Te regalo yo mis ojos

Mis cabellos y mi boca

Y hasta el aire que respiro

Yo, mi vida, te regalo…

G. Ferri, P. Pintucci

Finally home. I was travelling all day. Well, actually I was travelling for a while and now I feel I came back as if I finished designing a new circle. Circles, maybe life is not big circle but an ensemble of several ones…

I’m writing my thoughts, as usual, after something new in my life. Thoughts that come in this moment, thoughts that have come during the past week, thoughts that ressemble the original ones that I should have noted but I did not because I was too busy living something extraordinary. Or, at least that’s the way I saw things through my eyes, extraordinary.

The voice of Gabriella Ferri singing “Te regalo yo mis ojos” is making me company while I’m sitting on my couch writing this in the dim light of my living room.

It isn’t the first time I listen to this song, but this time it’s different: it’s played from her vinyl. A vinyl that became part of my trip, a quest.

I left to go on vacation in Argentina after several stressful weeks: even the I took the flight starting this adventure I could not really disconnect.

Eventually after a beer at Barcelona Airport while waiting for my connecting flight to Buenos Aires I started to let go and felt all my tensions slowly slowly vanishing. Once on the plane the world of dreams took over and I literally just woke up with the stewardess voice announcing that we were landing in Buenos Aires.

It’s amazing how in a matter of a few hours, over night, I not only was in another city but it was summer!

My eyes had trouble getting used to the amount of light, on my face I could feel a light summer breeze and that hot sensation that you feel when the sun shines on your skin. But my adventure was just beginning…

I finally reached Pepe’s home. For the first time I decided to couchsurf and that’s how I met Pepe who was Kindly willing to host me in his flat that he shared with two other students in the centre of Buenos Aires.

I like to trust people and to think they are good. There is only a part of humanity that is bad and luckily it’s a minority. My hypothesis were confirmed, Pepe and his friends were great people and I am so glad I met them!

I got to see Buenos Aires with local people, to go out in less touristic places, to change money in the streets to get a better deal, to share experiences over a beer and to learn so much about more than I would have if I’d stayed in a hotel!

There are no words to describe the beauty and the variety of lifestyles you can see in Buenos Aires from one neighbourhood to the other. This city is eclectic and very different according to the area you visit. And of course while visiting I could not resist the temptation to get into the record stores at San Telmo’s market looking for the vinyl of Gabrielle Ferri in Castellano.

Three record stores in the market, two more in San Telmo, one min the Center and another one near Palermo but no luck. Nobody seemed to even have a bit of an idea about what I was looking for.

I left Buenos Aires to go to Cordoba where I met Ale, a friend that I met in Cuba last year. It’s amazing how you can connect to people and become friends in a few days even though you live far away!

Ale welcomed me with a dinner with some of his friends and of course we were grilling succulent Argentinian meet, listening to music, chatting, getting to know each other, drinking and laughing… That’s when I met Steffy (la chefa) an amazing girl that makes the best Argentinian sweets with dulce de leche!

My days in Cordoba were a lot of fun: my mornings were characterised by a stunning view of the city that never stopped to surprise me, I explored the city in a completely free mindset, went out to drink beers with friends that I felt I’d known all my life, I laughed a lot over silly jokes, I learned things about the town, I went to a rooftop pool and finally… Las Sierras!

Las Sierras are the mountains around Cordoba, an enchanted place completely green. I was sitting there and all I could hear was the river flowing. I closed my eyes and felt as if nothing was surrounding me. A feeling that could seem disturbing but that was particularly pleasant. I was in peace, immersed in the nature, the sun shining over me, the river flowing and nothing else until the “splash” of a kid in the river made me open my eyes…

It’s amazing how we become incapable to appreciate what’s around us and how difficult it becomes to distinguish each sensation, each sound in the cars of modern life!

Coming back from this enchanted forest we walked in Cordoba and passed through a night market. I stopped at the first stall where a guy was selling vinyls, looked though what he had, but nothing. A second one showed me the foreign singers section of his collection but Gabriella wasn’t there.

Quite discouraged I hesitated and finally asked a third vendor: “Do you have Gabriella Ferri’s Vinyl?”. He answered: “Aquì esta!”.

In that moment I was sure he hadn’t understood but still decided to take a quick look and to my great surprise Gabriella was there. My hands were almost shaking, a shiver went down my spine. He took the vinyl, put it on the tourne disque and suddenly Gabriella Ferri was pervading, for a few minutes, the streets of the open air market in Cordoba.

…Te regalo yo mis ojos… Mis cabellos y mi boca… Y hasta el aire que respiro… Yo, mi vida, te regalo…

P.S.: more pictures of my trip on my instagram profile!