Glen Heggstad is a "neighbor" of ours, a fellow resident of Southern California's Coachella Valley, where the Colorado Desert landscape reaches 118 degrees and more from Memorial Day weekend through mid-October. The weather between November and late April is some of the best in the world, and the Valley, home to Palm Springs and other well-known resorts, draws nearly 5 million visitors from around the world every year, many of them among the planet's wealthiest. (This photo is from a National Geographic special on Heggstad's capture, captivity and release, and in it, Heggstad is held prisoner).
Known locally as the Striking Viking, a name Heggstad coined to describe his appearance, his motorcycle trips around the world were fairly uneventful until he came to Colombia in 2001.
When the producers of CNN's Larry King Live show were planning their first program since three American hostages were returned to a military base in Texas following a complicated rescue operation called "impeccable" by one of those released, they tried, through e-mail, to contact Heggstad, and they found him in Mazatlan, Mexico. It was early on July 3rd, and after finding Heggstad near the US after getting his e-mail reply, CNN flew him to Phoenix to be a part of that first post-release show, guest-hosted by CNN White House correspondent John King. (In the middle of that group of camels you'll find Heggstad and his trusty BMW motorcycle).
Even in a Valley where General George Patton lived while training his over-100,000-strong WW II tank 
corps in the nearby desert, which has certainly had more than its share of interesting history and characters, with residents and visitors ranging from Walt Disney, Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, US Presidents Dwight David Eisenhower and Gerald Ford, Sidney Sheldon and Barry Manilow, all the Marx Brothers and their families, US Ambassadors Mr. and Mrs. Walter Annenberg, every great in women's and men's professional golf and tennis, Merv Griffin and President John F. Kennedy, who was greeted at Palm Springs Airport in 1961 by, among others, the town's first mayor, Frank Bogert, who, now in his 90s, still rides horseback every day, Glen Heggstad is a stand-out.
Heggstad was kidnapped and held captive for five weeks in Colombia shortly after the devastating and coordinated attacks on the US on 9-11-01. On the King show, during his segment, Heggstad first took a moment to congratulate Colombia's President Carlos Uribe and the forces which effected the release of 15 long-term hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate and Colombian/French national Ingrid Betancourt, and three Americans, Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes. The Americans' small plane, reportedly being used for observation of coca fields, had crashed or may have been shot down by FARC forces over five years ago. Another American on the plane was shot dead by rebels after they found the crash site. All were "civilian contractors" for the US government, and according to the Los Angeles Times, they were directly employed by Northrop Grumman Corporation. (FARC stands for Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).
When King asked Heggstad, "Did the kidnappers beat you, do anything physical, try to somehow intimidate you?" Heggstad answered, "All of the above." (Heggstad and Bimmer reached the Kremlin).
He told a chilling story of being stopped on a jungle road by rebel forces of the ELN, not FARC. Heggstad described being forces to stand in a circle twice a day for an hour at a time, while anti-American radio broadcasts were being played, and Heggstad was forced to "confess" to certain crimes while his young, armed captors surrounded him. He said he was chained to a tree every night to prevent him from escaping and said that never, in the course of his five-weeks of captivity, was he kept in the same place more than two nights in a row.
Heggstad said that he used his "martial arts skills" to turn his captors' powers back against them; that 
once he figured out that the captors wanted him to live and were afraid he might die while being held, he told them that he was suffering from prostate cancer and had only a short time live, explaining the fatal illness was why he was on such a long motorcycle trip on his own. He told King that under cover of darkness, he would stick a key into his nose to create a blood flow, and he'd spatter the blood on his lower body for the captors to find in the morning so as to believe his story. (From the Nat Geo production, Heggstad is torn off his BMW by Colombian ELN rebels in 2001).
Heggstad went on to tell CNN's worldwide audience that his captors had students in Bogotá universities sympathetic to their causes, and that the ELN could have these students check the Internet to see if someone they were holding might be some kind of celebrity or worthy of a large ransom. Heggstad said the FBI contacted his friends and family and told them to remove Heggstad's website from the Internet, and to keep the entire incident as far from any media coverage as possible. He was released, suddenly, after five weeks, and says he still has not been allowed to see the FBI files on his capture and release, which has struck some observers as odd, leading some to believe that Heggstad may be more story-teller than formerly-captive American. (From Nat Geo's production, Heggstad says Colombian rebels had him dig his own grave, then stand next to it while ELN rebels held guns at his back).
A National Geographic one-hour special on Heggstad's ordeal, Locked Up Abroad, originally shown in 2007, will repeat again this Monday, July 7th. Their website has numerous articles about and by Heggstad and hundreds of comments from Nat Geo viewers on their blog. Click anywhere on this line to visit that site.
