Six Months in South America

Part 1: How it started

At last, I’m writing about the trip that began with meeting an internet stranger in Argentina and ended with a 10-year reunion in Costa Rica. 

The purpose of this series is to give highlights of the journey and share resources if you’re itching to try this type of travel yourself. 

Note: The name of this series should be Six and a Half Months in South and Central America, but that took too long to type.

After teaching abroad for three years, I left Brazil in the chaos of May 2020, right before the borders closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

I waited in the US, unsure when I would return to South America. It had been my dream to travel to the Patagonia region of Chile and Argentina, a trip I’d planned since 2015. 

Fast forward to July 2022, and my lease in Colorado was up, with no way to renew it.

Rather than stay in Denver, I solo traveled around the Balkans for three months while working remotely.

I wanted to test out this lifestyle, to see if it was something I could do longer-term. I ended up loving the experience and wanted to try again. 

In January 2023, I met Kim, a Swedish remote worker, in a Facebook group for female “digital nomads,” and she helped convince me to book a one-way ticket to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In many ways, this trip transformed my life. 

Before we get into it, some quick links:

• Where I found my remote job: WeWorkRemotely.com 

• Other remote job boards: remoteok.com; remotive.com

• Contact info for Shandira, my Indigenous guide in Peru: Mother Earth Treks

Week 1: Arrival in Argentina

The journey began in Buenos Aires. 

Week one was a blur. Places and names stick out like snapshots: Palacio Barolo, Juana Azurduy, Madres de Plaza de Mayo, dulce de leche, mate, MALBA.

I tried my first mate, and was graciously taught how to pour and sip it correctly by the beautiful and brilliant Lucia, the Argentinean friend of my Swiss friend Ozgee.

Our first mate, made by soaking dried yerba mate leaves in hot water

Kim and I went to a parilla with Lucia and tried Argentina’s famous steak, with grilled veggies and red wine from the Mendoza region. Later, we topped it off with rich dulce de leche, which neither of us could finish, although we desperately tried. 

We stayed in Buenos Aires barely a week, and then we were flying down to El Calafate in Argentinean Patagonia, where we spent the night before grabbing a bus to cross the border into Puerto Natales, Chile. 

Seeing Patagonia for the first time, I wrote this in my journal:

When we flew over Patagonia, and I looked out over that alien blue river snaking through the brown-barren Martian landscape, I remembered why I traveled.

For these moments that make you gasp and press your face against the window. Moments when you lock eyes on something you’ve never seen before, so different from what you’ve known. A dream realized. This soaring feeling, novel, but comforting. Realizing you made it, and you can breathe again. You can marvel again.

You’ve been lost and unsure and feeling stuck for so long. And something within your chest has been released.

You are high above these ancient mountains and glaciers where evolutionary theory was first talked about and the rock-flour has turned the lakes and rivers the most unreal blue. It’s so blue, your friend asks if it’s artificial. You look it up, just in case.

Places like this don’t seem to truly exist. But you are experiencing them, seeing them with your own eyes. You finally feel at peace, like you have a piece of the answer to the question you asked on the first day of this trip.

Why do we travel? For this. 

First glimpse of Patagonia

Thank you, as always, for reading, I’ll share part two next week!