Tour guide in Santiago Valparaiso Rodrigo D.

My name is Rodrigo. I'm a 37 years old chilean tour guide. I was born in Santiago, but raised in Chiloé, a beautiful island full of magic south of my contry where I also joined the scouts movement and started to fall in love with the wild side of the whole archipiélago, exploring deeply into it's astonishing landscapes. As a little boy comming from the biggest city in my country, it was a big shock for me at first, I was intrigued and fascinated discovering a whole new experience that my young brain couldn't really define yet. The concept of time itself was not as "objective" as I thought, making life quite different down here. Living on an island, sooner or later you are gonna feel trapped, probably due to the mental idea rather than an actual thing, but it happened to me and I aimed high. During the last year of highschool I chose to participate in an student exchange program half a world away and landed on an island again! Christchurch, New Zealand became my home for a whole lovely year during the 2001. I had the chance to pick the subjects to study, so among others I took tourism and photography. The results? boxes of pictures from all around the south island! When I came back I went to university in Santiago de Chile. I did study film making first, but through life experiences I ended in tourism. I had a great time meeting people from all over the world as a city tour guide; I also learned to look at my own city through the eyes of eager visitors, thus learning the interesting differences on the very mundane things we do with out thinking every day. After some time, feeling more confident about my skills, I started working a freelancer guide and I met the wonderful "directress" of an argentinian company that organizes worldwide trips for groups of retired people. I joined as a tour guide for my country at first, but quickly joined as a coordinator coming along with the trips to famous cities as New York and Rome, for instance. The tours have been an amazing experience, but they happen only once in a while. Fortune smiled to me once again and an old friend of mine started up this company that works every winter taking people to the snow in the Andes mountain range and asked me to join. I sure did! and getting to know the mountains I then started working as an outdoors adventure guide during summertime, again in the Andes mountains. Full of new life experiences and knowledge something still bugged me. I kept looking south and thinking of my island. Remembering the time I left it got to me: ever since then a silent clock started clicking in my heart, Chiloé was waiting for me every day. I strongly felt it's calling during spring and autumn, when the strong wind blows, the trees dance and the clouds come to life teasing the bright sun that pierces through creating a chaotic and alluring contrast of lights and shadows. So if living on an island would sooner or later make you wanna leave, sooner or later the island is gonna want you back. And here I am, after seeing the world I'm ready to share now this ticking clock that pumps my heart, the magical island of Chiloé. I'm here for you, you can join any of my regular trips or you can contact me if you need to customize your experience, we can go wild and explore virgin forest by the wild pacific ocean or dig deeper in the local culture, understand the history and try the local food sharing a "curanto" or a "reitimiento" if you are up to the challenge! (We locals eat a lot). I'll make sure you visit the most intersting spots and also the get the prettiest looks of my magic island. Hope to see you soon! Wilderness First Responder - AIDER. 2 years as a city-tour guide in Santiago de Chile. 2 years as an adventure guide in Los Andes Mountains. 2 years as a freelancer guide in trips around the world. none