Yastaah

I saw the magic eclipse of the moon during a 2days camping near some natural hot springs; kind of a river going down from a mountain. We all were scattered around the fire, looking up at the disappearing full moon. Looking at the many shooting stars, I closed my eyes few times, making my wish. There were so many falling stars that I asked myself how many wish I could possibly have in my life. And what kind of wishes had the guys next to me. Definitely some of the wishes I had in my life were absolutely meaningless but some others have been constant in my life. Travelling in South America, all alone, knowing people and culture, has been a dream since I was a teenager. I still remember my self going around Chile, Peru and Argentina. But that was just a dream. Now it is real. And I can only wish myself that I keep on being happy. So I started asking around "are you happy today?". And you? Are you happy today?

I don't speak a lot about my father but I feel now it is a good time to do it. I remember I was a child and we were coming back home from our farm. There was a crossroads and he asked me where we should go, left or right. And I said immediately right, firstly because I wanted to show I knew the road and secondly because I wanted to go playing football with my fiends. But my father told me "that is the direction. You always go to that direction", showing me the opposite direction. He starred on his left for few long seconds, watching nothing probably, and then he turned right. Then he added "because you don't know what it is expecting you if you go in that direction". We didn't speak until home. He left me confused.  Today it is a year I'm travelling. That was me outside the airport in Napoli, believing I was going away for 6 or 7  months. It is my travel-birthday. And what I liked the most about my travel is that I don't know wha...

It's 12.26am of the second of January 2019. And I'm just coming from 24hrs of absolute madness. The 31st of December went down pretty fast as the agency where I'm working at the moment was busy all the time. Worked till 11pm and then started partying with all my housemates. Weird there were grapes on the table. I have spent the night in a hostel outside the town: an electronic party with a swimming pool around. Pretty cool to end a fantastic year :) It has been hard for me to realize it was Christmas and then New Year. It's not the first time I spend these days away from Italy, but it is the very first time I feel all the distance between me and my hometown. On my Fb page, I wrote, in Italian , a post saying Happy new Year to all my Italian friends. Which was quite weird just because it is the very first time I did something like that. The liters of alcohol I managed to drink during the night halped me to remember a picture my closest friends use to have on t...

From Maragua we hiked one more mountain till we reached the touristic site of dinosaur footprints. It takes a couple of hours to visit that before to come back on the main road to Potolo. After that it's just about walking in the nature. We didn't meet anyone for about a couple of hours. That was cool. Till it started hailing hard. It has been a hard half an hour as there was no house or cave where get some repair. We just kept walking. At least the waterproof stuff we carried wasn't useless 😥😥 Manuella was not feeling good, so we started singing Italian songs to keep the spirit up. It actually worked 🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹 The rain and hail last just 30 minutes. We could enjoy the last 2 hours. But in Potolo we basically died on the bench of the main square. Forty kilometres in 2 days 😵😵 Guess what. The last bus to Sucre just left. When we were about to rent a cabana, we saw a little van. Luckily they were going to the capital, so we jumped on the backside and spent ther...

Just five hours by bus from Uyuni, going south, you will find Tupiza, a nice town of about 40,000 people. Most of the people who leave Uyuni go to Potosi or Sucre or La Paz, skipping the south of Bolivia. The pictures below will show you why I didn't skip it. Tupiza is a super quiet and safe town where to enjoy the hot weather, hiking the mountains which is surrounded of. There are too many hill to hike so you just need to choose. The most famous are the Cerro La Cruz and the Cordillera de Chicas, where you can see the Puerta del Diablo too. The Cordillera can be visited also by riding a horse (this is the most common type of tour they offer here). To have some fun, just get the curious taxi they have here: three wheele vehicles very similar to the Italian"ape car" (bee-car) 🐝 Quite, safe, warm (Uyuni is super cold town) and pretty. I've enjoyed Tupiza.

Just 10 hours by bus from Salta, San Pedro de Atacama, north of Chile, hosts the "desert more desertic" of the world. I rented a bike twice to go to Valle de la Luna, Pukara del Quitor and to the Quebrada del diablo. They are located just few km away from San Pedro. Despite there is not a lot to do apart walking or cycling, These places are very suggestive. I've enjoyed so much the nature, watching the sunset or the Inca ruins, or in the distance the Andes with their tops still covered by snow. More than once you will find yourself completely alone. The feeling of peace and quiet will envelope your soul till you are one thing with the surrounding. I also went to the Las Lagunas Escondidas. It takes more than a hour by car. It's possible to have a swim in the lagoon. The water is crystal clear. The contrast between the water and the desert around looks unreal. This place is just magic. It's possible also to go to termas, or the geysers, or climb the Vulcans,...

The first time I have crossed the border from Chile to Argentina was in February. From Valdivia to Bariloche. The Argentinian flag was waving in the wind and I couldn't be happier. It was a dream coming true. The second time it was from Chile Chico to Los Antiguos. No bus allowed so I had to walk for a while in a no man's land and then to hitchhick. From there, I went to El Chalten and El Calafate, two of the best places I've seen in Patagonia. The third time it supposed to be the official start of my Argentinian journey. I crossed the border from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia. I was a bit sad as  I was leaving Chile after 3 great months. Ushuaia welcomed me showing 3 whales. I had my first tango lesson. And it was the longest distance from my hometown. From Ushuaia to Buenos Aires I hitchhiked for 3000km (much more than Manchester - Naples) in 4 days. I even stayed few days in small towns, such us San Nicolas de los Arroyos. In the the capital I stayed more tha...