Backpacking To Europe first stop Spain

Wow, it seems to be like yesterday when back in 1999 me and my best three friends with 18 years back then said goodbye to our parents, lifted our backpacks and walked through the migrations line in the airport to the trip that would literally change our lives forever.


I remember that that was only the first time the three of us Ariel, Diego and I were going to visit Europe but also the first time we would travel abroad without our parents, having to ask them for a written permit to leave the country by ourselves.


We were sitting on the waiting room half excited half scared because from that moment on we knew that for the next two months we would have no one to take car about us by ourselves.


We got into the plane, and flew straight to Madrid, Spain... with our ISIC cards, our hostelling international membership cards (a total waste of money), some random guide for hostels around Europe, and of course our fake reporter's ID (a big money saver)

My Backpack

Now I remember when my aunt living in the states send me my Backpack that later would visit after Europe on a cold winter, the tropical jungle in Colombia, the beautiful beaches of Costa Rica and the dessert of India close to the border with Pakistan.

The brand, Kelty model REDCLOUD. I ve been trying to find a picture of it on my computer but apparently I ve got any so thanks to the Internet on kelty´s Website I found a nice picture but of the new version of my old model that looks pretty similar but not the same.

I remember myself very excited looking to my Backpack lying on my bedroom floor, mainly excited by the size of it, that later after some travelling I would understand that some times too big can be very heavy to lift.

Europe, here we go a group of 18 years old Backpackers

Ok, here it´s when all started back in the year 1999 me and my best three friends included my cousin who joined us in Barcelona where about to start our first backpacking experience that would radically change our lives forever. Back then we were little kids, trying to copy what our elder brothers did three years before us so it was all about saving as much money as we could knowing that by the time the summer would arrive we were getting on a plane without our parents - for the first time in our lives - to fly to Spain to start our Europe Backpacking experience.

I remember those days before going to one place to the other, getting our ISIC cards and Hostelling International cards, plus designing some fake Press ID, so as to be able to save as much money as we could.

Actually it was a funny thing because we were planning to pretend that we belonged to a media corporation to be able to get in for free on museums, and other places and we designed this Press cards with pictures signature and seal, and my cousin who back then was living in Venezuela send me a very low quality picture through the internet (ICQ- back then) that I resize to make it fit on our Fakes ids.

Actually now even though I really look around I couldn´t find my own ID but I did find a model of the "new one" that some friends of mine recently used around Europe just one month ago and it looks like this..(Telefe is one of the biggest media in Argentina)

we bought the Eurali-Pass, because in that year yet there were not the cheap flying airlines that now make backpackers save so much time and money, so we had to make all our backpacking trip with our big backpacks (of course, because each time you go on a new ride you know how to take more in less space), and taking one train after the other.

No more Diving for me!, Backpacker of land... not water.

That´s true sometimes you really think you are into something that will change the way you want things to be but then after some time you realized that what you used to consider really important slowly faded away among the passed days. But still I had my experience, and kept travelling for several years to Venezuela but staying on the beachside of the water. Later on Backpacking in Costa Rica I felt the will to try this diving thing for one more time but somehow I ended up snorkeling on some islands close from the Montezuma´s beach but I will post more about that later. Still here I have a nice picture of that place.

This little part of paradise is on the southern Nicoya peninsula of Costa Rica, beautiful beaches, no sunset (maybe the only bad thing about this place), and small shops and cabins to stay and relax the laid back atmosphere full of backpackers that come from all over the globe.

Venezuela, Learning how to Dive

Back then I remember each summer travel to Venezuela with my parents, and being to little to start diving but big enough to understand what I was a missing every time everybody, mom, dad, uncles, brother, would go to the beach for a diving session while I was waitting for them in the surface...Until the day come...

If I am not wrong it was the year 1996 when I did my Scuba diving course, back there in Caracas Venezuela, attending to this class where they woul teach me how to read the different tables, or security issues for a safe diving... containing all my emotion and excitment until the graduation day came, doing my final exam in the beach.

The place was about 4 hours by car from Caracas, so after the long ride me and my mother got to the place where I was supposed to do my final exams along the whole weekend.

The thing is that although I didn´t make everything perfectly, and almost drown twice because it wasn´t really clear for me what to do in certain situation I received my Open water Scube Diver license, ready to start a Scuba diving way of living that would last.... just one more sumer Hollydays!!!.

Venezuela, Family is moving again

So for the time being, life seemed to be all right, going to school all year long until the summer came knowing that my friends and family living in Mexico back then where waiting for me and my family to visit them and get stuffed with some Taco´s and Chalupas.

Here is a picture of some of that incredible food, but to be honest this picture was taken when I returned to Mexico several years later to those family trips when I was backpacking. Actually this is a Tlayuda some kind of bread with meat cheese, spicy sauce, some more spicy sauce and spicy sauce.



