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MARINA
ZAVALIA
"TRAVELING ALONE, EMOTIONS INTENSIFY, SENSES FLOURISH, INTUITION GROWS AND ANECDOTES MULTIPLY. THESE FEELINGS INSPIRED ME TO TURN MY LIFESTYLE INTO MY PROFESSION."
I was born in Buenos Aires, but my life was spent between the countryside in La Pampa and La Cumbre, Cordoba. I traveled the country on horseback and on foot.
I graduated as a lawyer with honours from the University of Buenos Aires, but I was driven by the curiosity to discover the world. At that time, I had travelled much more through books than by my own footsteps, and I had an unstoppable desire to explore and connect with everything that I had imagined since I was a child through my readings.
So I put my law degree and career aside to travel around Europe. At the train stations, my destinations were never cities and at my stops, I always found my way alone to reach my accommodation between valleys and mountains. This is how I travelled through the Swiss and Austrian Alps, the Scottish Highlands, the Isle of Skye, the Black Forest, and the green heart of twelve countries, always with a fervent impulse towards mountains.
I returned to Buenos Aires determined to settle down sorrounded by the Cordoba hills. I lived there for years, where I learned to paraglide, deepening the feeling of freedom I had always sought to reach. I worked for an international corporate as a Territory Manager, having the opportunity to travel all over Argentina, always finding the time to continue exploring and also visiting Africa, Europe and America.
Africa was undoubtedly a turning point in my life. In Tanzania, I knocked on doors until I found a school which gave me the opportunity to volunteer as a teacher. But the truth is that these lands were the ones that taught me so much. After classes finished, I went alone to explore the wildest nature, with my adventurous spirit as my only travel guide.
Without speaking the language, I had no choice but to learn the African codes, honing my intuition to its fullest, living with uncertainty and chaos, and engaging in a game against time, change, assumptions, and, fundamentally, against myself.
Magical experiences.
Today, being 30 years old, I have visited sixteen countries on my own. Nevertheless, it's through these travels that I've had the chance to connect with so many people and truly feel at home. This is how I built friendships that are like family all over the world.
Traveling alone, emotions intensify, senses flourish, intuition grows and anecdotes multiply. These feelings inspired me to turn my lifestyle into my profession.
Today, I want to invite you to travel with me through Argentina, the country that I considered as the most generous in nature, tradition, hospitality, and culture—honoring my roots and my homeland.
Over the years, freedom has become the essence of who I am – a feeling embodied through my passion for paragliding, horseback riding, adventure, and exploring untouched landscapes. It's a spirit that thrives in my travels and in my endless curiosity. All of these became the key elements that led to the creation of Ankaterra.
I founded ANKATERRA, whose definition is Land of the Eagle, a name that represents the true essence of freedom.
