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Welcome to Marion and Alfred

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marion lorenz alfred marionandalfred alfredandmarion

This website is about our itineraries since September 2010. We fulfilled our dream to drive with our little motor-home from Patagonia to Alaska. We love nature and we enjoyed many times pristine and remote places with abundant wildlife, for instance in cold Patagonia or hot Pantanal in Brazil. Our passion are mountains, thus we stayed much time in the Andes and other ranges not limited to America like Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.

Marion and Alfred on top of 5916 meters high volcano Licancabur on the border Bolivia / Chile
Marion and Alfred on top of 5916 meters high volcano Licancabur on the border between Bolivia and Chile

 

to travel to Patagonia

Andalusia - Coast East of Malaga - January 2023

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We came to Andalusia end of the year 2022 and traveled mainly on its wonderful south coast east of Málaga. End of January 2023 we took a plane from Málaga home to Germany where we stayed till mid of March 2023. 

Mural in a bar on the beach of Torre de Benagalbon
Mural in a bar on the beach of Torre de Benagalbon

 

We visited the areas around San Juan de los Terreros, south of Mojacár, La Isleta del Moro and San José on Andalusia's east coast. From the latter one we did a spectacular bicycling tour along the coast to the summit of 212 meters Vela Blanca where we could see Cabo de Gata in the west, which is the southeast corner of Spain. There the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea turns from south to west.

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Spain Southeast - December 2022

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The sandy beaches of famous Costa Blanca - White coast in the Alicante province are marvelous, adorned with rocky mountains between its huge and wide sections.

Sunset with surfer and the 332 meters high rock Penyal D'Ifac which is a landmark of Costa Blanca
Sunset with surfer and the 332 meters high rock Penyal d'Ifac which is a landmark of Costa Blanca

 

Valencia is with approximately 800,000 inhabitants the third biggest city of Spain. We wanted to visit its old town but we could not find a parking place for our two campers - Marion's sister Jutta and her husband Hermann were with us. Fortunately we had visited the old town with our little daughter in the year 1986. Fortunately we found space for our cars on its southern end close to its modern impressive quarter Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of art and science).

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Catalonia Autumn 2022

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The landscape of Spain is very mountainous. Indeed the third and fourth highest European mountain ranges (after Caucasus and Alps) are in Spain with sea-levels above 3400 meters - Sierra Nevada and Pyrenees. Its marvelous coasts are quite often rough and rocky. In the recent years In the last years Spain has built a lot of via ferratas where you might enjoy climbing without a lot of equipment.

Awesome Via Ferrata Cala del Moli on Costa Brava where the Pyrenees meet the Mediterranean Sea

Awesome via ferrata Cala del Moli on Costa Brava where the Pyrenees meet the Mediterranean Sea

 

We came to Spain on November 15th 2022 with our camper to enjoy the pleasant winter climate on its southeast and south cost and to follow more ore less our itinerary with our little two daughter Eva (two and a half years old) and Marion brother Tommy in the year 1986. Our first stop was the nice mountain village Agullana which is located few kilometers west of the main border station La Jonquera between France and Spain close to the Mediterranean Sea.

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Mallorca - May 2022

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We spent in Mallorca the last two week in May 2022 to enjoy the Mediterranean Sea and to hike a little bit.

Cala Mesquida seen from Talaia de Son Jaumell
Cala Mesquida seen from the little mountain Talaia de Son Jaumell in the southeast of Mallorca

 

There is a spiky mountain range along the northern shore of the island - Serra Tramuntana which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The long distance trail GR221 - The dry-stone route leads from Port d'Antratx (northwest corner of Mallorca) to Polença (northeast corner). This approximately 145 kilometers long hike is challenging due to its remoteness on rough and rocky terrain, and it is barely impacted by mass tourism.

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Italy Tuscany - Autumn 2021

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Late Autumn 2021 we returned to Italy again - this time to Tuscany including its beautiful island Elba where we found many superb hiking opportunities, pleasant temperatures up to 20°C and a lot of sunshine for this season.

Alley in Elba (south of Capoliveri) with Monte Capanne on the right which is with 1019 meters sea-level the tallest summit of Elba
Alley in Elba (south of Capoliveri) with Monte Capanne on the right which is with 1019 meters sea-level the tallest summit of Elba

 

Again Marion's sister Jutta and her husband Hermann joined. When we drove through the Alps we had very nice weather which we used for two longer hikes. The first one was around was in Klausen (South Tyrol) around its huge monastery.

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Italy northwest - summer 2021

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In Summer 2021 we spent a lot of time in Italy, especially in its Alps in the northwest corner. There are many gorgeous mountains, beautiful lakes with pleasant warm water, the Mediterranean Sea, interesting villages and towns, and a lot history.

Po
Very old bridge in the upper valley of Po

 

We traveled two times to Italy, first between July 19th and August 8th and second between August 23rd and September 26th 2021. Our first itinerary started with witches in western Tirol, Austria where we biked from Serfaus to Hexenseehütte - hut of the witch's lake, where we stayed two comfortable nights with very few people.

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Koh Kood and Bangkok 2nd

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We came back to Bangkok on February 19th and we returned to Germany two days later. Like on our first trip in November 2017 we stayed in Bangkok's Chinatown and explored the city on foot.