The story starts when in 1994 the summer came, and I remember myself ready to start packing all my stuff to visit Mexico (yet as family trip, but backpacking adventures were about to come), and my parents telling me that we were going somewhere else, far from Mexico, closet to my country. Destiny: Venezuela.

This beautiful country as I remember it back then before this cover dictator called Hugo Chavez got to the government was something unique, and before anything here are some interesting links to get an insight of it.

Some history of Venezuela, and a really interesting blogs talking about the actual situation there written by Daniel who is living there.Venezuela Blog

Moving on I remember my first encounter with the Caribbean world, with hot and very humid weather all year long, and strong rains that wouldn´t calm down the heat that was almost annoying. Going to my family´s house and driving to the beach on the weekends...and I remember that by that time I was completely in Love with the Beach something that I didn´t have back at home, and would radically influence my decisions of Backpacking destinations later on.


Venezuela had this amazing people always happy, heavy beer drinkers, Baseball fans, and very nationalist back then in the good sense of the world. In there was the first time I had the chance to buy cheddar cheese (yeap, the one that goes in Mc donalds cheeseburger) in the supermarket... and I remember it was called FACILISTAS, that could be translated as Easy-Ready. I also remember being a big fun of this chocolate called Ovomaltina, that was Tube like a tooth paste tube filled with melted chocolate, something that I haven´t found since my last visit to that beautiful country, and apparently still exists there cuse I´ve found this picture.


So far this are the few memories I´ve got of my childhood plus some memories of Diving courses, visiting some Islands like Isla Margarita and attending to my family´s weekend club named Puerto Azul where there was an amazing Swimming pool with glass borders (that´s not me), and Bahia de los Piratas. But probably this are some random souvenirs of my memorie before I started Backpacking alone seeking to discover while I was already closer to be a grown up.

Mexico, first visits no Backpack...YET

Some years after my several visitis to USA, including the most importnant ones such as the ones when we visit Disneyworld and Disneyland (that for a 4 years old kid would mean the world), the first new destination was set. My mother´s sister and all her family decided to move to Mexico because of my uncle´s job so there we were all planning to change the route for that time being. So still we would make big bags, with lots of unnecesary stuff, that before starting to Backpacking wouldn´t look like that... and get started moving further north for us that we where traveling from south america, but in terms of hollydays moving south from the usual USA to the new and beautifull Mexico.

This might have been the first time in my life when I realized that besides my home town, and Mickey mouse there was a huge world out there to visit and see, sometimes a world that could be very similar to the one I was used to live in but in certain points completely different as well.


Going into the little details and the chilly culture that they have in Mexico, I remember how my cousin used to eat this sort of fruit candy called Pulparindo that it was a candy spicy as hell mixed with some salt and they were in love with this thing. And for my Argentinian standards of taste it was almost like a punishment to be given one of this and eat them as a proof of good manners from my side. The funny thing is how much we change with the years, and now I can say that I really like this candy, and even more when I got to Backpack to mexico several years later alone, I would by this stuff regulary.

Those happy years visiting mainly Mexico City or DF as people call it there lasted for the time they worked there. Now I remember some many other good stories about those trips with my family that maybe later I´ll be posting, some trips to Isla Mujeres, Cancun, Pirate´s Boats, etc.

Backpacking, just a start

Ok, here is the deal... I´ve had my time backpacking around there for a long time and now it´s on pause because of some new opportunities and all those things that you listen around about trying to see what happens trying something different,... but hopefully I´ll start moving around soon. Meanwhile my Backpack is waiting for me taking a rest from India´s Massala smell, Colombian jungles, Mexico´s spicy food,etc.


In my experience travelling since I was a little kid with mom, dad and my brother that were really into that before changing the car, or doing fancy stuff, because they had this passion inside themselves. So practically all my life I´ve been travelling, if it wasnt with my family by myself with my huge backpack looking for that thing that you can never clearly define but you know is right there in your next destination. That feeling that you share when you meet some other backpackers from other side of the world with the same sparkle in their eyes while you talk about backpacking trips around the world.


So it all started as a little kid travelling to USA, to visit some family (a long way for an Argentinian boy - South America for those that never heard of it)


DISCLAIMER
Here is a link with the basic info about my country and a cute Map
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107288.html



Well writting then about my first trips to the states, getting to understand and see how the whole thing of traveling worked, such as seen mom and dad sited on the living room of our appartment discussing about dates, prices, hotels, bags etc. At that time backpacking was only a discovery to be made. At this point my parents were trying to get me in all this things with my only interest on having their confirmation that they would take me to toys´r us to update my nintendo games collection(Nintendo like that not WII- Getting old Maybe).

So it went like this for some years until some family things happend that would change the whole concept of hollydays for me.