Bikepacking Through Latin America with Adam Pawlikiewicz Mesa

Wild Ideas Worth Living

REI Co-op

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4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Adam Pawlikiewicz Mesa is an endurance mountain athlete and bikepacker who has explored remote regions across Latin America and the U.S. After graduating college, he turned down a financial consulting career to pursue a transformative journey on two wheels. Now a full-time athlete and visual storyteller, Adam documents his adventures through Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, capturing the landscapes, cultures, and people he encounters. His work blends endurance travel with powerful storytelling that inspires connection and exploration.

Transcript

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0:00.0	For me, it's always been super important to figure out what it is that I'm capable of.
0:06.0	And the first time I ever did a bike trip across the U.S., all of these things were completely,
0:11.0	like I should not have been able to have done them.
0:14.0	You know what I mean?
0:15.0	And yet somehow I figured out a way to do it.
0:17.0	And I love these types of, I guess, challenges because they often really force you
0:22.9	to reevaluate what you really think is possible and what it is that you're capable of doing.
0:29.9	Adam Polikhevich Mesa is an endurance mountain athlete who spent the last several years
0:35.5	bikepacking through Latin America and the United States.
0:39.0	After graduating from college, Adam had a job lined up as a financial consultant in Washington, D.C.
0:44.9	But before he started work, he took a bike trip that shifted his perspective and opened up a new path for him.
0:52.2	Today, Adam is a full-time athlete and visual storyteller. He's documented
0:56.9	his journeys across remote regions in Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, capturing the stories of
1:02.8	local people and their cultures along the way. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth
1:09.7	Living, an REI Co-Ob Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-Op
1:15.6	MasterCard.
1:18.3	Adam Polickevich, Mesa, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
1:22.7	I think you're all the way in Columbia right now, yeah?
1:25.0	Yes, yeah, here in Montevideo in Antiochia, which is kind of like
1:29.3	central Columbia, andies. So I primarily work as a visual storyteller, both photographer and filmmaker,
1:36.9	and I recently moved back here to Columbia in the last, like, month. Where were you living in the
1:41.8	United States? Where did you grow up? So I mostly grew up
	...

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