Walk through the heart
of the Andes, do you like it?
Photo credit: Linda Bortoletto
To the rhythm of the four seasons, Linda Bortoletto walks alone, following her intuition.
As during her last adventure in Chilean Patagonia, where she continued on foot for three months the Greater Patagonian Trail , one of the most difficult treks on the planet, which from Santiago de Chile, crosses the Andes for nearly 3,000 kilometers. unmarked. These absolutely wild and dangerous places, where the four elements reign (active volcanoes, raging torrents, storms, lush vegetation), will take her to the end of the world and especially to the end of herself.
Not only does Linda Bortoletto want to share her experience with us and testify to the beauty of our planet, its immensity, its energy and regenerative power, but she is also inhabited by another mission, that of awakening our consciousness.
Linda does not want to be presented as an adventurer, but rather as an explorer. In a perpetual spiritual quest, she often seeks the invisible in the visible and is not afraid to move towards the beyond, in the direction of unknown worlds.
By starting this interview, I could very well ask her why she walks in these so distant lands, but by discovering who she is on social networks, I understood that this question Linda has not asked for a long time: she walks because that it is called upon to do so. It's as simple as that.
This is what she describes to me very well in the course of our discussion: “my walk goes beyond walking and brings me to another experience of consciousness. I walk because that brings me back to humility: I am nothing among the All. I walk because, step by step, I descend more towards myself. In this descent, I rise. My walk then becomes meditation and introspection. I even forget the time. I am anchored in the present. I find there a state of plenitude and appeasement. Faced with the elements and thanks to the healing power of nature, its strength, I reconnect with life despite my deepest wounds. This homecoming allowed me to purify myself, to continue my reconstruction following a sexual assault that I survived in Turkey in 2019, while I was walking alone the Path of the Sufis. At the risk of sinking for good, it was barely a few months later that I decided to embark on a new journey of resilience and purification. However, before I left, many questions were still circling in my head: how do I get rid of my hatred? How can I wash my body and mind from the aggression I have suffered? How to find my serenity? How can I trust myself again, sew myself up inside? How can I reconnect with my spontaneity in my relationship with others? What about my sense of intuition? "
Photo credit: Linda Bortoletto
Faced with all her questions, it is thanks to the breath of the Andes that Linda Bortoletto found the way to her reconstruction.
Linda told me with her touching words: "This walk brought me new life, the very one they wanted to take from me!" It complements the psychological support that I followed to cope with the state of post-traumatic stress, also in addition to the time that passes and which alone brings its beneficial effect, not to mention the comfort of my entourage, these elements having been all three essential to my recovery. "
Through this mishap, Linda wishes to send a message to women who still suffer from violence today: “I know that unfortunately my case is not isolated. In this, my march becomes Revolt and Combat! It is important to me to act and react. To each his own way to heal the wounds of life and to free himself. For me, it's walking. That's why I left alone 70 days to the end of the world. ”
She then confided in me: “There, nature repaired me. Never have I felt so much the healing power of the elements: air, fire, earth, water. Without knowing it, I was going through a kind of shamanic initiation. If today I can smile again, have confidence, love myself and love others, it is thanks to all this progress. How can I not want to pass on to other people what healed me and can even be saved? ”.
In her latest book "Le souffle des Andes" recently published by Éditions Payot, Linda describes in detail this process of rebirth in Patagonia. For our greatest happiness, it is an intimate journey of resilience and purification that she shares with us. More than walking heals, it would seem that it was the beauty of the wilderness that soothed his soul.
Photo credit: Valentin Lam
As you can see, Linda is dedicating her latest book, as she says with emotion, "to all those looking to catch their breath." In her film, she was able to create a story that supports what she wrote in her book, without distorting it, nor saying too much. Linda has decided to make her video available for free on her YouTube channel because she wants her testimony to serve a cause close to her heart. She wants those who have experienced such trauma to be able to get up, in the same way that she was able to get up.
