Patricia Irigoytia (BA Travel and Tourism)

Head • Travel Advisor

Towards the end of elementary school the headmistress asked me: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “I don’t know”, I said “I just want to know the whole world.” It was she who suggested I take up tourism and advised me to find out all about it in the Students’ Guide (remember we are talking pre-Google here!).

Years went by and my longing was as deep and gut-felt as in childhood. My family had no means to help me achieve my dreams: no chance of a backpacking sabbatical touring endless cities and bucolic landscapes. This, in fact, is what led to my taking up Tourism as soon as I graduated from High School. After three years I became a Tourist Guide and went on for two more years to obtain my BA in Travel and Tourism. The diploma that would allow me to develop professionally and, finally, to travel extensively. It was way back in the 90s.

While at college I used to work as a guide in the Martín García Island Natural Reserve, then later as a tour leader for all sorts of groups, mainly senior citizens, traveling to Brazil and Chile.
As soon as I graduated I started designing trips for travel agencies, and my first travel dream came true: I traveled to Europe in search of my basque, italian and polish roots. I never stopped traveling after that! I traveled to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa. I basked in the sun in the Seychelles as well as in the Virgin Islands. Y toured Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Colombia. And, surely, amazing Argentina, north to south, in its magnificent diversity of nature and people.
My role as a professional traveler has allowed me to know high-end five star hotels and hectic modern cities, as well as remote, pristine, heavenly landscapes. Both ends of the spectrum have rendered many gifts of learning and loving, of awe and inspiration.

Today the world is changing. As am I.
In 2015 I opened my own Travel Agency – Cultura Viajera. My commitment is stronger than ever to protect this blue planet that shelters us. This precious planet that is being damaged by the lack of responsibility of many industries, no less tourism in its indiscriminate, corrosive forms. This is why I continue to learn with passion, now about Sustainable Travel.

A Sagittarius by birth, I am very cheerful and definitely a people person. I love exploring and learning: I’ve studied drama, photography, shamanism, chinese medicine, qigong. I’ve always loved being around people, friends, clients.
Here I am, still studying and planning, dreaming of and carrying out new ideas, to the rhythm of these unexpected, strange times, which nonetheless carry gifts and opportunities.