A wandering family, with the feet on the ground and desire for world

Vivía en una buena casa de San Isidro, surfeó las mejores olas del Caribe, fue guía de turistas a caballo en las montañas de Nueva Zelanda, esquió en los Alpes, recorrió Europa trabajando para un multimillonario belga, se deslumbró en un viaje por la India. Pero el elixir que calmaría su sed de aventuras iba a ser, mucho después, un colectivo de los años 70. Un vetusto Mercedes Benz que es su casa y con el que ella, su marido norteamericano y sus dos hijos se largaron a las rutas para recorrer Estados Unidos, Canadá y México. Y todavía acunan su sueño mayor: cruzar el continente hasta la Patagonia.

"We are not hippies," says Sofía Aldininio, Argentina, 38, in a video call from Joshua Tree, in California.“We like to travel, know, live experiences.And to me, take pictures.We work hard.We don't have necklaces, we bathe...", Serie.

It all started the summer in which he left with friends to Costa Rica, already received in business administration at Di Tella University.After three weeks, her friends returned;she stayed."I decided a day stopped in front of the sea.That feeling of freedom, the world ... ".I was 23 years old.The germ had appeared shortly before, when he stopped working in Buenos Aires for Disney because he couldn't stand being in an office.

With just a few dollars and a bag he went to Playa del Carmen.I worked in a restaurant, surfing, had fun.And he kept traveling.“Anduve throughout Central America of Backpack.I was about two years outside ".His parents did not come out of astonishment.“It must have seemed very rare, obvious.But they always respected and supported me ".

Already back in Buenos Aires, it was scored for a work visa in New Zealand.And there it was.Again used jobs, waves, photos, new friends;Among them, the American Colin Boyd (today, 34 years old), graduated in philosophy and marketing and, like her, lover of outdoor life, travel and extreme sports: he competed in snowboard.

Without being a very shower with the horses, Sofia became a ride guide through the mountains.Soon I was already an expert."My love was that connection with the outside, with nature".He met a delicious Belgian mining businessman who also produced olive oil and had a restaurant.He worked for him in the administration and taking photos, and spent traveling through Europe.Then he toured India for three months, while his friend, his more than friend Colin, took care of Lola in Wanaka, the kiwi bitch she had adopted.

Upon returning, the girl with an indomitable spirit and the philosopher, Marketinero and Nieves Devorador decided to follow their runs together.After seven years in New Zealand, they went to live in Maine, northeast of the United States, stuck to Canada;From there they were him and his family.

The family enlarges: Alfonso is born

One day, Sofia had news that surprised her totally: she was pregnant.They married and went to live in a department in Portland, where she did a documentary photography course.Colin worked at a marketing agency and continued competing around the world with its snowboard table.When Alfonso, his first child was about to be born, took a plane from Europe and arrived two hours before delivery.

The family, now extended, had decided to settle?Not.Actually, everything was about to change.“We had three years of sedentary life, each working on his, and that office feeling grabbed me again.It was a life not so chosen.I convinced Colin to buy a Van, a Motorhome, and we went to travel ”.They found an old Mercedes Benz 508d Red who had served a fire station in Germany."I saw her and it was like an Argentine collective: I loved it!".The problem was that it cost 30.000 dollars and they didn't have them.They resolved him by renting his department.Where were they going to live?In the Mercedes.

When they bought it, I barely had an isolation, a mattress and a phone."We had to equip it.At that time the idea was to go from Maine to Patagonia, but in the meantime we were in a campsite. ¡Nada glamoroso!", Serie.To try it, and to prove them in the overland lifestyle (travel in Motorhome to remote places, a very popular custom in the United States), they went one month to travel new Scotland, in Canada.

Sofia was pregnant with her second child, Camilo, which did not alter the plans.“We always stated that our projects were not going to change for having a child, and neither with two.When Alfonso had a five -day walk a year.Living with them in Van seemed normal to us.We wanted them to do everything with us ".

Upon returning from New Scotland they continued preparing the Motorhome, which was put kitchen, bathroom, beds and an external shower.All done by them.There he lived, from his birth, Camilo.“Mom says that I am very relaxed, and it is true.I like the natural.It is not that I feel bad and I run to see a doctor ".

