Have you ever hitchhiked? Well, a few years ago, I was like most of the French girls: I had never hitchhiked and all I knew was “it’s very dangerous!”.

But, one day in Namibia, I got stuck in a place with no public transportation and I had no other options… So, yes, I went to the side of the road, rose my thumb up and waited for a car to give me a ride. Don’t think I wasn’t scared, I was very scared, thinking of my mother’s words “hitchhiking is very dangerous!”. But, well, I had no choice and here I was. I have to say that this 1st time hichthiking and my whole month in Namibia (yes, I hitchhiked in Africa!) wouldn’t have been that great if I hadn’t done it that way.

Anyway, this is another long story and this time, I want to tell you about my experience doing it in South America (another dangerous place according to some people!).

Here is how I started to hichthike again in Argentina after 1 month in Brazil and Paraguay taking safely local buses.

It was in the North West of Argentina, during my 1st week of travel in that country, that I met a group of French guys, who had been travelling in Chile and Argentina, and who told me that hitchhiking in those countries was safe and would be easy for me as a woman. Well, the buses in Argentina are really expensive so from the next day I decided to start hitchhiking from La Rioja Cuidad and see whether it would be easy for me to travel that way.

Guess what?! It was! As a result, I would then travel almost all Argentina that way –except 100km to Gobernador Gregores in my last day-. I am now very fond of this way of travelling. Some of you –those who never hitchhiked- would think: how could she love such a thing, it’s difficult, takes time and could be dangerous?

 

Yes, if you are thinking that, I agree with you as well, hitchhiking is difficult:

– I will sometimes have to wait for hours along the road with no one stopping or with only a car driving by every 30 minutes and it won’t mean that those cars will stop
– I will be drop sometimes in the middle of nowhere and have to camp there for the night

– I will have to hope that a car will take me before the night because I almost have

nothing to eat anymore (although I am used to not eating for some time, so it will never be a dramatic issue for me)

– I will have to wait for hours in low temperatures with windy weather

– I will sometimes be desperate, break down because of tiredness and ask myself why people are not stopping

But to all of those affirmations, I will answer you that it’s so much worth it!! Why is it? are you thinking?!

Well, it’s worth all the hassle because:

– I am meeting awesome and generous people every day

– I am improving my speaking and understanding skills of Spanish a bit more hours after hours

– I got to learn so much about the culture of Argentina

– I met people, that I am now considering as my friends

– With some people, I even got the opportunity to stop during the journey to take pictures of nice places 

– I met other hitchhikers that way and sometimes, I have been travelling with them for some time afterwards

– It gives my trip so much more spontaneity and changes than with a bus: I know what’s my final destination but I never know, how long it will take me to get there or where I will be arriving for the night. It will depend of where the last car is going to take me ?

– People will be dropping me off in front of the camping, hostel or the house I will be staying in for the night, instead of at a bus terminal, which most of the time is not close to anything

– Some people will be so generous that they will give me some food to eat during the trip but also some food when they are dropping me off in case I am stuck on the road at night

– Some people will even invite me to their homes for the night (I know what you might think, but no, it’s not only men who invited me, and for men, I refused all the time!)

– It’s an excellent way of creating a personal and professional network

– You get the opportunity to see amazing landscapes

And yes it takes time to wait for a car and that car will sometimes not take you to your destination but on the other hand, a car is much quicker than a bus here. The bus will indeed stop every 2 hours or less for 30 minutes for a snack break. Moreover, the bus is in average driving at 80km/h, when a good car will drive 100km/h in average. For instance, from San Carlos de Bariloche to El Calafate, the bus will take 30 hours, which took me the same time by car but stopping in a hotel for the night and eating a good parilla in a restaurant for dinner.

To the last of your worries: “it is dangerous”, I have nothing to say against it. Because, well, I know it is but I am not living my life being afraid of things. So, in a sense it is, but on the other hand it’s also making me stronger every day, so I am taking that risk. And after hitchhiking thousands of kilometers, I never got any problems.

Did I convince you that hichthike is awesome??? Maybe not, but I hope that at least I got to give you a good insight of what this kind of adventures is like.

Whatever your dreams are, don’t be afraid to live them!

Live the life you want!