Ghemme, Italy

As I wrote on my previous posts, time to go back was come. Not because of the robbery suffered (I don’t give a shit to that ‘cause hopefully the insurance will refund me and the economic damage will be little therefore) but because ending the journey in Buenos Aires, in such way, was the only way to end it with a thrill, with meaning. And it’s better to listen to what destiny says when is trying to talk you: few weeks ago I bought an open ticket from Buenos Aires to Milan via San Paolo, then my plan changed and I thought was cool to get it directly in San Paolo, just to visit Iguazu falls and Rio de Janeiro, but anyway the flight I booked was from Buenos Aires. Moreover, I walked all La Boca also the day before the robbery with no troubles at all, I decided to get back there again at the end of my stay in Buenos Aires because of the sun and some nice shots to take. That’s it, this meant time to get back to me.
So I jumped on the first available flight off the “old world” (which still remains my favourite continent indeed) and I landed at Malpensa international airport, 40 km far from the city centre of Milan. That was the second flight took for the whole journey, just to cross the Atlantic ocean. Instead of reaching Milan, I decided to take the way of Ghemme – a small countryside town not far from the Alpes – because I wished to close the line drawn around the world here and, even if I grew up in Milan, because the time spent in Ghemme has been much more valuable (above, a picture I took of the local river; on the contrary, to see me dancing naked on mountains you gotta wait for summer, too cold at this time! ). Few days here will also help me to realize that the dream is over and it’s time to get back to reality… After 8 months of travel I need some money to earn now. I gotta get a job for a while but I will be back, hopefully soon. I realize that all of my life has been beaten out by the rhythm of travels: when I was 18 the first glorious journey ever travelling by car from Milan to North Cape and back; when I finished university hitchhiking from Alaska all the way down to Mexico; now this big loop around the world… What I’m saying is that the issue ain’t if Lonelytraveller will hit the road again or not, but just when and where.

When the wind change his way

When I was hiking in Torres del Paine and the wind suddenly changed his way blowing my sunglasses and cap 100 meters off the cliff, I realized that was in reality just a metaphor of everyday life. Same as yesterday’s robbery. Even just one unexpected gust of wind can bring you away in few seconds all you have the dearest, all you give for granted. You never know when the wind will change his way, but one thing’s for sure, sooner or later it will, for all of us. The only thing we can do is being prepared to accept that moment, being ready to lose everything. Because you cannot fight the wind, the invisible, the fate.

"Ed è proprio quando arrivo lì che già ritornerei,
ed è sempre quando sono qui che io ripartirei,
ed è come quello che non c’è che io rimpiangerei,
quando penso che non è così il mondo che vorrei.
Non si può fare quello che si vuole,
non si può spingere solo l’acceleratore,
guarda un po’, ci si deve accontentare…
qui si puo’ solo perdere.
E alla fine non si perde neanche più."
(Vasco Rossi, Il mondo che vorrei, 2008)

The bitter End: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Statistics say that most of the mountain accidents happen on the way back from the top - not while climbing up - when the attention and the awareness of the climbers is lowered by the succesfull reach of their own goal. Maybe is exactly what's happened to me, just couple of days after declaring that the journey was over. A Canadian girl in Ushuaia told me about Buenos Aires saying "your journey's still not over, man...". She was right. I've just been assaulted and robbed by two guys with a knife in the shitty Naples-style area of La Boca. They stole me the full backpack with camera, 2 lenses, 3 memory cards (with the pics of Valdez peninsula, Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires forever lost), 1 portable hard disk with all the pictures of my journey, my glorious jacket, plus some money... Maybe was fault of mine, maybe just misfortune, but I better think it's just a sign of fate, it means that now that the "mission" is over and the journey done, there is no more reason to keep traveling: it's time to go home. Now. I've been robbed at 5 pm, under a strong sun, in an open-air square fulfilled by hundreds people, in the middle of the road... just think that 4 or 5 cars had to stop their way waiting for those guys to finish their job on me. Of course, nobody did anything, they didn't even watched disappointed or disgusted to all that scene, just ordinary life for them, just routine. Absurd. Exactly like humanity is: pure absurdity.

