While growing up in Greeley, Taos Turner never saw himself as a journalist.

He certainly didn't think he would be a journalist in Argentina.

And while it has been a long and twisting journey, that's exactly where Turner finds himself, working as a freelance journalist and developing what he aims to make the largest English-read blog about his adopted South American country.

"I've already had readers (on the blog) from 98 countries. It's just crazy," Turner, 35, said last week.

Turner is the son of Dean and Nancy Turner. His father taught philosophy and philosophy of education at the University of Northern Colorado for nearly 40 years, and his mother continues to work as staff psychologist at the UNC Counseling Center. He was married in Argentina in December and came back to Greeley with his new wife, Dolores Biocca, and members of her family, so they could see where he grew up and meet family and friends who were not able to attend the wedding.

Turner's adventures, which eventually led him to Buenos Aires, began shortly after he graduated from the then University Lab School -- now University Schools -- in 1991. While at the lab school, he also took classes at UNC, but he admitted "I never did want to go to college."

But he did anyway, attending about five different universities before graduating from the University of Colorado with degrees in political science and economics. That led to an interest in law school, which he attended for a year.

"I really became interested in international trade and law but realized I needed to speak a foreign language," Turner said.

So he took a year off to learn Spanish. But not in a traditional, classroom, way.

He came back to Greeley, took odd jobs here and there and conducted research. That research, he said, led him to Argentina because of its culture, opportunities and restaurants. He got an English/Spanish dictionary and started learning the language. Then he took his savings from the jobs, booked a flight, and took off for Argentina, not knowing anyone.

"I sat right in the middle of the airplane and practiced my Spanish, out loud," he said with a laugh, noting that he got some strange looks from some of his fellow passengers.

But it worked. He met a family on the plane who had an English school in Buenos Aires and he moved in with them, on the understanding he would speak English to members of the family and those in the school. But he wasn't learning Spanish, like he wanted, so he spent only a couple of weeks with that family before striking out on his own.

His money lasted about six months, so he returned to Greeley, went back to work and used his savings this time to go to Spain, where he earned certification to teach English to Spanish-speaking students, then spent a while touring Europe, working as a model.

"I was close, at times, to landing a big contract modeling, but it never worked out," he said.

So he lined up an exchange program to Venezuela, teaching English, where he spent about six months before going back to Argentina, obtaining a work visa to teach English. That lasted another six months or so, until he heard that Bloomberg News needed someone who understood the economy in Argentina.

"I grew up doing two things in the morning, putting milk on my cereal and reading the Greeley Tribune," Turner said. Though he did not know it at the time, he had a flair for writing and reporting, so he took the job with Bloomberg and that was to lead, during the next few years, jobs with other news services, including the Associated Press, Al Jazerra, Dow Jones Newswires and others.

He specialized in the economics and agriculture of Argentina until 2006-2007, when he was named a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. He spent that year in the study of online news reporting and the law as it pertains to the ethics of blogging.

He returned to Argentina once more, but not without a stop in Greeley, where he makes what has become a pilgrimage to JB's Drive Inn, which he told his wife has the best hamburgers in the world in addition to the restaurant's famous root beer coolers.

"I had to bring her here to prove it. She thinks the best hamburgers are in Argentina," he said.

He and his new wife have known each other for about 10 years. He met her when he went to an exhibit on Juan Perón, the former Argentine president, who, Turner said, is either loved or hated in Argentina. Dolores was working as a bi-lingual guide at the exhibit and Turner said he went back a second day.

"I think it was more to see the guide than the exhibit," he said with a laugh.

Argentina, Turner said, is a diverse country, but it's food staple is mainly Italian with a lot of pizza and pasta, as well as grass-fed beef which is served with salad. The Argentine people eat more beef per capita than any other country in the world, he said, adding his father-in-law is a rancher.

"There's also a good-sized German community and a lot of French immigrants. It's just a very diverse country and I love it," Turner said.