We are an Argentinian couple living in Playa de Gandía with our kids Benjamín and Felicitas. We all share a passion: travelling around the world. In this blog we won’t only tell some itineraries and budgets of the countries we have travelled, but also emotions, feelings and very useful tips.
Travel Ruta del Mate is our travel diary. We hope you find it useful, at least as a “small” source of information and inspiration.
Juan
I am the one who plans the family trips, both the itineraries, costs and above all the weather in the places we will visit. As a good Argentinean, I love football, but I also enjoy sports in general. While I write for the Ruta del Mate blog in Spanish, I also invest in Forex, stocks and cryptocurrencies. I love to be informed about the economic and political situation in the world and especially in Argentina.
Flor
I have always loved to travel and all my savings went into this passion (and still do). Although I must confess that I also really enjoy being at home. I changed my profession as an accountant to write about travel and I do so for various online magazines. I like to paint with watercolours, go for walks with Benji on the beach and sometimes cooking (although I like more eating). I’m a Beatles and Bon Jovi fan.
Benji
Model 2021. I’m about to become a big brother and I’m very happy about that. I haven’t paid much attention to my first toys, but ever since I got my first car I haven’t stopped playing with them. I love anything with wheels, from little cars and big construction trucks, to riding my own balance bike and now my bike without pedals and training wheels. I like going to the beach, building tracks in the sand for my trucks and jumping waves.
Feli
Model 2021. Feli was born at the end of one summer and is, for the moment, a very quiet and giggly little girl. She hasn’t traveled much yet, but she loves car trips – she can’t wait to go a little further!
Why do we call ourselves Ruta del Mate?
It’s difficult to explain what “mate” is in a single sentence and even less to explain why we chose it to be part of our blog.
Mate may seem to be a simple infusion that is drunk in a different way than the traditional one, but besides that, underlying it, there is an endless number of values with which we identify ourselves. We will now summarize some of them, which we try to personify in our blog:
The Mate is part of our culture
First of all, mate is part of the popular culture of Argentina, the land where we were born and have lived most of our lives (although it is also widely drunk in Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and even Syria). It reminds us of our origins and culture, and is something we like to share with the people of the countries we visit. While we like to learn about the customs and traditions of those countries, we also like to have an exchange: commenting about the place we come from and talking about mate as a symbol of our country.
MATE IS A REASON TO GET TOGETHER
Secondly, mate is a reason to get together. Many people ask us if mate is rich. Actually, this is not the most “valued” point of this infusion. It is a bitter drink, a simple herb, which does not taste like much. However, its true taste lies in the values it holds, since every meeting among friends, family, acquaintances and strangers has mate as a common point. In Argentina, we always say “let’s have some mate and talk about such and such a thing”. Mate is always in a meeting between people to talk about work or simple things in life.
To Drink Mate is to share
As a third point, mate is shared. All people drink from the same mate, a sign of unity. It doesn’t matter if we met the person just a minute ago, we will always offer them a mate to try. The mate is passed from person to person and there is a “cebador” who is in charge of renewing the water in each mate. The curious thing is that the person who primes the mate (the action of putting the water into the infusion) also rotates. As long as there is a mate in between, we are all sharing something: joys, sadness, emotions or a simple chat.
Mate is our travel and adventure companion
Finally, mate is another travel companion. Whenever we can, we take it with us on each of our trips, as one more person who enjoys the journey. We have taken it on planes, trains, cars, subways, boats, cabs, etc. In every trip, it is always one more check when making the list. The best thing is that there is no time to have some mates, there is always a reason to start the round. The classic question “shall we have some mates”, comes up at every moment.
