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| Emiliano Garcia |
El 14 de Septiembre de 1984 nace Emiliano Garcia. De tez oscura cabello rizado y ojos negros, crecerá en la ciudad de Buenos Aires entre el cálido ambiente hogareño e infinitas y asombrosas amistades. Luego de algunos cambios de colegio, estudiara en el colegio ECEA casi la totalidad de la primaria y la secundaria completa. Muy a pesar de sus buenas calificaciones que denotaban un estereotipo "nerd", su conducta no era la mas apropiada en el ámbito escolar y en repetidas ocasiones (siempre con cómplices de lujo) fue acusado de muchas faltas de las mencionadas de gravedad.
Al finalizar la secundaria no tendría mucha suerte con los estudios universitarios (en realidad lo que no tendría serian ganas), aunque en dos ocasiones iba a intentar, sin mucho éxito, continuar con los estudios. Primero en la carrera de Transporte y Logística (ni siquiera llego a ser parte de la primer clase), y luego completando un año en Bellas Artes, con buenos resultados, aunque no del todo convincentes para que Emiliano continuara hasta su graduación.
Laboralmente inmerso entre los camiones desde su egreso del secundario, Emiliano trabajaría en la empresa de su familia por mas de 7 años. En el 2008 después de mucha preparación y contra las criticas y miedos de muchos, se embarcaría en su primer viaje de mochila, junto con su nuevo, aunque gran compañero Marcelo Luna. En esos treinta y tantos días recorrería el noroeste Argentino, todo el oeste Boliviano, sur de Perú y centro de Chile. Desde ese momento Emiliano ya no seria el mismo.
El 2009 seria un año de escapadas cortas, entre ellas la costa Uruguaya, Sierra de la Ventana y parte de la Patagonia Argentina, pero el siguiente periplo no tardaría en llegar. En el verano de 2010, ahora con la compañía de Cristian Neira, recorrería el norte del Perú, Ecuador, Colombia y el noroeste de Venezuela.
El 2009 seria un año de escapadas cortas, entre ellas la costa Uruguaya, Sierra de la Ventana y parte de la Patagonia Argentina, pero el siguiente periplo no tardaría en llegar. En el verano de 2010, ahora con la compañía de Cristian Neira, recorrería el norte del Perú, Ecuador, Colombia y el noroeste de Venezuela.
Es en ese viaje cuando conocería a Valeria, y meses después se volverían a ver las caras, ahora en territorio Norteamericano, en las ciudades de Washingon DC y Nueva York. Es entonces, caminando las calles de la capital Estadounidense, cuando deciden intentar algo juntos, y luego de una visita de Valeria a la Argentina, ella se instalaría en Buenos Aires, para allí preparar y terminar de gestar la Expedición Valeriano.
Así, este viajero repleto de sueños y preguntas por responder, al fin encamina su rumbo hacia un viaje que promete ser único, remontándose a los confines mas remotos del espíritu humano, intentando comprender el porque de la vida en su mas pura esencia.
On February 28, 2011, Валерия Гельман (Valeria Gelman), or Лера (Lera), or V found herself boarding a plane departing for Ushuaia, Argentina. Born and raised in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Валерия always dreamt of far away destinations and people speaking strange languages, but she could never imagine her dreams ever becoming true, as the communist regime of the Soviet Union, into which she was born, prohibited leaving its borders. Without much hope for experiencing “the abroad” Лера began creating it in her imagination feeding off the English language classes she took at school. In 1994, some 3 years after the fall down of the Soviet empire, life was about to change for Valeria. The first day of school that year began with an introduction of an American foreign exchange student, who was placed into Лера’s class. V has never seen or spoke to a foreigner before, so having Josie in her class was something out of a movie. Little by little, the girls found a common language and became friends. Lera was fascinated with an idea of exchange programs and decided to find a way to become one herself, since anything seemed possible in that new and ever changing world. 2 year later the dream came true and Valeria was chosen, among some 30 Russian students, to travel to the USA and experience the American way of life. After those 6 months in Southern California Лера was never to become the girl she was before the experience. Her world had multiplied by the places she visited and the people she met along the way.
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| Валерия Гельман |
Upon returning to her home Nizhniy Novgorod V was full of ideas hopes and aspirations. She decided to live to the fullest and use every opportunity to learn, to experience and to grow in every way. In the next few years Lera participated in a couple of other exchange program that took her to Michigan and the East Coast of the United States. In 2001, Valeria was offered a scholarship to continue her college studies at Salisbury University, Maryland. All of a sudden, Lera found herself living by herself in a foreign country studying in a foreign language. Who would have imagined that 6 years earlier?!!! Adjusting to such a change was not exactly easy, but the new life opportunities made it all worth it. To make life even more exciting and even more difficult, V decided to continue her schooling in Spanish (ignoring the fact that it was going to add another 2 years to her undergraduate student years at college….The stubborn girl had illusions of cheating the system by taking a double load of credits to graduate in 2 years, but this did not quite worked out that way. 4 years later V was celebrating her diploma in Spanish, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and International Studies along side her friends and parents, who for the first time came to visit Valeria’s new life in the US. During those four years, Lera discovered the new and mysterious to her world of Latin America. She broke through her book Spanish in Cuenca, Ecuador on a Salisbiry University winter semester abroad in 2003. Latin America became her new love and obsession, and she used every opportunity to escape there, eventually visiting Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Colombia.
In the fall of 2005 Лера discovered Washington DC, which was to become her home for the next 5 years. In DC she met a number of like minded people, who were also eager to take life by the horns, testing their destiny. The DC family of friends was very diverse and international, which opened V’s mind even further. She experimented with jobs trying to apply her talents and passions in the best possible way. Her occupations mutated from a library administrator of an international college and a tour guide of the Library of Congress, to a coordinator of the city’s Façade Restoration Project in Washington DC, and to an associate of an international development firm, where she became involved in a conservation initiative in Central America.
A few months after that, in February of 2010, Emiliano Garcia crossed Valeria’s path in Lima, Peru, where V was finishing a work project. Over the following several months the two discovered that both had a passion for traveling and learning from life in the purest of its forms. In September of 2010 V moved to Emi’s home town, Buenos Aires, to begin preparations for the Expedicion Valeriano, while working as a multilingual city tour guide. It was decided to begin the exploration of this world on the last day of February, starting at “The End of the World” and heading up the American Continent.
On February 28th, I am boarding this plain in search of the new horizons, and the answers to the million of existential questions that have been tormenting my mind and soul since the day I can remember my existence.