The journey begins within

By: Sofia Guanter

“It’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey,” they say, and I think they’re quite right.

I am from Argentina and I really enjoy traveling both inside and outside the country, because I repeat; the important thing is not the destination, but the experience, how we live it, what we learn and what we do with it. I have been traveling and exploring new cultures and places for relatively few years, and I always feel that when I return home, I am not the same.

In 2017, I had the travel experience that would change me forever: my first solo trip, 40 days in Europe. I felt like I wanted to experience something like that because I never left my comfort zone and I was afraid of facing situations that seemed everyday to other people. So that was the main driving force for me to embark on the adventure: overcoming my own obstacles.

What can I say… everything went so well that it was just the beginning of many more trips, especially alone, where I constantly challenge myself and give myself a bath of humility with each adventure.

On all my trips I usually stay in hostels, which are incredible places not only to meet people but to get to know other realities. I know that many people use this type of accommodation to make friends, but in my case I particularly enjoy just exchanging and listening to life stories, which I find tremendously inspiring.

That’s how I met people who were volunteering in Catamarca, Argentina (something I would love to try), others who had been travelling through Latin America on motorbikes for years, like my friend in Medellín, other people with whom I shared a fireworks celebration for San Juan in Porto and there was even laughter in a dining room in Edinburgh because we were 3 people wearing the same sweater bought in the same cheap fashion store.

Breaking personal barriers also made me feel more comfortable traveling, even within my country, something I normally didn’t do, or that only took me to the most popular locations visited during the high season, and nothing more. Taking this internal path awakened an infinite curiosity within me that remains like an active flame, constantly motivating me. Today, my goal is to visit all of Argentina’s provinces, and to date, I’ve already visited more than half of them. But there is still so much to see and explore! I could give you a thousand recommendations about my country, but I’ll just tell you this: if you’ve never seen it and want to die laughing at the most failed mattress test in history, look for the episode of Alan visiting the Llao Llao hotel in Bariloche.

All the paths I have traveled and the experiences I have lived have made me realize how privileged I am to be able to travel for pleasure. Nowadays, there is no beginning of a trip that does not excite me, whether by plane, bus, train, near my house or far away, alone or with someone. Living adventures awakens you emotionally and gives you a very enriching perspective on life. You start to value the little things; that beer at sunset, walking barefoot in sand that does not burn, the food from a place that reminds you of your mother’s, the smile of a street vendor who after 10 hours in the stifling heat continues to maintain his business with great joy, people who without knowing you open the doors of their house to you, among so many other wonderful situations to which you are exposed in an exchange of cultures, leaving you totally vulnerable and permeable.

Those barriers that once represented an obstacle to my growth are now so far behind that I no longer feel they are part of me. On the contrary, today I have become a promoter of leaving the comfort zone, and I encourage other people to live their own adventures.

When we return from trips we are never the same, because I like to believe and keep in mind that we bring back a lot of “intangible souvenirs”: we bring the aroma of those typical foods lodged in our noses, people who became unforgettable even if we never speak to them again, landscapes that are engraved in our retina, all those photos that we did not take but that we treasure in our hearts, and sensitivity on the surface of our skin.

I sincerely hope that everyone finds the motivation to get out of their comfort zone, and if you haven’t found it yet: you’ve come to the right place.