From vagabond princess to queen of resort

Written by Laura Lazzarino 

Translated by Laura Rojas Palacio

The first time I came to Cartagena, I entered it through the back door. For me, there was no great impact of an airport with palm trees, no mythical fortified city, neither there was a first time picture from a postcard. That time I had to see in Cartagena what tourists never see and what few travelers want to see: the stifling of pavement and stickiness, the sinfonic and citylike noise of the outskirts. I slept in the house of a belgian manufacturer of weapons  who danced lambada in underwear and was running away from Saddam Hussein, intheperipheralsuburbsof the city. Following my memories, I shall be honest and confess that the first steps through Cartagena were such antonyms that the second day of impossible heat and complete isolation, I sat on a sidewalk and started crying. Awhimwithoutkickingbut withmuch frustration that made metakerefuge inthe most backpackers-likehostel aroundGethsemane. From those first tears I turned to relief and love, and I was enchanted with this city and its colorful streets; with the mirages that it invents for tourists and with the real people that play dominoes in the Plaza deTrinidad.

ROAD 40 FROM VILLA UNION TO CHILECITO

Linking Chilecito and Villa Union on Route 40 is one of the pleasures of traveling in La Rioja. As elsewhere in the Northwest, the north-south orientation of ridges and valleys makes west to east travel only possible by winding slopes invented by man. Where geography granted a chance, brave engineers who fought a duel with the law of gravity have drawn  impossible plans. Routes that where not supposed to exist are my favorite! The Argentine Northwest has plenty of this and the Cuesta de Miranda, as the gateway to the North, is a promising appetizer for those challengingRuta 40 from south to north. I thought about all this while the "Blogtrip La Rioja Team" left the Hotel Cañón del Talampaya in Villa Union, where we had spent the night and had breakfast. Before, we had sighted condors in the Quebrada del Condor and done the Talampaya bike tour ...

DAS BACKPACKER MANIFEST – ein Text um (sich) zu befreien

                                  

Translated by Sara Alfonso Domenech and Vanessa Briese

Wir, die diese Webseite aufbauen glauben, das Backpacker zu sein mehr bedeutet als nur unseren Rucksack herumzuschleppen und Routen entlang zu wandern. Es ist mehr als per Anhalter zu reisen oder die Natur zu genießen.

Wir glauben, …

  dass die menschliche Kondition mehr Möglichkeiten zulässt als ein Diplom und Büroarbeit. Unsere aktuelle Gesellschaft hält die Menschen für wenig mehr als spezialisierte Werkzeuge. Effizienz und Produktivität sind die vorherrschenden Werte. Angesichts dieses Werteverfalls nehmen wir uns vor, den Verstand und die Erfahrung als Grundwerte und auch die Reise als bevorzugtes Mittel, um einen Zugang zu diesen zu bekommen, aufzuwerten …

BEST CONDOR VIEWING SPOT IN ARGENTINA: QUEBRADA DEL CONDOR

 

TRANSLATED BY GOOGLE TRANSLATOR

When the invitation arrived for the last blogtrip to La Rioja I could not stop smiling. The sighting of condors in the Quebrada del Cóndor was the first point of the route to be revealed. I was so happy, but what followed was even more interesting. The motto that La RIoja province was keen on promoting was "a return to the origins". I imagined -and then checked- that they were referring to the red walls of Talampaya and its prehistoric fossils. In my heart, however, I was preparing for a reunion with other kind of origins. Origins for me are not just a matter of time, but an attitude that undresses the scabs do not need. Every traveler needs those other sources: freedom, simplicity and serenity. The recent trip to often overlooked La Rioja province put me face to face with all three ...

UPCOMING BLOGTRIP: LA RIOJA #LaRiojaBT

Before My World Tour, in January 2005, I decided to "train" at home. I took a map of Argentina and found a difficult destination. Who knows how many mountains I would need to climb? How many  deserts and plateaus would I have to endure? I was going to travel two years overland across Middle East and Asia so, in search for comparable challenges at home, a friend  I decided to try to reach Laguna Brava, perched up in La Rioja`s Andes. It was the last trip of the  sedentary chapter of my life. Next week, I'll be rediscovering this beautiful province thanks to the blogtrip I was invited to join by the Ministry of Tourism of La Rioja. There is an outstanding itinerary across surreal landscapes and valleys dotted with iddylic mudbrick towns. And I have new eyes to discover them. If you want to follow the event on Twitter, attend the hashtag # LaRiojaBT. Soon, La Rioja on the blog posts.

