Nomad Online – Lara in Patagonia
A Nomad Online – Hello! This is Lara adding to our digital nomad blog. After spending time in Buenos Aires earlier in the year I decided to travel to Patagonia for a few days just get away from it all; I wanted a bit of ‘me time’ to mull over various things and hopefully find a bit of peace – both literally and metaphorically.
A close friend of mine had recommended Patagonia and, to be honest, her recommendation was all I needed to know I wanted to go; I packed my bags and set sail, as it were. This time it was a solo trip, without my nomad family.
Patagonia isn’t a place I knew an awful lot about so arrived with an open mind, all I really knew was that it was in the South of South America and was an area shared by Argentina and Chile. Fun fact: In the Argentine region of Patagonia they speak Welsh… Welsh of all possible languages in the entire world. Crazy! They speak a dialect of welsh called Patagonian Welsh. If you don’t believe me check out the wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonian_Welsh)
The region consists of a series of steppe like plains, vast and beautiful. The two key areas for trekking are around Los Glaciares national park, in Argentina, and Torres del Paine national park, in Chile. Argentinian Patagonia is mainly empty spaces and ranching country, while Chilean Patagonia is a collage of islands, inlets and labyrinthine channels. It was the kind of place that made me wish I remembered a bit more about GCSE Geography so I could fully appreciate the processes that went into creating such an epic landscape.
As is always the case with travels abroad and trying to be a nomad online, there were a couple of minor hiccups. My first day was spent trying to find cash. Apparently Argentina had essentially run out of money – not something I had anticipated! As a bit of a warm up for the treks to come I ventured from bank to bank, cashpoint to cashpoint with little luck so I had to bide my time whilst Argentina sorted out its finances. Luckily I only had to wait one night; a minor delay, but these are the types of experiences that help to make a trip memorable.
After that it was time to get stuck into the trekking. It was with a group I hadn’t met before but everyone was warm and welcoming so I settled into this new nomad family quickly. The trek was utterly spectacular, if my vocabulary were better I might have been able to describe it in a way that does the landscape justice… For now, you’ll just have to enjoy the pictures instead!
Next up was a bit of a blast from the past – Horse riding! I was desperate to learn to ride a horse when I was little because I thought my chances of becoming a disney princess would be a lot greater if I could ride a horse. The gist of riding slowly found its way back to me and it wasn’t long before I reached a level of serenity and mindfulness that I wasn’t quite expecting. Gliding through a place of such natural beauty on horseback, savouring every moment as it happened, no longer anxious about the future or caught up thinking about the past… It was magical to say the least.
I found myself with a lot of time on my hands (what a treat! and one of the benefits of being a nomad online), and with that time I wrote this digital nomad blog and began reading Wayne Dyer – the internationally renowned motivational writer. I’ve found him to be very influential and thought-provoking; I wanted to pass some of that on so I bought my dad his books for his birthday. Another interesting fact, for me at least, is that he died on my late granny’s birthday 29th August. She was a huge influence on my life too. I find that having little things that remind me of her, like that fact, rainbows (I’ll explain in another post!) and much more, help her to live on in my memory.
One of Wayne Dyer’s quotes “how people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours” got me thinking. I reflected on this and spent a lot of my time with the trekking group making an active effort to be more positive, interested, engaging, thoughtful etc. and guess what? The positivity snowballed.
“Go for it now, the future is promised to no one” is another quote of Mr Dyer’s and, retrospectively, I suppose it’s one of the reasons why I went to Patagonia. It’s why we decided to become Digital Nomads become a nomad online and why we chose our affiliate partner. Living for the present, making as much of you can with the time you are given and creating rich and vibrant memories with new and interesting people.
If it’s time and financial freedom that you’re after then I strongly suggest you sign up and become a nomad online, via our website (click here), have a look around and see what you think. We highly recommend it!
Go on ‘Go for it Now’….:-) Click here to take a look around the system we use to live our dream life, for free!.
Namaste
(P.S. Don’t forget to look at our previous post looking at Sam’s trip to Sweden, click here to head over there now)