Today I want to share a little of my backstory with one of my greatest love stories – that is the love affair I have with Argentina.

This story is long, but I will try to keep it poignant!

I traveled a lot from grauduating high school through college. On a train from Denmark to Germany I spoke to some friends about a study abroad they did in Australia and New Zealand, and knew I had to go. While in Australia, I knew I needed to go somewhere and actually truly live there, for at least a year. I wanted true immersion. I had just graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in International Management. I knew I wanted to go somewhere Spanish speaking and finally really get good at speaking a language I had studied for 10+ years.

I also really wanted to try living in a bit city for a year, to see if the allure was long lasting or just something I needed to experience. And Buenos Aires called to me.

I knew I was going to move there even before knowing how or why.

I loved that it was a South American city with a European flare (often called the Paris of South America). And turns out you can teach business English in Buenos Aires pretty easily, as a lot of companies are based tehre and need classes. It was my in.

I signed up for a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) program, bought a one way ticket, told my family my good byes (with no plan on when or if I’d come back), did some research of other people living there and what to expect, but mostly just showed up to a country I’d never been to, or known anyone who had been there, because my intuition was telling me it was where I needed to move my life to.

Part of my quest was to really learn about passion.

I wanted to be in a country that wasn’t so reserved, with people who felt strongly, expressed their emotions, and were just open. And boy are Argentines passionate! About futból, meat, maté, their country, and their friends and family! They don’t hold back on how they feel and people tend to take themselves so much less seriously! I LOVED IT. I found my first official boyfriend there, at a local folklore and sing restaurant (people would pass around the guitar and sing traditional folklore music – everything in Argentina is community based), named Ale (alejandro). The first time we fought in the street and the tienda vendor watched us while smoking his cig, without blinking an eye, I knew I’d made it. PASSION! No holding back. I LOVED IT.

My first job was teaching English for Greenpeace Argentina, a dream come true. I’m still friends with many of these people today! I also started working for major petrol companies (the dichotomies!). I had become a vegan (completely shocking to an Argentine – meat capital of the world) and shared all my hippy ways with them. We had so much fun sharing and exchanging culture and stories!

 I made so many incredible friends and had the best experiences.

It’s also where my yoga practice took off. I was often alone, but never felt alone. I’d practice yoga for hours a day in my free time. I learned a lot about herbalism and cooking whole foods (vegans didn’t have a lot of options in Argentina then – you had to make food from scratch).

My meditation practice became my way of connecting to my family from afar. 

All expectations of who I was were out the window, I could try out different sides of myself since no one knew me and I felt truly, deeply free. It made me have more compassion and understanding for my sisters and everyone I came across I understood we all had stories and our own experience. I also died my hair black because I’d always wanted to try it!

I also refused to live with anyone who spoke any English. I knew it would be too easy to default to my native language. This elevated my speaking skills tenfold!! After moving into a hostel I hung out in all the time for a couple months, I found an apartment with a local guy and started really integrating. 

After a glorious year of living in Buenos Aires, I knew I missed nature and wanted to live somewhere I could hike and be outside more. 

I wanted to live in wine country and work at a vineyard, and I chose northern Argentina near Bolivia, Cafayate in the Salta province. The highest altitude vineyards in the world. Full of old school charm, siestas, and connection to the land. 

In Buenos Aires couchsuring.org was a lifeline (it was second most active couchsurfing community in the world after Paris). I used it to find all the cool local parties, buy my cell phone from another foreigner that was leaving and didn’t need it, found my apartment, etc. 

When I moved to Cafayate, I reached out to the 2 couchsurfers who lived there. One was Dani and he said he would be more than happy to welcome me in, pick me up from the bus station, and show me around. I also reached out to tourism agency about guiding horse tours for them, and they said prob not but I could at least work at their hostel and I said ‘good enough for me!’!

When I got there, it was busier tourist season, so turns out I wasn’t staying with Dani, but in his family home!

I felt a bit of an inconvenience, but they welcomed me in with open arms and delight.

I ended up staying with them for over 2 MONTHS! While Dani slept in a tent in the yard. He was incredibly generous.

They all were. His mom would make me quinoa since I was a vegetarian (I started eating dairly and eggs again once I could get better local access).

Dani’s family had lived in the valley for generation after generation, and he took me on hikes along local Incan waterways.

I ended up running the adventure tourism agency and taking people on bilingual tours of Argentina’s oldest indigenous ruins, and the local Quebrada or canyon hikes. 

IT WAS MAGICAL. When I did finally get a place of my own, I crossed a river every day to get to work. I had a 4 hour siesta when the entire town shut down and I’d hike, do yoga, drink wine, nap.

It showed me such a different way of living is possible, and I’ve held onto it dearly since.

A family of 4 lived in a smaller room than me nextdoor. And I had to start a fire to heat the water for my showers (which shocker I was lazy and normally didn’t and just hoped there was warm water leftover from said family or I’d take a very quick cold shower).

I was one of 2 people in the whole town who spoke any English. And eventually, I started to get a little lonely.

The humor was different. The people my age were not many, and it was overall a pretty rural town. I was starting to long for home.

My dad decided to come down and do a month long trip around the country with me, and I decided that when he went, I would go with him.

It was a really hard decision, but one I knew was right.

I met him in Buenos Aires, we toured around there, I showed him my haunts and friends. We traveled from the southernmost tip, east to west, and almost all the way north!

We first flew to Ushuaia, the southernmost tip of South America. Then we flew to Santiago, Chile and met up with my friends in Valparaiso. Next we took a bus over the Andes and crossed the Chilean Argentine border at the top. We met up with my ex Ale & his mom, both living in their hometown of Mendoza (wine country!). We stayed at a gorgeous vineyard. Then I took him on a 24 hour bus ride to northern Argentina (which trust me, he’ll never do again, haha!). 

We met my Cafayate family and hiked and visited Dani’s grandparents who lived on the land, abuela was making humita (tamale) for all her kids and grandchildren. She had no electricity and had to feed them with what she had on their land growing up. We hiked into areas people had never even seen white people, and they were so generous to share with us what little we had.

The generosity of this land, these people, changed me forever.

They welcomed me in with open arms and open hearts. After 2 years of living there, I left, but I’ll always carry it with me. I came back and decided to support the Latino community here in Bozeman and give back in the same ways they had given to me.

I knew one day I’d be back to do yoga retreats there.

I just didn’t know the roundabout way it would take to get there, including having a daughter (when I was pregnant I would dream about Argentina regularly and yearned for it – it’s such a healing and nurturing part of me);  starting a family and deepening my yoga and spirituality journey so much further.

Heading back there to do my 2025 Patagonia retreat is one of my biggest lifelong dreams and goals.

This country won me over again and again. With their open arms, friendly ways, how they share with the ones they love so deeply, and well, just everything.

Going back there together with an amazing group of adventurous women looking thirsty for meaningful experience amidst the world’s most breathtaking nature is going to change us all in ways we can’t yet know, and I am so here for it.

Thanks for reading and being here with me. I know in many ways it’s easier to live life so boldly while we’re younger, but I promise you your dreams are out there waiting for you.

I find if we take the first step, the universe comes in and meets us. But we have to be willing to take that first step.

Because, remember, what you want, wants you!

“Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

We all deserve spaces to reflect and rewrite our narratives. To feel absolute freedom and peace with who you are. And this retreat will be an opportunity for all  the above.

If you’re interested in joining me for the investment in yourself and the adventure of a lifetime, head to the link below or email me to get on a call!

email: hi@jessicaenergy.com!

Cheers to continuing the adventure!