FARC, ELN and other, similar groups were first organized and grew as a response, in part, to the US' ongoing domination of Central and South American politics and business, a phenomenon which began in earnest in the 1930s. American groups such as the CIA were involved in propping-up and bringing-down governments, much of it done for the protection of the United Fruit Company and its huge agricultural holdings throughout the continent and other large corporations which owned massive plantations of not only fruit but also rubber plantations as well as vast tracts of land used for mining various metals, gems and other products. American corporations and America's "free trade policies" are still under political and occasional violent attack in the region as the indigenous peoples of Central and South America work to protect their land and politics. (ELN stands for Ejército de Liberación Nacional, or National Liberation Army).
We've met Heggstad a few times, living for the past decade in the same Coachella Valley which he calls
home. Here's how one website describes Heggstad's written account of his ordeal, entitled, "Two Wheels Through Terror: Diary of a South American Motorcycle Odyssey". (Heggstad in better times, in Kanazawa, Japan).
"Only weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, Glen Heggstad set out from his sunny California home vowing not to return until he had accomplished his life-long goal of riding a motorcycle around South America.
Upon crossing into Mexico, he wondered if he was riding away from the fire, or directly into it. Not long after, when he was stopped at a roadblock in the remote jungle of Colombia, he found his chilling answer.
The Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), Colombia's deadliest rebel army, funds its terrorist activities by taking captives for ransom. When the six-foot-four hulking American on a loaded and customized motorcycle rolled up to the terrorists' roadblock, they thought they had struck gold. Dozens of dirt-covered, sweat-soaked, desperate men with AK-47s frantically grabbed Glen off his motorcycle, and with their new American prisoner, disappeared into the jungle. (With fellow bikers in Turkey; motorcyclists share a common bond everywhere in the world --- Buttocks which went to sleep a long time ago!).
The weeks of physical and psychological torture Glen is forced to endure push this powerful man to his absolute breaking point. It is the desperate decision he makes one wet night while curled up on a muddy hut floor, panicked for food, and questioning his own sanity, that finally wins him his freedom. Without a second thought, but with more determination than ever, Glen remounts another motorcycle and continues his incredible journey.
Heggstad battles kidnapping, mechanical failures, violent protests, and some of the planet's most inhospitable climates, in this American odyssey. Two Wheels Through Terror is the terrifying gripping true story of Glen's motorcycle journey to the brink of death, to the edge of sanity, and to the southern tip of the world." (End of book review). (Heggstad with friend in Syria).
Glen Heggstad is a product of Southern California's Coachella Valley, a hard-scrabble world adventurer
aboard his BMW motorcycle, an expert practitioner and instructor in the style of Jiu Jitsu popularized by Brazil's Gracie family, known popularly today as the source of the "cage fighting" style which has recently gained prominence through CBS television specials and pay-per-view events. His website has all manner of stories and photos of and by Heggstad and is worth a visit for anyone who has ever thrown a leg over a bike, or wished they had, and wondered: Where to next? Click anywhere on this line to go there.
He's a tall, fit man with a shock of blond hair and an amiable air about him, whose website tells stories which no doubt surprises though who have met him in person and never would have guessed, through casual conversation, the travails he tells of his travels. Whether we've seen Heggstad at Palm Desert's Firehouse Restaurant or Palm Springs' Kickstand Restaurant, both hang-outs for bikers of all kinds who pass through the area, he commands an audience, is a great story-teller and generally leaves a few listeners shaking their heads, some in wonder, others in disbelief. (Heggstad easily made friends with fellow motorcyclists all over the world, this time in Eastern Europe).
Some of the world's wealthiest people luxuriate in the Coachella Valley, in places like Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indian Wells and Rancho Mirage, while only a few yards from these guard-gated enclaves the desert is one of the harshest on the planet. Above and beyond the Hollywood-types one expects to see at these retreats, Arab sheiks, Euro royals, Asian industrial magnates and others with the price of admission fly themselves, and their horses, into the area for the polo season.
Huge music festivals including the highly-regarded Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the newer Stagecoach Festival, focusing on country music, are held on the same polo fields in Indio where, "in season," the wealthy play chukkas. These include the Empire Polo Club, with others nearby used as overflow areas and "backstages" during these newer concert promotions, where artists and special guests can get away from the crowds, hopping from one luxury motorhome to another, in a fashion reminiscent of the team motorhome areas at NASCAR races.
(Heggstad's durable BMW made taking-on paved roads, dirt and sand possible; they used to be called "enduros" now they're known as "dual purpose" machines, shown put to good use in Egypt).
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