The family history of Patricia Fehr (48) and Germán De Córdova (56) is in constant motion.
On
March 10, 2003,
they left San Nicolás de los Arroyos to travel the American continent from end to end in 12 months: from the south of Argentina to the north of Alaska.
The one-year plan took them five, but they continued the march and have now been crossing borders and tropics for almost two decades on the American continent.
Today, they live with their daughter Inti (14) in
a school bus that they have turned into their home
and a traveling photo gallery.
Digital nomads and freelance.
They perceive themselves as amunches (@amunches) which
means travelers in the Mapuche language
.
They are currently touring Mexico and will continue south next year.
“Since this dream was raised as a trip, our interest was to know the original peoples.
We parked our house on wheels in some of them, we faced the problem of communication, we were shaken by marginality and the rejection that is still beating for those who were the first settlers and guardians of forests and rivers”, assumes the couple, in dialogue with
Clarin
.
Patricia and Diego met in 1991 when she was in her fourth year of high school.
She brought them together through adventure, the river, the camp and the desire to explore the world.
They got married in 1999 and saved for 10 years to start a trip that was postponed for various reasons.
In his house".
The micro has taken them across the continent in almost two decades.
Patricia dreamed of being
a border teacher
since she was a girl .
She imagined teaching in the mountains and in remote places.
She graduated as a primary school teacher and specialized in adult education.
Committed to the traditions and worldview of the original peoples, they adopted photography as a communication tool.
They published "Amunches under a new Sun", a photographic book that compiles the faces and different stories of the ways of life of these communities.
Coordinates of voices and towns
They crossed
deserts, rivers and mountains
.
The first stage of the journey was one of adaptation and much personal discovery based on the new world that they were discovering.
Fears regulated each of his impulses.
"They help us to analyze in more detail the steps to follow or if we have to change course," describes Germán.
“The path traveled has shown us that one's own experience can be a factor of change in the environment;
managing to transcend in the other with a different experience”, they recapitulate like a mantra.
Obstacles?
“The economic aspect because we must constantly
generate and manage this income
.
As?
They forge alliances with brands aligned with their spirit and offer motivational conferences in companies, schools of all levels and universities that are aimed at motivating and strengthening people in the fulfillment of their goals.
In addition, they participate in cultural events where they mount photographic exhibitions and sell the audiovisual material that they record.
The family at one of their many stops in recent years.
"All the proceeds are to continue financing this work of documenting the experiences along the way and giving back to the remote schools what they have learned through our educational project as part of our social commitment," they explain.
“Our house is a school bus”
“We arrived in Alaska five and a half years after leaving, in September 2008, with our Inti in a 7-month-old belly and with the hope of continuing to travel,” recalls Patricia.
With the uncertainty of knowing where the little girl would be born, but with the desire to continue traveling and have a larger space, they sold the truck in which they had traveled up to that moment, a makeshift house with a bedroom on the roof and a kitchen crammed in the back, and
settled in Spain
where they were received by a friendly family in a town in Malaga.
They have been traveling the American continent for 19 years.
When Inti was born, the new adventure
began inside a
yellow school bus, full of seats and stories to keep telling.
“We got the bus in a town near Houston, in a warehouse where there were hundreds of them destined to be public transportation for Latin America and Africa, but they had been discarded for complying with the manufacturing year limit,” Patricia relates.
“The one we acquired was the only one with a manual, diesel transmission and had no electrical system.
Therefore, the mechanics would be very simple to repair in any mechanical workshop with a couple of tools and easily available spare parts," adds Germán.
How is?
A small space
12 meters long
that has a camping kitchen bolted to the ground, a refrigerator that runs on electricity when they are connected and gas when they are on the move, and a dry toilet system that transforms waste into compost.
Also, it has
two solar cells to charge the batteries
of the devices they use: telephone, computer and camera.
The bus that the family bought as a "deal" in Houston.
The yellow tome plugs into electricity at any outlet, it has no air conditioning or heating.
What can't be missing?
12 kilos of grass, cans of tuna and 20 rolls of photos with the limitation of taking two photos maximum per day.
Inti's arrival
With parenthood postponed for the day a trip that seemed to have no end ended, they reconsidered why not start a family the way they lived, traveling.
Inti, which means Sun in Quechua, grew up in this adventure.
In December 2019, Aurora became the
newest canine member of the family
.
How is Inti's education?
“Since she was six years old, she has been studying SEAD, a
distance education system
of the Argentine Ministry of Education for children who are outside the country.
It is public, free and officially it is as if she were going to a school ”, Patricia explains to this outlet.
"In addition, he attends an establishment in person for certain periods in which he can experience this alternative," completes Germán.
Patricia Fehr and Germán De Córdova in the sweet wait.
She accompanies them Colombia, the first dog they adopted and died when Inti was 2 years old.
“In such a changing world, I believe that the best thing we can give our children is the ability to
adapt to the different realities
that we have to live.
Learning from others, accepting diversities, respecting them and being empathic with others is one of the best lessons", their parents confess.
a dream project
With the conviction that it is possible to build ties in the education of diversity, from the first kilometers of the trip they began the task of sharing and getting closer to the different towns they visited.
“Along the way, we are collecting popular knowledge from grandparents and cultural references.
With them, we took a photographic tour of the continent, revaluing their ancestral knowledge about caring for Mother Earth”, compiles Patricia.
Thus, the educational project was born so that children know and recognize themselves in the different realities and ways of life of other peers.
“We emphasize the reinforcement of self-esteem, discovering other cultures and geographies, learning about environmental problems and their solutions, and the needs that arise in the communities with which we work,” she explains.
They explore the world to know and tell the culture of native peoples.
The perfect place is yourself
“Sunrise in different places gives us the perspective that each day can be different, and also a new opportunity to start or modify what is not right.
It is the constant exercise of being prepared for changes”, they value.
A movie sunset with the microphone as an ally.
From the moment they planned this life experience, the biggest question was what it would be like the day they started traveling.
But now, the main question is what the day it ends will be like. "Although we still do not have an exact date, we feel that we are closer to starting another stage with new challenges and more goals to meet," they assess.
“The world is a place with many colors and we want to continue learning about its different geographies, cultures and ways of life.
There is not just one way to live”, says Inti.
The moral preserves the essence that motivates this family's journey.
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