PRACTICAL TIPS FOR TRAVELING TO CUSCO

If you are looking for tips to travel to Cusco and Machu Pichu by land, knowing all the Sacred Valley of the Incas, practical information, prices or itineraries, this article will be helpful. Recently, the Spanish TRAVEL National Geographic magazine, asked me a note about it and then I realized: Clumsy! Why not share it with the readers of my blog? I know that I have used you to reading about faraway countries, but with this article I hope to do justice to a destination that every traveler should know.

USHUAIA: A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE INTIMATE AND THE INFINITE

Why should a true traveler visit Ushuaia at least once in a lifetime? Following a recent invitation to a Blogtrip by the Argentinean Ministry of Tourism the present article focuses on this question.

How can some cities catch a spell on us when we spot their name on a map?   It may not be very poetic to test the strength of magic but on return to Ushuaia I decided to rush into such labyrinths of travelñ psychology. Why do travelers visit Ushuaia once and again through their lives? Laura and I  had first visited the city in November 2010 with a range of fuzzy dreams. We were grateful to the city, we had arrived with no expectations and, instead, we had ended up embarking to Antarctica.

What makes it worth traveling 3,040 miles to Ushuaia? Does a cold geographical record alone justify such a long trip? I should be sincere. Arriving on this this shy city on the Beagle Channel redefined my emotional cartography. I will  try to elucidate the essence of the magic of the world's southernmost city,  Argentina's other population on the other side of the Andes ...

OFF ROAD IN TIERRA DEL FUEGO: LAKES FAGNANO AND YEHUIN

When you wonder what to see and do in Ushuaia, the possible answers go far beyond sailing in the Beagle Channel and the walks in the Tierra del Fuego National Park. The Island has a heart dispersed among its lakes and forested valleys, we were lucky to explore. Things were not so bad:  we had a Land Rover with a guide, ceeded by the Blogtrip organizers. The land itself calls the four-wheel drive ...

We left very early and took National Route 3 towards north. The mountains of the Andes, which in this area are around 1450 meters high, had dawned snowy and a somewhat mysterious haze continued pinned to their summits. We were still driving on asphalt  and Laura and the other bloggers were comfortable and smiling in the backseat ...

HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED (OR THREE YEARS WITH lAURA)

     Primer Puente: un beso sobre un puente, es decir, un puente sobre un puente. (Abril 2010)

But who's going to keep up with such a life? - Was a question that everyone seemed to enjoy making me. What assurance you can give a lady? -insisted. Because obviously, a girl needs other things .... Going to movies with popcorn, bricks, mortgages? Really? No, of course not. Strain is also traveling, free spirited, bare feet and minds like wild gardens. Some long-time-christened from no: princess hobo, but only found it three years ago. Today, it's three years since  Laura and I are together. We have traveled thousands of miles since that first kiss in the Calchaqués Valley and our fingers scribble-stop-on future cruises planisphere. McCandless was right at the end when in his magic bus realized (late, but realized) that happiness is only real when shared.

                          

                                        Aprendimos a besarnos incluso con  viento patagónico...

After traveling alone for many years, fortunately did not need to shut out the world to realize that there was an empty space next to me. And that the world could be shared as a piece of homemade bread in a square Catamarca, at least one child traveling attentive to the horizon. So today I wanted to share with you, we always bancaron, some photographs of this love rolling, but mostly give my Nena Traveling this poetry-that she still did not see-(avisenle, avisenle having an online gift! !) anniversary as a small gift. Normally the real Juan is hiding certain things to Juan "blogger", but today is not the case. We open all doors. We share what goes through our hearts ...

FRENCH GUIANA: WEDDINGS, TURTLES AND HINDUS...

You may ask yourself where on Earth is French Guiana? It's a good start to say it's actually on Earth... When a country needs an introduction, I like it twice. This French overseas department evolved from a former slave populated colony dedicated to sugarcane and rice to a strategic exclave of the francophonic world. In the northern coast of South Americ, the tiny territory borders Brazil and Suriname. From this last country Laura and I took the ferry (above) that landed us in Saint Laurent du Maroni...

UNIVERSAL HITCH-HIKING TIPS I

Welcome to the second part of this series of two articles on the art of hitchhiking. (You can read part one here) Many times people who have never tried to hitchhike ask: What type of vehicles give you lifst? So here a small illustrated catalog of the possible diversity of vehicles that may  stop for you....

BEFORE PROCEEDING: what follows are tips. To learn more about the philosophy behind nomadic philosophy and lifestyle, I recommend our books