Let me tell you - at the end of my world journey - that there is no way out for many populations around the world, because it's not just matter of poverty, it's a cultural problem. They will never change until they change their behaviour, their lifestyle, their culture: poverty is just a consequence, just an easy excuse. Look at Germany, for instance, after 2 world wars they were completely down but few years later they're among the richest countries in the world. Nothing else but culture the reason why South America is third world while Europe is first.
By the way, the city of Buenos Aires sucks.

Tourists? Bah! (Part 3)

-Where are you from?
-I'm from England.
-Hey, look here, I'm much more English than you, I'm traveling with an umbrella! A broken one...
-Don't say that in Northern England, otherwise they could think you're gay!
-Why? Because of the umbrella?
-Yes, only fags use it...
-So what do you use when it's raining there?
-Nothing, real men get wet under the rain.
-Oh, yeah, sure. Sounds very smart, even more if considering the English weather...
-Think that yesterday it was raining here and I was completely wet when one guy with an umbrella came to me asking if I needed it... Oh, my God! I was so embarassed! I was thinking, please go away, go away!
-Yeah, you better stay far from umbrellas, they can infect you. But, hey, don't you travel with a backpack? Your luggage looks pretty big...
-It's my mom's fault! She has putted inside lots of useless stuff, lots of things, something I won't ever need... look!
-And what's that item?
-It's the web camera I've just bought to call my mom via Skype.
-How old are you?
-40.
-You rock, man. You rock...

Mar del Plata, Argentina

Few people knows that my grandpa was living in Mar del Plata. Few knows it because I met him only once, for few days, just before he died. I was around 20 years old when he shown up in front of our house, without a notice nor a call or a letter sent previously. He just rang the doorbell and said "That's me, here I am...". Few days later he then flew back to Argentina, and that's all I knew about him.
I've had relaxing times these days and time enough to think about many things as for the direction to give my travel. I realize I could keep traveling for many many more months, maybe years, but it would be just pointless at this time. I feel that here - Mar del Plata - is the most logic and meaningful place to say my journey's getting over. Few more stops, but I officially started the way back home.

Puerto Madryn, Patagonia

I'm on the way back from Tierra del Fuego and I had a stopover in Puerto Madryn, a port town settled 145 years ago by Welsh emigrants. Nowadays the town is growing very quickly as it's experiencing an economic boom which is bringing 7 new citizens per day, moving here from the main Argentinian cities to work and to find their own fortune. For me, the main reason of the visit is related to the world famous natural reserve of the Valdez peninsula, which Puerto Madryn is the only gateway. Peninsula de Valdez is a real wildlife sanctuary, with whales, sea lions, sea elephants, penguins, foxes and the majestic killer whales. I remember I saw a couple of documentaries films on it by National Geographic. Unfortunately, this time of the year just few animals populate the peninsula and, unfortunately, no discounts on the crazy prices to get there even if animals are few. Yeah, Argentina is definitely an expensive country, all the prices increased dramatically since the last year and a half... lucky me. To overcome this bad situation for my budget, the food I'm eating daily since I'm in Argentina has become more genuine, energetic and cheap, in other words extremely "basic": bread and "dulce de leche" mainly (dulce de leche is the popular Argentinian spreadable cream made by milk and tasting like caramel).
Anyway, I'm gonna leave Patagonia tonite. In all honesty, I was expecting Patagonia a little different, more wild, more scenic than what is it. The road I crossed through all Patagonia reveals its monotonous landscape: an endless desertic flat of steppe with no trees, mountains, or anything else. All the fields along the road are fenced which means they're private properties to breed the cattle, not as wild as expected. Tierra del Fuego is well different instead. Charles Darwin, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Luis Sepulveda, Bruce Chatwin: all people who travelled here contributing to increase the myth of Patagonia itself. By the way, Patagonia still remains for me one of the main South America's highlights, together with the area included between South-West Bolivia, Atacama desert in Chile and Northern Argentina.
Bye bye penguins.

