On The DL

Jesse Archer

by Tami Fertig

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Published: Aug 7, 2007

Thu., Aug. 9, 5:30 p.m., free, Giovanni's Room, 345 S. 12th St., 215-923-2960, www.giovannisroom.com

Jesse Archer worked odd jobs in Portland, Ore., before deciding one day to move to South America. Just like that, the then-25-year-old called up his equally wanderlust-prone ex-boyfriend Zane, and the pair embarked on a lowest-of-the-low-budget adventure across the continent.

In You Can Run: Gay, Glam and Gritty Travels Through South America (Harrington Park Press, $19.95), Archer recounts every ramshackle hostel, smelly bus and curiously funny-looking meat (he samples a different kind every few pages) with an almost unflagging enthusiasm that is both highly contagious and awe-inspiring. The book balances all-too-graphic passages describing daily horrors inherent to jungle life ("shit slips," sudden vomiting, god-forsaken mosquitoes) with those admiring the wonders of nature such as the Amazon River and the adorable sloth, which sleeps its life away in the treetops of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. There's also a bit of sex, drugs, bright pink wigs and, somewhat to his surprise, very little homophobia. "People are generally really warm in South America," says Archer.

Though six years on, he lives in Manhattan and works as a columnist at Out magazine, Archer says he could just as easily get up and go at any moment. "I miss the ability to put your life at risk. It's things like swimming in a lake full of piranha and crocodiles, or navigating the most dangerous road in the world, that make life a thrilling adventure," he says. "Traveling is like being a kid, seeing everything for the first time."

 

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