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.

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)

Cordoba, Argentina

Cordoba depresses me. I arrived Sunday morning and the city was ghost town until noon. Many people suggested me to come here, because Cordoba is a great city, the 2nd biggest in Argentina, and blah blah blah. Bah! It's not the first time that happen something like this, that the place isn't above the average but everybody seems enthusiast of it... Maybe it's something wrong with me, but I guess it's only matter that once you've tasted Champagne water doesn't appeal you anymore. Many times I think back at the 2 years I lived in Rome. Rome was an incredible city: full of history, culture, tourists, fun... According to what a Frenchman met in Uyuni said "Rome is the most beautiful city in the world". I agree. Sometimes, travelling all around South America, I ask myself if is it worthy to travel for entire days just to visit newborn historical sights or nasty cities, when you can see much more interesting and rewarding historical things in just one afternoon's stroll in Rome. Living there was amazing, even if tough for many reasons. I could say that for some short moments I felt something closer to what is called happiness. Then everything quickly drowned away, but I'm glad to have lived that experience, at least to understand the meaning of the word "richness": to feel rich, to feel the need of nothing else, even with an empty pocket.

Cafayate, Argentina

Well, the point is extremely easy: I had the first "bife de chorizo" in my life and I've fallen in love with it. Just when I was thinking to have done and tried almost everything during this journey, I've found a shack near the bus terminal offering "bife de chorizo" at low prices to make me change my mind... Yeah, I still have many things to learn indeed. But you really cannot understand until you try how perfect, how delicious, how incredible, how sexually exciting, a t-bone can be in Argentina! While you chew it and it melts slowly in your mouth and explods into a tasty kaleidoscope of undescribable flavours! And the chilly glass of local white wine served with it's the perfect complement for such king's lunch. Well, I always thought deeply if it was right or not to kill animals just to eat their meat, and watching all the waste of meat people usually do without thinking a minute about animal's life made me even more doubtful. But now I know that those animals are killed for a good cause! I loved that slice of dead cow in my dish as much as I wouldn't ever have done it if he was alive... I will always remember that bloody wonderful cow. And I must admit it was also a great deal if compared with the quality offered: just a little more than 5$ for a full dish with french fries and one glass of wine, maybe the best deal I had uptill now. Well, in Bolivia I had many cheaper meals but the quality wasn't higher and the last day before leaving Bolivia - you still don't know this - something I ate made me suffer the pains of hell for one night, and the common bathroom of the hostel obviously had no current water for that occasion... But it was obvious he had to happen sooner or later, for sure. I didn't have any other stomach trouble since the first days in Russia and I was pushing myself to the very human limit, eating almost any kind of crazy food on the streets, in just-for-locals shacks, or any shitty place you can imagine. Epic was the lunch I had for 80 cents in La Paz (1 soup, 1 main dish and 1 drink), the 1$ meal I had in a Chinese restaurant in Cuzco, or the 30 cents dish of meat to eat with no forks (aka with the hands only) had in Puno. Ok, after eating in those places at such prices, the only next step available would have been a meal directly into the sewers, I thought.
Anyway, the news of the day is that I'm still alive after having travelled along one of the most scenic routes in Argentina and, maybe, the whole South America. Because of that route I reserved a ticket for the front seat on the upper deck of the bus: was the first time I ever had that place. Everything was fine until that stupid driver hitted with the upper deck of the bus a tree branch, exactly in front of my head... I've seen a tree hitting my head. The glass shattered, some splinters explodes on me but, for my luck, the glass didn't fall out, otherwise I would have been in serious serious troubles. Fuck off bloody fate, is that all you can do??? Ah!

Tourists? Bah!

-Where did you travel before?
-Well, let's say something like around the world... it's almost 7 months I'm on the road.
-What? Alone? You've been really lucky that nothing bad happened to you! You could have been killed, you could have been slaughtered!
-Maybe the vampires out there don't like the taste of my flesh...
-But how... how could it possible you did it???
-If you want, you can.
-Mmmmmh... are you son of a rich?
-Maybe. What about you, are you son of a bitch?

Tilcara, Argentina

As soon as I crossed the border to Argentina and I've seen all those Fiat cars running, one guy with the slogan "Napoli siamo noi" printed on the t-shirt and another one wearing the Juventus jersey, I realized that Italy is not too far from me now, that my journey is not too far to the end. It's two days I'm in Tilcara, a small town in Northwestern Argentina, in the Jujuy region, in the middle of the Quebrada de Humahuaca - a world heritage site famous for the vivid shining colours of its mountains. I came here upon suggestions of an Argentinian couple met in Quito who strongly suggested me to see it, so here I am! I've visited many small interesting Quechua-speaking mountain towns during these days: Purmamarca, Humahuaca, San Salvador de Jujuy and Iruya, an incredible isolated tiny town at 4000 metres high, reached only by a gravel unapproachable road. Was definitely worthy to be seen. The only shame there was a bonehead guy into the ticket office who made me miss the bus because he had no change! Yeah, you understood well! I missed my bus because he didn't sell me the ticket because he had no change for my money! What the hell??? By the way, the geographical area included within the boundaries of Southwestern Bolivia, Northern Chile and Northwestern Argentina is really stunning, I didn't expect so much: higher mountains, geysers, salt flats, unbelievable colours, there's all. Here the landscape is similar to Arizona and Nevada, it looks really close to those US states, except by the fact that there are no tourists at all here! Well, to be honest is not spectacular and deep like the Grand Canyon, the Bryce National Park or the Death Valley, but for sure it's similar as well as amazing. The morphology must have been the same as the colours, the rock formations and the cliff shapes are identical.
Anyway, after some weeks spent on the Andes in 5 different countries, tomorrow I'm gonna leave this mountain range. Now I can say with no doubt that the Andes are higher, wilder and bigger than the Alpes, but the Alpes are definitely much much much more beautiful. Word of Lonelytraveller, Amen.