Tears in the rain

Graham Greene wrote that "once your passport is stamped, life won't ever be the same", exactly what a Frenchman in Uyuni said to me: "After a travel like the one you're into, you'll be happy to be at home and to see your friends but just for the first days. Then your thoughts will be quickly focused far away from home."
I start thinking they're both right.
Two days ago, in Ushuaia, I was walking up to a glacier into a misty fog and light rain. The silence was that kind of silence so loud to blow your mind, my steps the only listenable noise within kilometres. At the horizon, only foggy shades of trees painted grey. It reminded me Alaska, once more. I felt so happy and glad to be there that I wanted to cry. But then I realized that sooner or later the dream has to come to an end and will be time to go back. So I've thought of Milan and all the other big cities - modern watchtowers on human ignorance - and the people there, happy just to survive instead of living a real life. I've thought to those with no time to talk, to listen or even to smile, while ending to waste hours stucked in traffic jams. I've thought to all the contradictions and the hipocrisy of that society: the need of becoming richer and richer to buy brand new cars just to show the others as a proof of status (but revealing in reality only poor self confidence), the need of fashionable clothes to cover up the emptiness of the person inside, the need of a fast-growing career to feed a fast-growing ego and so on. It took 2000 years to build such a society. All those thoughts depressed me greatly. So, the only reasonable thing to do at that point was to celebrate the last few hours at the "world's end" with a bottle of red Argentinian wine and one black beer, in company of 3 Dutch girls and 1 Danish from the hostel, just before boarding on a 30 hours' bus to Puerto Madryn. I love Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego.

Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego

Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, "the end of the world" as the commercial slogan defines it - a pretty colorful town setted in a bay between mountains and the oceans. It looks much closer to a Norwegian or an Alaskan city than a South America's one. I remember I was freezing under an icy rain in front of the Niagara falls, sheltering myself into an empty deserted house, when I first started thinking to reach South America overland. It seemed to me a crazy idea, almost impossible to realize, something ambitious and dangerous at the same time. Well, I had a very long long way from Usa down to here. Now it's easy to talk about it but the effort I had to put into this thing has been extreme: (many times I was close to quit, totally disappointed by how things were turning, down or simply tired. Travelling alone all across those countries with almost no knowledge of the Spanish language) has been phisically and mentally challenging. I love to say it now I succesfully did it, it's a personal victory for me. Looking back to those crazy days when I was living into the bus stations of North America, from the frozen Montreal in Quebec down to Tierra del Fuego, from New York City to Patagonia, across all the continent, through Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costarica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru', Bolivia, Chile, Argentina... I still can't believe it. Now that the whole thing is over I look back to my steps and I feel extremely proud, with such a huge stock of incredible memories, images, people, flavours, adventures, stories to tell and to share for the rest of my life.
I feel now that the circle opened five years ago in Alaska - hitchiking from the Arctic Circle down to Mexico - has come to the end, maybe the most obvious but even the best one. All the signs are bringing me to that feeling: Ushuaia looks like an Alaskan city; when I was in Alaska was the end of summer/beginning of autumn exactly like it's now here; then it was snowy, rainy and cold, same as the weather which welcomed me while entering Ushuaia. Alaska is still well present in my mind and thoughts, the unforgettable adventures I lived there cannot be described briefly as they changed my mind and life, but that's a different story. The road finishes here, no way to go South any further from Ushuaia. Anyway, it's still not the right time to go back the so called home. My journey goes on, stay tuned.

Lead singer with audience

This picture is dedicated to all those who sing out of the choir, who live out of the patterns, who think independently and against the tide. It's dedicated to all those who pursue the truth, to those who search for the real freedom, the knowledge in his deeper meaning. Is dedicated to all those who follow their dreams with no compromises, who fight for them till the end and don't care care about the labels the other people put them on.
Is dedicated to all those "crazy" personalities able to change the world. To those people proud to die for something instead of living for nothing.

