I am what I am; finding a travel companion

After being robbed at knife point in Spain this year I really did lose my confidence and start to think about the other choices I might have made to live my life differently. And I came home. 

After just three weeks at home I realized that I am still very much a traveller, that I wasn't ready to quit yet, but that I needed to take a different approach. I needed a travel companion. 

Contrary to common belief, I have always wanted a travel companion. I'd just never found a long-term one. And, of course, when I say long term, I mean really long term; indefinite really. 

So, I set about finding one. I searched online in every possible forum I could find, and I found one on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree (Travellers Forum). 

He had a post basically saying what he was doing, and it was an itinerary that really suited me: overlanding south in South America. 

I've always wanted to go overlanding in the Americas, but its something I felt I needed a travel companion for. You can find a definition for overlanding on Wikipedia, but basically it's driving a vehicle, set-up for sleeping, over really long distances. And going back to South America is good for me because it's part of the world I'm quite comfortable with. 

Meeting a stranger to travel with?

People reactions to this are either: "you're meeting a stranger, are you crazy?, what if..."

Or: "that's awesome... I can tell he's going to be the one!!!!"

In reply to the first one: I honestly believe that most people in the world aren't dangerous, and that he is looking for a travel companion. 

In reply to the second one: I'm just looking for a travel companion. 

My only thought is to whether we will get along, but for that I feel like I'll never know unless I go. It's South America, I'll make a Plan B if I need to (remember it's part of the world I am comfortable with.)

My new travel companion is from Belgium. 

I meet him in Argentina next week.