In April 2017, tired of his work as a salesman and of his Physical Education classes, Jesse Koz devised a dream: to travel all over America with his faithful companion, a golden retriever dog whom he named Shurastey.
With only 10,000 reais in his pockets (regarding 8 million Colombian pesos), Koz began his journey. He adapted his car, a 1978 Volkswagen beetle, with grills and suitcases and arranged a cushion as a bed in the back seat where at night, following days of devouring the kilometers, they would serve him to sleep next to Shurastey.
He left Balneário Camboriú, in Brazil, and traveled 19 countries and 85,000 kilometers. Her journey ended this Monday when trying to avoid an obstacle in Portland, Oregon (USA), she lost control of her vehicle, went out of lane and ended up crashing into a truck that was coming in the opposite direction. Koz and Shurastey died.
a long haul
His desire to live in freedom and without costing him a lot of money, led Koz and Shurastey to make their first stop in Uruguay. With the lively enthusiasm to get to know other landscapes, they continued to Argentina to start a journey back. They passed through Paraguay and reached the beaches of Santa Catarina, in Brazil. Koz planned to stay in his country, but the promise made to his dog kept him going. This is how they went up through Rio de Janeiro, Pará and Mato Grosso do Sul.
With the imaginary line of a map in his head, Koz embarked Shurastey in his car, which he named Dodongo, and they went on to Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Here, and as he recorded it on his social networks, Koz and his dog walked through Cali, bathed in the waters of Río Claro, in Antioquia, and posed together at Piedra del Peñol, in Guatapé. The starry nights of Cabo de la Vela also welcomed Koz and Shurastey in 2019.
With every step of their journey recorded on social media, Koz and Shurastey became famous. On Instagram, they exceeded 400,000 followers and began to sell their own t-shirts, in addition to obtaining commercial for different products related to dogs and veterinarians. However, not everything was rosy; in the scarcity stage, Koz sold stamps and photos for a dollar to continue his tour.
From Colombia, Koz sent Dodongo to Panama and there he resumed his journey that continued through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico. In each of the cities the photographic record remained and fame rose. The pandemic stopped them in the Aztec country and they stayed to live there between March and September 2020, when they were able to return to Brazil, but they left their faithful adventure car in a workshop.
The last trip
It was only last February that Koz and Shurastey resumed their journey with Dodongo. There was always a song that became an anthem and from which the dog’s name came: “Should I stay or should I go”, by the band The Clash.
They left Mexico and arrived in the United States with their sole objective: to complete their journey to Alaska. Last Monday, May 23, when they were traveling on a highway in Portland, in the state of Obregón, United States, an unexpected obstacle made Koz brake hard, which made him lose control of Dodongo, he went into the opposite lane and crashed into a Ford pickup. Koz and Shurastey died at the scene of the accident, while the driver was taken to a hospital where, according to authorities, she is recovering from serious injuries caused by the crash.
They say that friends who die meet in eternity, but this last trip, following traveling 85,000 kilometers, was undertaken together by Koz and Shurastey. Have a good trip!
