Read FIRST - How to see my blogs?

NB – Many of my blogs are not yet indexed...

If you want to discover my trip, you need to scroll below and click on the country that you want to visit!

The following countries of the Americas are under construction!

     Mai 2025 - USA

     April 2025 - Mexico

     January - March 2025 - Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, 

                             Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize

     August - November 2024 - Peru, Equador, Colombia, Venezuela

     February - June 2024 - Patagonia, Argentina 2, Uruguay, Brazil

     November 2023 - Southern Chile

NB - I travel solo, my time is limited... Discovering new places and meeeting people are more important that keeping my Social Media up date !

                                

    July - Sept 2023 - Paraguay is here and Argentina 1 is here

    May - June 2023 - Northern Chile is here and Bolivia is here

    March - April 2023 - Islands of the Pacific Ocean are here

October 2022 - Timor-Leste is here

March 2022 to March 2023  - Australia is here

July 2021 - Greece (in a camper-van) is here

April 2020 - Coronavirus strikes is here
March 2020 - New Zealand is here
February 2020 - Shipping my Land Roamer to Australia is here
December 2019 - Short trip to Sri Lanka is here
November 2019 - Indonesia 2 (Lombok, Bali, Java) is here
Sept - Oct 2019 - Indonesia 1 (Sulawesi, Flores, Sumbawa) is here
July-August 2019 - Borneo is here
June 2019 - Cambodia is here

May 2019 - Vietnam is here
March 2019 - Singapore is here
February 2019 - Malaysia Peninsular is here
December 2018 - Thailand is here
November 2018 - Laos is here
October 2018 - China is here

September 2018 - Mongolia is here 
August 2018 - Kazakhstan and Russian Federation are here
July 2018 – Pamir highway 2 (Kyrgyzstan) is here
July 2018 – Pamir highway 1 (Tajikistan) is here

July 2018 – Tajikistan is here 

June 2018 – Turkmenistan is here and Uzbekistan is here

May 2108 - Iran (second trip) is here 

April 2018 - UAE is here and Oman is here 

March 2018 - Iran (first trip) is here

February 2018 - Departure, Eastern Europe & Turkey is here

Enjoy without moderation!

NB – My blogs are memories of my trip, I do not use much text, I would like the pictures to “tell the story of what I have seen and lived”. 

Some photos are not “fantastic” but show something interesting or are there because I wanted to highlight a point. 

They are mainly in chronological order of my travels; they often include places where I slept with the Land Roamer or in a “backpacker’s hostel”. 

As there are many pictures, take your time, do not rush through them; enjoy to the max the beauty of Planet Earth and the Great People that I meet along the way.

Welcome to the Land Roamer's blog!

I created this blog to keep my family and friends informed about the Land Roamer’s 
preparation, planning for the trip and later to keep in touch during my overland adventures.

Some of the pictures are NOT award winning, 

but they illustrate what I saw and are memories of my trip.

Having had both a Land Rover and a Land Cruiser, I decided that I would call my 

4x4 camper-truck, a Brimont Brutt (more info here) "Land Roamer".

To roam: "To travel purposefully unhindered through a wide area. It suggests wandering freely
 and often far afield."  Etymology: Middle English, 14th century, Merriam-Webster.  

"Live for the JOURNEY, not the Destination!"

Bernard Salzmann - World traveller on the McKay Interview

... The English language stole the German word Wanderlust. There wasn't - and still isn't - a better word for it. The French call it esprit d'aventure (if I am correct). My first guest of 2024 on #themckayinterview is Bernard Salzmann, who most certainly has the Wanderlust, having embarked on a round-the-world drive - yes, I said drive! - on his own! 

          * A Swiss born in #Madagascar…72 years ago

          * Lived 35 years in #Africa

          * With an insatiable appetite for travel and meeting people,

.                  from #Mongolia to #Uluru (#AyersRock) to #Ushuia

          * To date, he’s driven through 42 countries and crossed 62

.                  borders…and is still only half way around his global

.                  circumnavigation!

          * In a turbo-charged, 32 year old French 4x4 "Land Roamer"

.                  vehicle with  custom-built living accommodation.

