Argentina had long been on the top of my travel list, for no real good reason, except perhaps I loved the mystery of it, Malbec is my favorite wine, and Patagonia always seemed like an unattainable dream.
When my best friend Kelly and I started brainstorming our first trip together and we both named Argentina at the top of our lists ... we decided to make it happen.
Trying to sum up a travel experience in words is like trying to capture a magnificent sunset on camera. While it never seems to do justice to the real situation, it's something you must try to encapsulate.
Our trip to Argentina was the perfect combination of adventure and city, of modern and culture, of solo and social. It is a perfect country. The people are genuine, the landscape breathtaking, the energy indescribable. To me, it was perfect.
We began our trip in Buenos Aires for a few days to take-in the city before continuing onto Ushuaia, the southern-most city in the world, for several days where we walked with penguins and stood at the gateway to the journey to Antartica. From there, El Calafate, El Chalten - hiking the trail toward Fitz Roy, trekking the Perito Moreno Glacier, and camping at the Adventure Domes without wifi or electricity for two nights. Then returning to Buenos Aires, to enjoy the markets, take runs throughout Palermo, master the Subte subway lines, enjoy wine, bread and olive oil on the patio of our air bnb overlooking the city, and stay out until long past dawn.
When we left BA, I cried. When we landed in Denver, I cried again. No part of it was a sadness to be home. I wanted to see my dogs, my friends, my family. But there is something about traveling that awakens the soul.
When you travel, you are open to experiences and find the positive in all you see - you laugh things off. You find yourself sitting with strangers and meeting incredible people who become friends, talking to people very different than you - and yet finding that in many ways they are so much the same. That we are all so much the same.
Each time I travel, I gain fresh perspective, I open myself to the world - without even realizing I'm doing it. I find that I debunk a stereotype I might entertain, I find a new part of myself I didn't know existed, and I come back to reality with increased intention for how I live my life.
Perhaps what I hope to hold from this trip, is to live more like I travel. To adventure and to find the beauty in each day, to be open to and to find positivity in all experiences - to laugh things off.
To find myself sitting with strangers and meeting incredible people who become friends. To push myself to be a better version of myself by being open.
Argentina, you have a piece of my heart. And you have changed me.
Denver, I am home for now, and ready live here in the same manner that I travel.
Ambos tienen un pedazo de mi corazón. You both have a piece of my heart.
