Again and again and again and again, do it again

Before starting to write about my travel, an introduction is necessary.

Who am I?

Aurélien, French, 29 year old, consultant for 3 years, skier for 26 years, traveler for 14 years

Adventurous and happy always!

How I landed in Buenos Aires on 28 May 2009? (Yes, by plane ... but other than that) 

Let’s go back a few years: after graduating university I worked as a marketing consultant for two years. Two years to perform a very interesting work but also two years to realize it was time for me to take my backpack again and start a new adventure.

Life is too short! As soon as the urge to leave got into my blood, I got organized: I quit my job, quit my apartment, got rid of all the paper work I had accumulated during months, explained to my mom she should not be desperate of having a son who thinks more about travelling than about working, etc..

As I said, one of my passions is skiing, so before leaving France, I treated myself with two months in the Alps, skiing every single day (yes I know, some of you are probably already annoyed reading that kind of stuff...). 9 square meters to live at the foot of the slopes, great snow, an encounter that changes everything (thank you Philippe for everything you taught me in the mountains) and it was paradise.

After that I returned to Paris to complete the final preparations: some more paper work (yes, it's long and painful to do), I begged my phone provider to stop stealing money from me every month (I can now assure you, it does not work), I gave my most beautiful smile to the lady who said it would take a week to get my international driving license, telling her that I’m not the type of guy who thinks about that kind of details and that if she were nice enough to do it for the next day it would be great because my plane is leaving in two days. 

I thought that going to Argentina during the winter (southern hemisphere), I might as well take all my ski gears to enjoy their beautiful mountains.

I can imagine the number of questions that you have at this point: But how he is gonna travel with all his ski gears if he planned to be backpacking? But why does he go to Argentina in the middle of winter when he could go to any country where it is hot?

Do not worry, I will answer all these questions.

About the ski gears: I told the nice staff of Air Europa that I was going to travel with a pair of skis. No problem? Cool!

Two days before departure, I realized that I needed a special authorization to take on the plane one of my safety devices for backcountry skiing (ABS backpack) and that I should have had asked for it two weeks before. Having no choice, I used the same technique than for the driving license: a nice smile and prayers. Even if the French administration is slow by definition, it can speed up a bit (if the Holy Spirit is on your side) but as the security of airports is not known as highly flexible, I prayed twice.

No one in the Air Europa team seemed to understand what my security device was, so four hours before getting on the plane I still didn’t know if it was possible. At the airport, I went to the check in. The whole team knew my name and was waiting for me (I'm starting to get used to arrive like this at the airport ...). Fortunately, it was a day without bad luck (well, almost, since they still managed to lose my luggage) and the head of security miraculously knew my ABS backpack and therefore allowed me to take it on board.

Now it comes to the question of why I decided to go to Argentina?

Fans of magical tales which imagined that I had left France to meet with a pretty South American girl will be delighted: I actually came to Argentina to be with my girlfriend!

Without being THE reason for me to have left everything and go travelling, she is the reason for me to have chosen Argentina as a first stop.

Who is she?

Caris, Argentina, 29 year old, stylist for 5 years, a fan of kung fu for 20 years, traveler for 15 years

Adventurous and happy always!

Second flashback: Following a trip to Paris in 2008 with one of her friends, Carina and I have successfully managed our distance relationship with a small trip in Argentina for my part during the year and a long stay in Paris for her.

So the answer to the question of what I will do with my ski gears after the season is: I’ll leave them in Buenos Aires at one of her friend’s.

Being freelance, she can easily leave Buenos Aires, which is all good.

The idea was to come to Argentina while Caris finished her work, then take a flight to Mexico and go down Central America and then South America, mainly using the bus as a means of transport.

Very similar to the trip that I had already performed solo in 2005-2006, this one would have allowed me to visit the various places I had not had time to see the first time.

The influenza does not particularly leads to Mexico at this time, so the plans have changed...

Description of the new trip to come! In the meantime, I’m going to show you a bit of Buenos Aires (next post).