Listen here to Bernard Salzmann's story! It's uplifting! 

#themckayinterview on World Radio Switzerland.

Argentina - Part 1

05 September - 19 October 2023

4 285 - Km

This is a long trip in a fascinating country. 

My blog will be divided in sub-sections...

A) Northern Argentina: from Clorinda (near Asuncion) to Mendoza

Click => here 

B) A trip to Easter Island: from Mendoza to Santiago do Chile by bus and by plane to Rapa Nui

Click => here 

C) Part of "Ruta 40": from Mendoza to San Carlos de Bariloche

Click => here 

D) My "personal memories" of my trip through Northern Argentina

Click => here  

Or, do you want to visit my next destination?

Click => here to discover Patagonia

.

Paraguay

1st - 12 July & 31 August - 2nd September 2023 

1'258 km

Driving from Bolivia, the northen small town of Filadelfia will be my first real stop.

Filadelfia was founded in 1930 by Russian Mennonites who fled from the Soviet Union and the city is now the capital of Boquerón Department in the Gran Chaco.

Mennonites in Paraguay came from Canada in the 1920s; more came from the USSR in the 1930s to the Gran Chaco region of Paraguay where their freedoms in language, education, religion and non-resistance were granted.

Mennonites are a group of Anabaptist Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Reformation. Formal Mennonite beliefs were codified in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith (1632), which affirmed "the baptism of believers only, the washing of the feet as a symbol of servanthood, church discipline, the shunning of the excommunicated, the non-swearing of oaths, marriage within the same church", strict pacifistic physical non-resistance, anti-Catholicism and in general, more emphasis on "true Christianity" involving "being Christian and obeying Christ" as they interpret it from the Holy Bible. The majority of the early Mennonite followers, rather than fighting, survived by fleeing to neighbouring states where ruling families were tolerant of their belief in believer's baptism. 

I continue towards Asuncion, the Capital.

Hum... Sorry to say, it's NOT a picturesque city, I will not stay there long.

From 12 July to August 30, I will leave my Land Roamer in a secure campsite near Asuncsion and fly to Switzerland to see my family and friends.

Directly after landing back in Asuncion, I rent a small car for a few days, as the cost of rental will be cheaper than the cost of driving my Land Roamer because all my visits will be on good tarmac road. What a pleasure to cruise at 120 km/h on a highway!

My first destination are the falls of Iguazu that I visit from the Argentina side. The weather forecast for the period was rain and more rain, there was only ONE afternnon with decent weather: => GO!

Normally, a visitor to the falls should plan to be in the area for 2 days and see the falls from multiple points, both in Argentina and in Brazil...

I include a few pictures available on Internet to illustrate what I was not able to see because of the rain...

My second destination were 2 "Missions" or "Reductions".

The Mission of "La Santísima Trinidad de Paraná", or the "Most Holy Trinity of Paraná".

It is an example of one of the many Jesuit reductions, small colonies established by the missionaries in various locations in South America, such as Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay throughout the 17th and 18th century. These missions were built as self-contained societies that existed outside of regular Spanish colonial life that integrated indigenous populations with Christian faith.

Trinidad was originally constructed in 1706, the intended self-sufficient city came complete with a central meeting plaza, where most of the celebrations, such as Mass and matrimony were celebrated, a large church meeting house, a school, several workshops, a museum and housing for the local Indian population.

The Jesuit expulsion from Spanish colonies in 1768 eventually led to the abandonment of Trinidad and the rest of the reductions, which were left to decay.

Owing in part to its relatively recent construction, Trinidad bore the weathering of time fairly well. It has also been named one of two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Paraguay.

The Reduction de Jesús of Tavarange was initially founded in what is now Alto Parana in 1685. The mission was relocated several times before arriving in its current location in 1760. Construction of the mission was not completed by the time the Jesuit order was expelled from Paraguay in 1767. 

The massive mission church was being built as a replica of the Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola in Italy. It would have been one of the biggest churches of that time, with a central structure of 70 by 24 metres.

Curious ? Do you have a few more minutes ??

Click => here if you want to see my personal memories of my trip through Paraguay...

Or, do you want to visit my next destination?

Click => here to discover Northern Argentina