One year in America

January 23, 2012 - January 23, 2013. From Paris to Mendoza, Argentina, a year has already gone. Some figures about it:

• 366 days
• 47,745 kilometres (an average of 130 km a day)
• 11 different means of transport (I let you guess them all)
• 1,320 hours spent in transportation (meaning 54 full days) not including waiting time
• 16 countries (USA, Canada, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina). For you info, Alaska is part of the US and the Galapagos islands belong to Ecuador. Still to come: Paraguay, South of Brazil and Uruguay.
• 3 spoken languages: Français, English and Español.
• 186 places where I hung my hat for a night or more (incl. 34 nights under my tent)
• 19,525 pictures, 7,132 already erased and 2,745 published
• 102 articles on the French version of this blog, 94 in English and 38 in Spanish
• more than 30,000 visitors on those 3 different blogs
• 12 change rate to deal with (Euro for my budget and then dollar, peso, quetzal, colón, cordoba, boliviano, etc.)
• 12 kg in my backpack, 5 kg in my day pack, and I personally didn't loose weight!
• 4 paires of sunglasses, 3 paires of flip-flops, 2 paires of hiking shoes, 2 paires of All Stars, 600 grammes of soap, 2 tubes of sun-block

One year is also a serie or records:

• number of countries visited with the same person: 8 with Kati (from Galway, Ireland)
• number of weeks traveling with the same person: 5 with Henning (from Cologne, Germany)
• highest point: 6,000 m above sea level (almost 20,000 ft) at Huayna Potosí, Bolivia
• lowest point: -3 m (-10 ft) snorkeling in the Galapagos islands
• lowest température: -48°C (-55°F) in Alaska,USA
• highest température: +45°C (114°F) in Tucson, Arizona, USA
• dryest weather: 4% humidity in Lethbridge, Canada; it even seems that the Atacama desert in Northern Chile is not that dry
• more humid weather: 100% humidity under tropical rain in Mexico City
• longest distance covered at once: 1,310 km between San Pedro de Atacama and La Serena in Northern Chile
• longest ride: 21 hours and 30 minutes to go from Lima to Cuzco, Peru

And my top 10 so far, from Alaska to Argentina :

• Fairbanks (Alaska, USA)
• Jasper National Park (Alberta, Canada)
• Pacific coast of Oregon and North California (USA)
• Grand Canyon (Arizona, USA)
• Cordillera central (Colombia)
• Galapagos islands (Ecuador)
• Isla del Sol (Lake Titicaca, Bolivia)
• Huayna Potosi (Bolivia)
• South Lípez (Bolivia)
• Chiloé archipelago (Chile)
  
  

South-Lípez and Uyuni Salt Flat

Here are the pictures of my fantastic tour in Southwestern Bolivia. It's a beautiful region called Lípez, very desert, landscapes changing every ten minutes when you drive through them. I had the chance (thanks to my travel-lover grand-mother and her Christmas gift) to spend four days in those wonderful places, with Falko (a friend from Germany visiting me for Christmas and New Year), Kati (my regular fellow traveler for months now), and Steve and Nina a very friendly Australo-Norvegian couple.

Just for your information, the lama-like animals are called vicunas and are cousin with lamas. And the mix between rabbit and squirrel is a viscacha.

Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos

I know, I'm super late in publishing pictures and articles. But I'm not the only one; my fellow travelers are doing the same. I've been quite busy with visits of my German friend Falko and now my parents. Here are some pictures of the former Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos. There is a very good article on Wikipedia if some of you are interested in learning some stuff while seeing pictures.