Backing around
The story of Valentina and Luciano
A blog that describes in its title the soul and travel style of Valentina and Luciano. Travel backpack on the shoulder, always ready for adventure. Backpacking Out There It's their blog, they tell us about today!
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Welcome to Easy Travel Hosting! COULD YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF, WHEN YOU DECIDED TO OPEN THE BLOG AND THE MEANING OF ITS TITLE?
Ciao! We are Valentina and Luciano and we opened our blog in 2016. The idea came to us while we were on holiday in Lisbon because in about ten days we would be leaving for Argentina and we wanted friends and relatives to be able to follow our adventures.
The title is a corruption of the Spanish verb “mochilear”, which means “to travel backpacking”: we were looking for a name that encompassed the meaning of travel for us and Valentina, of the brave linguist, searched for an Italian equivalent of the English “backpacker” (or the Spanish “mochilero”).
Not having found it, we opted for “Mochilando por ahí”, which we could therefore translate as "wandering around with a backpack": a name that fully represents our common love for the Spanish language and for a type of free and adventurous experience.
YOUR ORIGINS ARE SINKED IN DIFFERENT CULTURES. HOW MUCH THIS HAS AFFECTED YOUR TRAVELS AND DESTINATIONS?
I'd say enough. Luciano's grandfather was Lucanian, come me, and Basilicata remains one of our favorite destinations: it is a still relatively unknown and wild region that has a lot to offer lovers of slow tourism.
Even the trip to Madrid represented in a certain sense a return to the origins because this is where Luciano was born and lived during the first years of his life, not to mention Argentina where his maternal family lives (among other things of Polish-Ukrainian origins: travel is right in his DNA!).
As far as I'm concerned however, “home” is Seville, where I was lucky enough to live a few years ago: I left a piece of my heart there! In reality it is not very easy to find destinations that we can agree on because I prefer the heat and he prefers the cold, so you always have to bargain before choosing where to go.
WE READ THAT YOU TOOK A TRIP OF 100 DAYS IN ARGENTINA. WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT SURPRISED YOU THE MOST?
Argentina is an immense country, with enormous differences within it regarding landscapes, climates, traditions, accents, typical dishes. On a naturalistic level, what surprised us most was the north-west of the country, the so-called NOA, that is, the Andean area on the border with Bolivia.
Normally, we tend to associate Buenos Aires with Argentina, Maradona and the tango while the wonders of the north are unknown to most here in Europe. During our backpacking trip we met many Argentinians, several French, a few Germans and just an Italian girl who had moved to one of those villages for love. It was strange not to find compatriots because we are used to running into Italians everywhere!
The other things that surprised me (I speak for myself because Luciano is used to it) they were the instability of the national economy and the fact that the streets do not have names but are marked with numbers, which put my sense of direction in serious difficulty.
What do you do to make your travels more ecological?
We are tireless walkers. We love trekking in the mountains and when we visit a city we clock up kilometers upon kilometres: we love getting lost in the streets to discover all the hidden corners and itineraries outside the most tourist routes.
When traveling to and from the airports we always prefer public transport and look for accommodation facilities that are very sensitive to protecting the environment. Whenever possible, we like to live like locals by relying on Couchsurfing: an incredible experience that allowed us to meet extraordinary people from all over the world.
In Argentina we also stayed at hospedajes, that is, rooms made available by local families so as to best savor the authenticity of the journey. As for the food, we have an almost unhealthy passion for street food, for markets and neighborhood venues: they may not be glamorous but they prepare delicious dishes and make us feel at home.
Anyway, since Gaetano is with us (our dog), we choose closer destinations so that we don't have to leave him alone, contributing in our small way to the ecological cause.
Easy Travel Hosting Thanks so much to Valentina and Luciano for sharing their backpacking trips with us!
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