the next world while realizing his ambition and dream of traveling the world by bicycle.

Howard Metzenberg
San Francisco, California and Evanston, Illinois
United States