A journey of fourteen years, aboard an old Citroen from 1973, up and down the American continent. Someone may remember the story of Nomadland, the poignant 2020 Chloé Zhao film starring Frances McDormand. Only that everything is true here. The story is that of Laura Ferri, an Argentine lady who has been traveling aboard a Mehari for over 14 years, after leaving her job as a teacher four years after retirement, when she was 50. An overcoming illness convinced her definitively to leave. It has covered more than 120,000 kilometres and now together with his new travel companion Olga Bonardo they want to reach Alaska. They decided on the exact day they reached the bottom of Tierra del Fuego.
In an interview with the Aire de Santa Fè newspaper, Seňora Laura told how her adventure began. «One fine day I realized that the answer to everything is to be happy, and for me, happiness was the journey, and still is. That’s why I’m here.” “When I quit, I proclaimed myself the owner of my time, which is exactly what most people lack. Obviously I immediately asked myself how much money I could afford to travel with, no longer having a job and not being retired yet. This is how my first book of the first 13 travel stories was born ». By selling my books I financed myself. For 14 years she traveled physically alone, but “accompanied in reality by thousands of people and questions”. Two years ago he met Olga, who became her friend. Although they have two totally different histories, they shared a desire to travel. First trip together, in Bolivia. An unbreakable friendship was established there. “Sometimes life throws things in your way that are like gifts. She wanted to get on the Mehari and I accepted. We have just finished a one year journey, 15 provinces, 23,000 km and we have done Ruta 40, complete with the six sections of dirt road», said Laura.
Olga started traveling after working for almost 38 years with her husband, the love of his life, in a supermarket. Then the husband died. Hence the choice to travel. With a single rule: a maximum of 60 km/h to enjoy the landscape and no GPS, people ask for information. Obviously with the Citroen you travel and in the Citroen you sleep. Today it has been converted into a small motorhome. Peru, Bolivia, Chile. As in the legendary journey of Che Guevara, that of the “Motorcycle Diaries”.
The chance meeting with Laura changed both their lives. «I’ve always thought that certain things only happen to others, but now I understand that I think the only thing you have to do in this life is to dare. I dedicated myself to my family, to my job and the truth is that I forgot to live for myself too» he said. Laura explains she said that traveling she spends “less than a third of what she would spend at home, because I’m a sober, simple person. I learned that the most precious thing in life is inner life, peace, happiness. There is no money and no power that can give you happiness. When you have pain and suffering, none of these things make you go through that pain. The only thing that makes you bear it and carry on with a smile is inner happiness».
Olga recommended to those who want to live by travelling, that «you just need to take the first step you must do it, so as not to forget to live». Now, half is the deep north, Alaska, like another amazing road movie, “Into the wild”. Always on board the legendary 1973 Mehari, which now also has a name: El Revolucionario. The symbol of adventure, the synthesis of a story, or rather two.
February 23, 2023 (change February 23, 2023 | 2:55 pm)
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