Newsletter 1/09: Panamerican Tour
Thanks to Zoltan Barothi for donating me 50 euros!
Hi Travellers!
This is the first Newsletter 2009 you are receiving as aQuesta é la prima Newsletter del 2009 che ricevi come sintesi dell’ultimo mese di viaggio compiuto. Ma veniamo subito al dunque!
Start 22nd of February 2009
From: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Km ridden so far: 9457 (of which 2000 on dirt)
Countries crossed: Argentina, Chile
Bike problems: fuel consumption, rear tire pinched, all camping gear lost
Money spent so far: 450 euros (350 fuel and bike, 100 food)
Main meals: sandwiches for lunch and rice and soup for dinner (cooking gear)
Nights in Hotel: 1 (offered, Rio Grande)
Nights in tent: 10 (in the wild)
Nights with CS: 0
Nights at local people: 11 (Daniel, Silvana, Zulma, Mirella, Muratori)
Nights at camping site: 5 (70 pesos, Perito Moreno)
Nights at free camp site: 4 (El Calafate)
Alternative vehicle: Ferry (Chile, Stretto di Magellano)
Donations received: 425 Euro (Tommaso Cazzaniga, Marco Titton, Stefano Santella, Sonia Prandini, Luca Massarelli, Lorenzo Cerri, Christian Rota, Damiani Francesco, Filippo Falli, Zoltan Barothi)
This first month of travelling has been for me like a engagement crysis after a 4 years relationship.
I left Buenos Aires with the desire not to and i said “bye” to those friends I would have rather say “see ya tomorrow”.
I have been asking myself many time the reason of such a unexpected demotivation.
I thought i had “gotten used to this” or simply that i wasn’t interested anymore.
The answer got to me in Ushuaia, at Daniel’s house, which hosted me t his very own place.
To find interesting this first part of the Panamerican Tour has been quiet hard, simply because the South America of Argentina is extrmely accessible to me than more other countries I’ve been travelling to so far.
Culture here and language are similar to Italian at the 80% (against the 5% i faced in Russia and Asia).
To learn how to comunicate here, is not an Adventure, it is simply a matter or listening!
Main rutes here are also congested by those many motorcyclist who come here from all over the world, which you always meet at the very same gas stations and border crossings. Local people are now getting used to their quick passage and don’t feel any fashination at all as they try hard not to speak any spanich or pretend too. And while these bikers and theirs bikes disappears in 5 stars hotels, the day after you can meet them struggling at the customs and complaining for the endless line.
I suppose that this Travel, finally, has changed me as well!
I have been experiencing the solitude i love for 4 years now, seeking for it in Siberia, Indochina and the Austrlian deserts. Now I feel like i have matured a human touch stronger than ever. 
I want to dedicate myself primarily to experience a contact with the people who abitate the countries I am travelling in.
If earlier I was looking for a full immertion into the wild, now I feel like experiencing people at its full.
If earler I had always a reason to leave the day after for another destination, now I try to find a good excuse for me not to leave and extend my stay with the people and their natural way of being part of my experience.
I am thankful to Daniel, for being the first one to accept my request and introducing me to another travelling philosphy.
I am not talking about CouchSurfing and about bush camping either. This is for me a new challang to understand more of me with, understand the others and the relationship in between the twos. I am sure this effects my life as anyone else’s.
To pinch a tent in the wild doesn’t feel as adventurous as it has always been in the past 4 years.
I rather get off my bike, knock at someone’s house and ask: “Hi there, I am travelling alone and I’d like to stay here for the night. Would you mind hosting me?”. The bare dea of this just exites me so much.
And this first month, asking for such a thing to local, many friendships, flirts and adventures have happened. And I am glad for being able to see with my bare eyes the reality behind each one of these situations.
This travel is accessible to everybody. This travel is for everybody. I am sure that, if you let your travel change you, you will enjoy the experience even more.
;-P
Un abbraccio.
From Zulma’s house, the girl I met at the gas station, El Bolson, Argentina.
Gionata Nencini