Learn more about the Greater Patagonian Trail (GPT)
Linda still wishes to warn us about the difficulties encountered along the way. She specifies:
“To cross Chilean Patagonia on foot, I chose to walk along the Greater Patagonian Trail (GPT) , an unofficial path and therefore unmarked. The route was created and made public in 2014 by the German Jan Dudeck, who qualifies it as a “hiking trail” which is not one in my opinion, insofar as it is still a matter of exploration and requires therefore patience and humility. For years, Jan Dudeck has done a titanic job of cross-checking and consolidating precise information on the Greater Patagonian Trail. He made them accessible to everyone on the Wikiexplora web page . The GPT's complete network covers more than 16,000 kilometers of paths while its main road spans approximately
3,000 kilometers. It starts from Santiago, the capital of Chile, and ends at Lago Viedma, at the eastern edge of the southern Patagonian ice field. However, as Jan Dudeck collects data each year, the length of the GPT, its point of departure and arrival, are subject to change. Your GPT will most likely be different from the one I have ridden! GPT trails include animal trails, sometimes abandoned dirt roads, secluded portions of roads, but also wild crossings off any road, as well as river descents for hikers equipped with packrafting. Due to the climatic conditions of Patagonia, the difficulty of the GPT and the uncertainties surrounding it, it is not possible to cover the entire 3,000 kilometers of the main GPT road in a single season. This is why the route has been divided into 40 sections, each measuring between 40 and 200 kilometers. This division allows everyone to freely choose the sections they wish to explore according to their available time and physical capacities. For my part, before my departure, I had chosen to walk for 70 days, no matter how many sections I will actually cover. Performance interests me little. The only things that count are the experience, the contemplation, the return to the moment. So I had decided to start with the volcanoes which are located about 200 kilometers south of Santiago, to then go step by step towards the South, taking a ferry to Puerto Montt or Quellon, in order to end my walk in the middle. glaciers of Patagonia. "
Linda Bortoletto's poem on the roads
In addition to this, you need to know more about it.
There are long paths, short paths,
wide paths, narrow paths,
paths that lead nowhere,
paths that lead to other paths,
easy paths that already exist,
forgotten paths that must be cleared with a machete,
paths that go up, paths that go down,
muddy paths where we often slide,
paths where we get stuck in the roots and we fall,
paths where we risk never coming back,
paths that don't let us go,
paths we choose, paths we endure,
paths where you can see the sky,
paths where you can only see green,
paths where you can only see the earth,
paths where you can no longer see anything,
deserted paths, frequented paths,
hostile paths, friendly paths,
paths of love, paths of light, dark paths,
paths we love by day, paths we love at night,
paths that we love neither day nor night.
There is also a path made of all roads.
He is neither beautiful nor ugly.
It is.
The path of Life.
That's right, Linda has crossed and been traversed by the extraordinary beauty of the Andean landscapes, as she describes it so poetically on her facebook account :
“After being carried by the fire of volcanoes, the land of forests, I then heard the melody of water. Water of lakes and rivers, sometimes pacified, caressed by stones, sometimes unleashed, lifted by the winds. Frozen glacial water, crystallized, where time itself seems captivated. Silvery, iridescent, deep blue or milky blue water. Water, infinite movement, symbol of purity, of eternity. Symbol of regeneration, fertility. Water, symbol of Life. "
Who is Linda Bortoletto?
Seeking action, extremes and movement, Linda began her career in 2001 as an Air Force officer. It was his father, himself a former soldier, who gave him a taste for adventure. Linda aspired to be a fighter pilot, but her dream was shattered due to a medical issue. She then decided to join the National Gendarmerie, where she commanded for four years more than 150 gendarmes in Roubaix. At 27, she was promoted to the rank of captain. But when her father died in March 2009, she suddenly realized that she had taken the wrong path and had become a person who no longer looked like her. At 30, she therefore decided to push her limits and build projects "beyond all borders". For six years, she led solo expeditions to the most remote and isolated regions of the world. She explores the inside world and the outside world as she says. She explores her sufferings, her strengths, her joys, she explores the traditions, the cultures, the wisdoms of the whole world. She explores different levels of consciousness, different means of transmission. In short, she explores a whole lot of things. This is its primary vocation. Linda is a person who lives and fights for life. Today, we can say that Linda was right to follow her dreams, because she became an author, lecturer, researcher in psychology and neuroscience on the themes relating to daring, will, surpassing and optimism. His interventions are based exclusively on his experience, knowledge and interest in relaxation therapy, meditation and philosophy. For ten years now, she decided to put an end to a "normal" or "standardized" life, to follow her passion: to discover the hidden sides of our world and to write the stories that these trips inspire her. All of his projects are presented on his website , illustrated by a selection of photographs and short videos. Thanks to her experience and her many adventures, she is now one of the few women to join the members of the Society of French Explorers , alongside Mélusine Mallender.
