Well yes, "making a break" asks at least for some preparation : to buy oneself a great time is unfortunately quite expensive... And as a young european graduated (Telecoms engineer), living more or less on credit since my switch from cars to motorbikes, and having done so far road-trips of not more than an extended weekend, the task seemed quite challenging !
(your host)
The first step toward the solution appeared as a job opportunity in Argentina, an undetermined duration local contract - paid in pesos & 2 weeks of holiday per year - which allowed me to go living and taking temperature on this new continent.
Working at this time in Thales Alenia Space (TAS) as a service provider (various employers along those 3-4 years on site), I was informed on spring 2011 by my responsible Eric (thanks to you !) that a staff of argentinians came to discuss contracts where aside looking for a french aware of TAS's methods to reinforce their team in a satellite production project.
Some mail & phone interviews later, and after having met each other in Buenos Aires in september, I was hired in late 2011 by the society Arsat to participate to the implementation of the national telecoms development program "Argentina Conectada", more precisely as far as I was concerned to the two first satellite's payloads production follow-up as a Radio-Frequency engineer.
Working at this time in Thales Alenia Space (TAS) as a service provider (various employers along those 3-4 years on site), I was informed on spring 2011 by my responsible Eric (thanks to you !) that a staff of argentinians came to discuss contracts where aside looking for a french aware of TAS's methods to reinforce their team in a satellite production project.
Some mail & phone interviews later, and after having met each other in Buenos Aires in september, I was hired in late 2011 by the society Arsat to participate to the implementation of the national telecoms development program "Argentina Conectada", more precisely as far as I was concerned to the two first satellite's payloads production follow-up as a Radio-Frequency engineer.
(The Arsat-1 & Arsat-2 projects)
(The Benavídez's ground station & Invap's site in Bariloche)
(The "payload" in white room & the launcher Ariane5 on its VA220 edition : Fly baby, fly !)
A good first step undeniably, that not only left me considerably closer from the interest zone but also gave me time to improve my poor spanish bases upon the freshly dropped tourist's gibberish, a real help to be able enjoying the journey in a less superficial way. To be exact, I should be talking of "castellano", a version of spanish slightly accommodated by south-americans and especially by the porteñ@s (inhabitants of Buenos Aires).
A six months acclimatation quite exhausting on this aspect, but resulting integration is worth struggling it, even if it ends up being really challenging to lose any stranger accent trace and really be though as a local : knowing some slang and being aware of local news greatly eases contact !
A six months acclimatation quite exhausting on this aspect, but resulting integration is worth struggling it, even if it ends up being really challenging to lose any stranger accent trace and really be though as a local : knowing some slang and being aware of local news greatly eases contact !
(An essential guide to understand the porteñ@s !)
Anyway, at this stage I still had some serious issues to attend before to be in position to pretend to the great getaway...
The ground station (satellites control center) including Arsat's offices being based in Benavídez, in the extreme north suburbs of Buenos Aires, and despite I had the chance to go regularly to San Carlos de Bariloche in the north of Patagonia where the partner society Invap was proceeding with TAS to production and tests of these satellites, my hope of taking advantage of the relative proximity of some local marvels was soon temperated by references change about distances and available time...
To help figuring it out, one has first to visualize that the distance between north and south argentinian's tips (from the 23˚S of the Capricorn's tropic in Jujuy until the 55˚S of Ushuaia) equals the one joining east & west United-States coasts, or even would cover Europe from Morocco to Scandinavia !
Quite hard in such conditions to get from one point to another differently than by plane, unless passing half of your short holidays on the trip... And that's how I went between christmas 2012 and new year's day discovering the gorgeous glaciers of El Calafate (among which the famous Perito Moreno) and the mesmerizing surroundings of Ushuaia (link between both by plane, 600kms on straight flight and 870 by road). An motorbike accident in the very first days of 2013 and the 3 months sick leave associated then fairly complicated my holidays requests, and finally I will have taken only 3 weeks over the 7 generated in this three and a half contract duration... Just enough to go visiting (by plane, 1.300kms from BsAs) the impressive Iguazú's falls in august 2013 and make room for 10 days in the end of 2014 hanging around (by plane) with my father came to visit me.
Short getaways that still allowed me to get conscious of Tierra del Fuego summer's coolness and country's north zones winter's mildness.
The ground station (satellites control center) including Arsat's offices being based in Benavídez, in the extreme north suburbs of Buenos Aires, and despite I had the chance to go regularly to San Carlos de Bariloche in the north of Patagonia where the partner society Invap was proceeding with TAS to production and tests of these satellites, my hope of taking advantage of the relative proximity of some local marvels was soon temperated by references change about distances and available time...
To help figuring it out, one has first to visualize that the distance between north and south argentinian's tips (from the 23˚S of the Capricorn's tropic in Jujuy until the 55˚S of Ushuaia) equals the one joining east & west United-States coasts, or even would cover Europe from Morocco to Scandinavia !
Quite hard in such conditions to get from one point to another differently than by plane, unless passing half of your short holidays on the trip... And that's how I went between christmas 2012 and new year's day discovering the gorgeous glaciers of El Calafate (among which the famous Perito Moreno) and the mesmerizing surroundings of Ushuaia (link between both by plane, 600kms on straight flight and 870 by road). An motorbike accident in the very first days of 2013 and the 3 months sick leave associated then fairly complicated my holidays requests, and finally I will have taken only 3 weeks over the 7 generated in this three and a half contract duration... Just enough to go visiting (by plane, 1.300kms from BsAs) the impressive Iguazú's falls in august 2013 and make room for 10 days in the end of 2014 hanging around (by plane) with my father came to visit me.
Short getaways that still allowed me to get conscious of Tierra del Fuego summer's coolness and country's north zones winter's mildness.
(El Calafate - Perito Moreno & Glacier tour)
(Ushuaia - Beagle Canal)
(Iguazú - Argentinian side & Garganta del Diablo)
(Iguazú - Brazilian Side)
(Wine cellars in Mendoza & my father in the Aconcagua's viewpoint)
The last real obstacle to the journey remained my engagement to repay some loans in France : a pure nightmare with respect to foreign currencies purchase's interdiction implemented just in the moment I arrived by Argentinian's government to strive reducing capital's leaks and parallel dollar value's constant rise... I won't bore you here with the details of the various improvised solutions, but I finally managed to put an end to it and to constitute in the time frame of this mission (2 satellites) a sufficient saving to launch into the great casting-off. :)
Bonus not foreseen at start, these 3 years passed renovating my working visa also gave me access to argentinian's permanent residence, which clearly simplifies administrative operations and border crossings in the Mercosur area.
Bonus not foreseen at start, these 3 years passed renovating my working visa also gave me access to argentinian's permanent residence, which clearly simplifies administrative operations and border crossings in the Mercosur area.
And that's how in mid-2015, after having finished with Arsat-2's ground tests (I was planning to stay until launch & In-Orbit tests but it was delayed and I was limited by the rain season), I could finally quit my job and begin on this fabulous journey I was then preparing since nearly two years.
At the end, it will have taken to me four years to complete the transition from the indebted european resident to the engagement-free south-american resident... An experience rich in learnings, progressively diving into this surprising country's culture, Argentina being itself kind of a transition between occidental influence still quite present here and the more andin other countries on my way.
(Barbecue on my friend Tano's terrasse. Salud !)
No comments:
Post a Comment