Lee's story
1995 was to bring about one of the greatest changes and greatest events of my life. I was attending a local Anglican Church when one evening during the service the notices were read out.
One notice explained that the Sheffield Diocese had a link with the Diocese of Southern Argentina. They were planning a visit and were looking for willing participants.
I immediately put my name down for the trip and was accepted onto the small team of 11 people.
I didn’t know it at the time but that 3 week trip was to change my life.
I remember arriving in Buenos Aires. The place was so different. The cars were older. The people spoke differently. The buildings were totally different to anything I’d ever seen in Britain. The sun was warmer and even the air felt nicer (Buenos Aires means Good Air!).
I breathed deeply as I stepped out of the airport and felt strangely that I was in some way home. How true that would turn out to be.
On that trip I saw the desert for the first time. WOW!!!! It was incredible! I imagined all those old cowboy films. I saw a herd of wild horses running through the mountains with perfect blue sky above. I had never seen anything so free and powerful. I saw Iguazu falls in the north east of the country. This is the world’s largest waterfall in terms of volume of water going over it. It’s 5km wide with over 200 falls. I found paradise hidden away in the jungles of South America.
I also saw real poverty for the first time and my heart went out to them. I wanted to know them better and to know their stories of life. I made friends with so many people. I would never be the same again.
I came home but longed to go back. Four years later I went back and there I met my wife Nilda; a beautiful Argentine girl who was working as a nurse amongst the indigenous peoples in Northern Argentina. We seemed to just click even though we didn’t speak a word of each other’s language.
I came back to Britain and began to frantically learn Spanish, while Nilda began to learn English. We were two people with a purpose and so language learning, although not easy, came quickly. I returned to Argentina the following February and Nilda came to Britain in May of the same year and then we married in Jujuy, Argentina in August 2000.
After that we traveled to Jujuy for between 2 and 3 months every year. We became intimate with both British and Argentine culture, customs and places. In 2012 we moved to Jujuy and since then I’ve never stopped exploring the mountains the desert and the jungle. I’ve experienced the high altitude of the Andes, the heat of the Andean desert and trekked through jungle to some very beautiful, idyllic waterfalls. Often the water is warm and so is pleasant to swim in.
We have connected with the people there and now we have many friends.
Our desire is to share this wonderful place with you. We want to share our experience of Jujuy through trekking and touring, through the culture, the food, the people and their music.
We can assure you of a trip that you will remember for the rest of your life.
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