Photo credit: Linda Bortoletto
Photo credit: Linda Bortoletto
In her blog , Linda explains to us what her upcoming projects are, how she prepares them, and, for the most exciting part, how she lives them! As she puts it so well: “It was while traveling that I understood that life is not located on the banks, but that it is the very flow of the river. By embarking on these new adventures, I plunged into life. "
With her Youtube channel , Linda wants to make spirituality both practical and accessible to everyone. Trained as a Tantra Yoga and meditation teacher, her goal is for you to awaken your awareness and see real changes in your life by lifting your various blocking points.
During our discussion, Linda goes into more detail about her approach: “Whenever I think about the life I led before, I am amazed at how dark this period seems to me. Not because of the trials or difficulties that I have known, but mainly because I was far, very far from MY way, so far that I did not even see it. To feel ME. To live the extraordinary is to experience yourself. My definition of daring, ultimately, is very simple: it is daring to be yourself, with no regard for anything that might oppose it. I believe that we each have something to accomplish in this world, which I call a life mission. Something that corresponds to us, internally, to what we were born to do. Living is a perpetual back and forth between oneself and the world, which allows the exploration to become interior. In this, the exploration is endless. It is to defend the true riches of life: beauty and diversity. I think that working on your inner life is the work of a lifetime. It is a state of mind, an attitude of every moment. And today, I humbly wish to share what my experience has taught me. "
So, if you want to explore the unknown, dare the impossible, create our future, join Linda's daring tribe by subscribing to her newsletter at this link http://eepurl.com/cZP-V1
For Linda, “writing is an adventure, a deep exploration of our experience and our being. Writing is a gateway to ourselves ”. Linda knows the way well, follow the guide !!! In her books, she shares her travel and life experiences, her reflections on the world and existence.
His past adventures :
2011: ALASKA: 1200 kilometers by bike at the dawn of winter;
2014: KIRGHIZISTAN: 800 km of running and 800 km of cycling;
KAMCHATKA: 6 months with the Chouktches between nature and wilderness and shamanism;
2015: ZANSKAR: with Buddhist nuns at an altitude of over 4,500 meters;
2016: ORIENTAL TIBET: 3,500 kilometers by bike at an altitude of over 4,000 meters;
2017: FRANCE: 35 marathons in 2 months in the name of daring;
2018: ISRAEL: 1,100 kilometers on foot along the Shvil or path of the angels;
2020: CHILE: 3 month trek along the Greater Patagonian Trail.
Linda ends our interview with these wise words:
“ Freedom is acquired. Our intuition is our best guide. We simply have to change our way of looking, of perceiving things . The walk brings us to another experience of consciousness. Step by step, it becomes meditation. Faced with the grandeur and beauty of the world, we find ourselves reduced to our simple human condition, we reconnect with a noble value: humility. It is a forgotten value in our societies. Appearance, possession and demonstration of possession have become a way of life today! You have to appear, you have to have, you have to show that you have. The image has become an obsession. It is poison. In a situation of analysis, we realize that in the face of the immensity of nature, we are nothing. It is no longer a question of having or doing. It is about being, simply, humbly. Not to compare yourself is to live freely! In a world where the image is sovereign, the comparison can quickly become a burden, a brake, a tourniquet to what we are, what we want to be. I would like so much that we ALL advance on our way, the same way ... "
To conclude, the quote from Jiddu Krishnamurti is a good illustration of Linda Bortoletto's approach: "If we do not compare ourselves to anyone, we become what we are."
More info on :
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https://lindabortoletto.com/my-blog
More key ideas about Santiago therapy
BUEN CAMINO :-)
Lionel of Compostela
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Latest publication 2021 : "The breath of the Andes: my crossing of the Andes on foot": she tells us about her journey of resilience and purification following her sexual assault in Turkey
Price 2020 “On the Way of the magazine Le Pèlerin”:
"The path of the Angels: my crossing of Israel on foot":
a story between walking, encounters and spirituality.
Woman of Audacity Prize 2017:
“Boldness will set us free” : this is her manifesto on daring: she describes the steps she took to overcome her fears, face the unknown and end up DARING.
Prize of the Toison d'Or for the lived adventure book 2016:
"Where I will continue to be: the call of the wilderness":
she tells about her change of life and her initiatory journey in Siberia and Alaska.
Linda Bortoletto has also hosted more than a hundred conferences, not to mention the many TV shows in which she regularly participates to transmit her message and her philosophy of life.
Photo credit: Linda Bortoletto
You will find on the following pages, all my long distance hikes with descriptions of the stages and photos. Coming soon... so, subscribe to the site here or on my Youtube channel. Buen camino!!! Lionel of Compostela
