The fifth installment of our Quito season is out now, and as you can see our cast has been busy.  There’s no small amount of adventure in Jet Set Zero, and getting to share it with an audience is what keeps me going.  But it’s not without its frustrations, either, because I know that I’ll never be able to share everything that happens.

No, I’m not talking about that time that Ryan had to outrun the cops who spotted him peeing in Quito’s main plaza in broad daylight (although that’s not in the episodes either.  Sorry).  I’m talking about the realities of story and editing which make it so that certain adventures will never make the cut.  Take this episode, for example.  We see the gang’s hike around the lagunas, but what we don’t see is the night that followed, when Freddie and Ryan met up with a bunch of Otavalo locals and hiked through the woods to a solstice celebration at a waterfall.  I know!  It’s even cooler than it sounds.  So why don’t we show it?

Well, a couple reasons.  First, the woods are dark and there’s no room on the rig for a light.  I know you’re like, “DUDE, just get a light!” but it’s not that simple.  In case you didn’t hear, our first camera was stolen in Ecuador, so I wasn’t looking to attract any more attention to our new one than was necessary, and a light isn’t exactly subtle (as anyone who ever played Silent Hill knows).  We also figured that the scene just didn’t serve the story.

I bought her drinks all night and THEN she told me she had a boyfriend.

And life on the road, more than anywhere else, is about storytelling.  This existence lends itself easily to a narrative format by giving our lives those concrete beginnings and endings that our rational mind craves.   The great tragedy of office life is that it makes us slaves to time without providing a narrative that we can comprehend.  When I worked behind a desk, my life lacked any meaningful beginnings or endings, any significant temporal milestones by which I could mark my growth beyond ’15 years with the company!’.  Travel is travel because it has an ending against which we’re able to see the story of our lives unfold.  With an ending in sight, we realize how each moment leads to another, how one expectation shatters the one before, and how seemingly insignificant events have the potential to become the center of our lives.  When we travel, we are all storytellers.

Of course, our lives tell a story no matter what we do.  So while I’m frustrated that I can’t share some of my favorite moments from this adventure with the rest of the world, I know that even the ones that make the cut are no more or less consequential than the moment you’re experiencing right now.  If our measure of an event’s meaning is its inclusion in a documentary series, then most of human history is pointless, but if we believe in the value of a life lived for its own sake then these exploits are worth it whether or not they’re seen by anyone.

So why do we film our lives at all?  Jet Set Zero’s highest aim is to inspire people to take the kind of chances that we’re taking, and it’s easier to do that when we’ve got something to show you.   Hopefully we’ll show you a lot, but if we can’t, then we hope to show you something cool.  And above all else, we hope that you’re making the most of your moments, whether you’re watching or not.

From Thailand,
Evan

P.S. But please watch.

P.P.S. Sure, we could put those scenes up as a stand-alone short, and maybe we will soon…or maybe one day they’ll be extras on a Jet Set Zero DVD…

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UPDATE (9/23)

Speaking of elements that get left out, here’s something that I completely forgot to mention but is vitally important.  You see the scene in this episode where Ryan is eating pizza and he says it’s “sooo good”?  That’s actually the WORST pizza in the world, bar none, and I have no idea what he’s talking about.  You can practically see it on screen.  If you ever find yourself in the Mariscal district of Quito and spot that pizza place and think, “I’m hungry,” do yourself a favor and go just 15 feet down to the Magic Bean ice cream shop on the corner.  Their ice cream is cheap, delicious, and makes you feel good, whereas that pizza tastes like it’s made out of library books and used waxing strips, and makes you feel glad that mankind will one day die out.  That is all.