End of the road?

Tourists? Bah! (Part 2)

A group of aged Italian tourists in the middle of a tragic organized tour of Patagonia meet Lonelytraveller:

- ...and where are YOU travelling?
- No, please, don't use the plural, I'm alone. It's 7 months I'm travelling, quite a long story.
- And what about your mom??? She must be really worried for you! 7 months far from home! Isn't she???
- I don't think so.
- How is it possible she's not worried?!?!?!
- She's dead.
- Ah! That's ok! That's the reason why she's not worried! Otherwise she would have been really really worried!
- Excuse me, Madame, can I ask you a favour?
- Sure!
- Could you tell the hamster you have in your head instead of a regular brain to stop makin' noise out of your mouth?
- What... what... you mean... hey, you're just a boor arrogant guy!
- Thanks. And you're just an old ugly slut. Don't forget to feed your hamster with a bullet, please.

Puerto Natales, Chile

Imagine one mountain - a beautiful mountain - settled in the middle of a beautiful area full of lagoons, glaciers and wildlife. Then imagine to start building roads to connect all the points of this beautiful area, allowing buses, cars and everything else to land to it. Then imagine to make this area National Park, to start charging 30$ just to get into it, and imagine to see tourists flowing there as a river. Imagine that the tourists arrived are only "hikers" (average age 19 to 23) or those of the organized tours (average age 78 to 88). Imagine all these hikers queueing at the entrance of the park, all together squeezed to follow the same trail like diligent students, and imagine they do this in the middle of Patagonia, a region bigger than a European country and one of the less populated areas in the world. Imagine to promote the image of this park with very efficient territorial marketing tools, with the result that it's easier to hear speaking Hebrew more than Spanish; then imagine also, in the nearby town, to start writing signs, building hostels and tour agencies just because of the huge number of tourists from Israel. Imagine that Lonelytraveller didn't plan to go there but then he decided for a one day detour there, but imagine that he found such a shitty rainy day, with an unbelievable cold wind hard to describe and difficult to understand. Imagine that for all the reasons above (plus the fact that one gust of wind blown him away his precious sunglasses and cap...) he ran away that place angry like an ape.
Well, the mountain you have imagined is Torres del Paine, and I'm glad it's in the Chilean side of Patagonia. So, all these "tourists" will continue to come here ignoring the beauty of Italian mountains, and I will continue to enjoy the majesty of those peaks higher than 4000m in total wilderness and solitude.
The best deal for me, isn't it?

El Chalten, Patagonia

Bariloche, Argentina

Take Italians, mix them with Spanish and a little bit of Germans and Swiss; pour some easy going American lifestyle and put everything in a country similar in many ways to Northern Europe. That's Argentina! It's a very nice country. Because of its history, Bariloche has a true European taste, the South America I lived on the Andes seems so far million miles away. The indios didn't settle here as well, which means that their colorful clothes, lifestyle and Quechua speaking cannot be heard anymore. Bariloche is a very touristic city, as for skiing over the surrounding mountains as a gateway to Patagonia. Well, I've spent 2 days here in Bariloche, in the lake district, and it's such a relaxing place! Nature is gorgeous here. The first day I had a nice 30km mountain bike excursion along the so-called "Circuito Chico" before climbing up to the summit of a small mountain just to watch the sunset from there, while yesterday I had a very interesting day off, just drinking beer all day long from 10 am to 2 am... Well, when company is good is such a pleasure wasting time in a such way, in front of loads of genuine refreshing beers from Patagonia! Yeah!

"Now I know, accepting it almost fatalism, that my fate is to travel (...) Perhaps one day, tired of traveling around the world, I come back to live in this land of Argentina, and then, if not as a permanent dwelling, at least as a place of passage to another world view, I will visit it again and plan to live in the lakes area of the Cordillera."
(Ernesto Che Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries, 1996)