They decided to postpone the too demanding descent to Patagonia, but not their overland project.Colin went to a remote part time regime at the marketing agency and Sofia could continue taking photos for brands;They sold the project to portray the new life of the four-of the five: the Lola dog is an inseparable part of the clan-aboard collective-van.They would do it with their cameras, but then also in a podcast (Rewilding parenthood) in which they interview families who chose the same lifestyle as they.Those contents go up to your Instagram account, outside.Sponsoreo was part from the beginning of the sustainability of adventure.

The first destination chose him for a climatic issue.“It was January and in Maine they made 20 degrees below zero.We said, ‘let's go to Florida, let's go to heat’ ”.The 9 undertook the trip.Alfonso was four years old;Camilo, 1.They stopped a few days in Rockaway, a beach near New York, to surf with friends. “El plan era el no plan", Serie.“In addition, when we went down to Florida, the van broke.On the route things can change from one moment to another.And be careful, not everything is adventure.There are many days when routine is working, cooking, washing ... ".

Admits that at one point that state of improvisation and permanent removals caotized them."We decided to spend more time in each place.We went to Vancouver Island [from Maine, more than 4000 kilometers.], on the Canadian Pacific coast, and we stayed a month and a half.We made videos and a bicycle journey for the brands that sponsored us ”.

This journey was followed by many others throughout the United States;They crossed seas, lakes, rivers, cataracts, steppes, mountain chains, glaciers, always with their sports battery: surf boards, snowboards for Colin and Alfonso, skiing for Sofia and Camilo, two gums, tents, bicycles, snorkeling equipment andTrekking, fishing rods.And, of course, photo cameras.Shortly after they would incorporate their main client: Patagonia, the famous American firm specialized in outdoor clothing.

They had been wandering a year when they first felt tired.“We worked all day: food (I love to cook and do everything), cleaning, the boys, colin with their own, with mine.I was doing documentary photo, to portray different realities, cultures...That takes time.Life was taking us and not us to life.We had to turn.Then we decided to buy a cabin here, in Joshua Tree, to have it as a base ”.

Joshua Tree is in the Mojave desert, in California, near a national park, two hours by Los Angeles and three of Las Vegas.When they went to see the cabin found a property of five sandy hectares, pistachio trees and a rickety ranch that did not even have a bathroom.“I saw that, I imagined the boys running around and, I don't know, it was half a vision, half intuition.Colin doubted why it was an unknown place for us.We threw ourselves to the pool ... and it turned out.It's a dream!With pandemic, many people left cities.All this was very valued.Re -cool became ".

They paid 70.000 dollars for the new house.Again, the "multicultural" marriage, as defined, got to work: fix, paint, make a bath and a barbecue.The old ranch became in Super Cozy, a single atmosphere of 26 m2, with a bed."Last night, I slept in the van with the boys, and Colin, in the cabin," he says, dead of laughter.

Nothing seems permanent in the life of this family.Although happy with his new home, who was put on the outside, barely finished the refaction they rented by Airbnb and undertook his next journey: navigate in the rubber boats several paths of the Green River, in Arizona.At the end of last year, the Mercedes took them to Mexico, where they spent four months."We take advantage that the cabin is always rented.In a year we must have been here no more than a month ”.

Nothing is permanent: now in his paradise of Joshua Tree, they began to consider if the time had not come to settle, to have a larger house to which they could return.“Perhaps, expand anchueravidacacasita, although when I come I feel a little tenant, like it is not my house because it is put to rent.We need more space.We are both working hard.Colin does personal coaching and organizes some retreats for people who want to live new experiences, and I continue to full with the production of photo -based storytellings.I am in conversations with National Geographic and with Propublic ”.

But immediately after saying that, he clarifies: “We have to restore the van because in June we want to return to Mexico, where I hope Colin and the boys learn well the Spanish.And the plan to go to Argentina, Chile, Peru is still pending ... I do not imagine without the Van: it is already a part of us ”.

Sofia says that she misses the country and that the news continues online and for the chats.“Sometimes I prefer to unplug me because my head burns.But I love my country, I am proud to be Argentina and every two years I return ”.

Do boys have friends?And them?Many and everywhere, answer.The Overlanders community is getting bigger, and not only share a lifestyle, but values.“We barely get to a place the boys immediately become friends.The same.We lead a life without television, put in nature, but also with friends.A full and very healthy life.In fact, we never get sick.Alfonso once grabbed conjunctivitis.Where?In a city.Other boys spread it ".

Colin appears and is surprised: "Do you keep talking?".To be more isolated, he had climbed into the Mercedes, who never rests.Neither do they, happy toil, endless adventurers.