North and south in Chile

(First published in Issue 6, September 2022) My name is Victoria, I am Chilean and I am 26 years old, an industrial civil engineer by profession, photographer, filmmaker and adventurer by passion. Today I dedicate myself to photography and to showing the most beautiful corners of my country.

From a very young age I dreamed of having my own mobile home, a small but cozy space with everything necessary to survive and travel the world, photographing and working at the same time. That was my dream. I always thought that I should find a partner to be able to start this idea, I thought that alone as a woman I could not do it or that it would be very risky. But there came a time in my life when I realized that I was wrong and that I should try it alone. If one day I had a suitable partner, everything would be fine, but I couldn’t wait any longer. That’s how I made the decision that it was time to start this life project.

When I started to restore and camperize it, I wanted to share the process and that’s when I created the Octavia Viajando project. I only had 2 years left to finish university, so I spent a whole year working on it, to leave it super equipped for the trip that would start the following summer. Once ready, we began to travel. The goal was to reach the end of the Pan American route in Chile, and since I was going to travel alone, I began to contact different companies related to tourism, such as accommodation, camping or adventure tourism, to be able to barter and stay in places where I felt safe. It was the first time traveling like this. I offered them my photographic work in exchange for a place to park my Kombi and sleep. This is how I began to relate to tourism, to learn from the different realities of each region of Chile and how tourism works.

Since I started this project, I have been able to travel from the Atacama to the Magallanes region in the Kombi, making stops along the way and discovering little-known places in each region. That’s what I like the most. As we travel, we interact with different entrepreneurs throughout Chile and we help each other in a reciprocal way. With photography and videos, we generate audiovisual material and they welcome us, giving us a place to sleep, they teach us what they do and what life is like where they live, creating audiovisual content so they can publicize the experience and services they are offering.

All this without having studied tourism, only by being a lover of nature and outdoor life.

When I finished my Industrial Civil Engineering studies, I continued the trip in my Kombi, this time with the aim of reaching Tierra del Fuego. But as a result of the pandemic, we only managed to get to Aysen, where I had to leave Octavia for 9 months. Finally, in November of that year, I made the decision to go look for her quickly, since everything was very uncertain. Then, in 2021 I resumed the trip. We changed course and went north, reaching the Atacama region, the mountain range above 4,300 meters (14,108 feet), all this in Octavia, an ‘85 Kombi. In 2022, we resumed the trip at the end of the world.

We wanted to get to know Navarino Island and do the trek that bears the same name. This is how in March 2022 we reached Magallanes, fulfilling the dream of arriving in my Kombi to this beautiful region that has so much to discover.

Thanks to all this I have been able to meet incredible people with whom I keep in touch over time and some have become like part of my family. Tourism in Chile still has a lot to offer. We should not focus only on traditional places, since there are a lot of destinations and valuable people who deserve to be known throughout the country.

Today I travel with my partner, @naturart.click. We both try to work in a nomadic way and adapt to the needs of the trade and life on the move. For my part, I combine the trip in my Kombi Volkswagen with other types of trips. Such as the group trips that I have done together with my community of followers, and I attend trips that aim to promote different destinations in the country. Sometimes I go in Octavia and other times we travel by plane to the destination when it is something punctual.

Parallel to all this, I do freelance work as an audiovisual content creator, publishing brand articles on my blog. I do Instagram consulting, digital development classes and more. All this allows me to travel and work while I travel in Octavia.

Our goal is to promote a life inspired by nature and a culture that is aware of caring for the environment. As we travel, we share through Instagram and on my blog octaviaviajando.com how beautiful planet earth is and how to let things happen as they should be. Destiny surprises us every day. All this has taught me that we are not in control of everything. We believe that it is necessary to know what we have in order to value it, so that the need to protect nature and our environment is born in people, in addition to understanding what is happening in other parts of the country and the world.

I have also started taking people to travel around Chile. In October and November I have 2 new group trips to Torres del Paine, which has me very motivated, since it is a way to bring my community closer to national tourism and show them what my ‘85 Volkswagen Kombi is like. It opened the doors to a new nomadic world, which I had never imagined. So if you are reading this and you dream of visiting Chile, do not hesitate to contact me. And if you want to know the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Torres del Paine, you are super invited to be part of these trips. I hope one day to be able to go around the world in my Kombi Octavia Traveling.