Mural close to the River City Shopping Complex

Before we headed to Bangkok we spent four days in the tropical paradise of Koh Kood island which is located close to the border to Cambodia and Koh Chang which we had visited also in November 2017 - see article: Koh Chang - A beautiful island in the Gulf of Thailand.

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Cambodia

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Our trip in Cambodia started excitingly: We had to change the bus on the border to Laos and drove few kilometers to a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. It turned out that we had two flat tires. Fortunately there was a little workshop on the street and the technicians did an amazing job and we could continue our itinerary to Siem Reap with just two hours delay. This was our first contact with the incredible gentle and admirable Cambodian people.

Family on Sangker River

 

Siem Reap is the hub for the Angkor Wat temple complex which are the most important touristic destination in Cambodia and one of the most impressive ruins on earth built by the Khmer between the 9th and 13th centuries. Angkor Wat is the identification symbol of Cambodia, consequently on its national flag and it is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Laos

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The old royal capital of Laos Luang Prabang is an UNESCO World Heritage site thanks to its numerous and well preserved Buddhist temples and monasteries. The little towns with approximately 50,000 inhabitants lies in central northern Laos on shore of mighty Mekong. Consequently Luang Prabang is one of the major tourist attractions in Laos.

Sunset on Mekong which is one of the largest river on earth

 

We came to Laos via plane on January 15th 2020 and explored on the following day its picturesque and interesting inner city including the short ascent to 353 meters high Phou Si Mountain.

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Vietnam - North and Central

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Vietnam has beautiful mountains in the North including 3143 meters high Fansipan which is the tallest peak of Vietnam and also of Indochina which includes Laos and Cambodia, too.

Guan Yin Statue close to the summit of Fansipan

 

We arrived in busy Hanoi on December 18th 2019 which is the capital of Vietnam and the the northern metropolis of Vietnam with more than eight million inhabitants and probably more little bikes. Crossing the street of its old town is a real challenge due to the incredible extensive bike traffic. Many of its streets, churches and markets were nicely decorated.

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Alaska - Haines and Skagway, Seattle and Columbia River Gorge

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We came back to Alaska to beautiful Haines on August 17th 2019. It is famous for watching fishing Bears on Chilkoot River during the Salmon run but we had no luck. However we spent a nice evening chatting with a younger German couple in the late evening.

Totem Poles in Haines

 

But we had very good luck on Mount Ripinsky which is a splendid day hike from Haines. The views to the glaciers, mountains and sounds were overwhelming.

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From Kluane National Park to Vancouver

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From Alaska back to the lower 48 states through Canada we chose Alaska and Cassiar Highways. From Prince Rupert we took the the ferry through the Canadian Inside Passage which was a wonderful 15 hours trip. This ferry ends in Port Hardy in Vancouver Island, where we explored its northern and central parts before we continued to the metropolis of Vancouver.

Canadian flag on the ferry through the Inside Passage

 

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Alaska - Central and South

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Finally we came to Alaska after we had started our journey in South America more than eight years ago. We had met many nice people, had observed a lot of stunning animals, had seen beautiful landscapes and cities, had climbed up more than 250 exciting mountains and had driven approximately 140,000 kilometers with our little camper.

Our impression about Alaska is that it is everything but cold, at least in summer. We spent more than seven weeks in central and southern Alaska which is accessible by roads. The sun was shining nearly always with temperatures higher than 25°C, and we had just two days with rain. We enjoyed swimming in many lakes with pleasant temperatures, sometimes in front of icy mountains. Our car was full of warm gear like excellent sleeping bags which we never needed.

Lake with icebergs on foot of huge Kennicott Glacier

 

Alaska was Alfred birthday present because we crossed its border on June 23rd 2019. We celebrated both events in the only bar in the "Downtown" of Chicken which is an old gold mining town with seven inhabitants based on the census 2010.

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From Edmonton to Dawson City

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We saw incredible much wildlife on our way from Calgary to Alaska via Dawson City. After seeing 13 bears on one single day we stopped counting them.

Plains Bison in Elk Island National Park

 

We left Germany in the late afternoon of June 4th 2019 and had an interesting flight to Calgary with Condor with awesome views of Greenland and northeastern Canada.

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Tanzania 2019

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Tanzania is a peaceful tropical paradise in East Africa with friendly and mainly happy people. Its nature is overwhelming with famous national parks like Serengeti, pristine beaches on the Indian Ocean and Lake Tanganyika, and huge mountains like 5895 meters high Kilimanjaro which is the tallest peak of Africa. In addition there is a lot of touching culture like Stone Town on the island Zanzibar.

Chimps in the Gombe National on shore of Lake Tanganyika

 

Of course we had the intention to climb up Kilimanjaro. Close to the mountain and between the two larger cities Moshi and Arusha is the Kilimanjaro International Airport where we entered Tanzania together with Marion's brother Tommy mid of January 2019.

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Jasper / Banff 2nd and Dinosaurs

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From Vancouver Island we drove quickly to Mount Robson Provincial Park. On the way we stayed one night on a nice parking lot Blue River on highway 5 (GPS coordinates: N52° 13.488' W119° 13.091') where we saw some cute animals.

Ground Squirrel on Blue River rest area

 

In the morning we realized that some trees were burning close to the rest area. Fortunately the wind came from the opposite direction.

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Vancouver Island - South

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An outstanding must to do on Vancouver Island is Whale Watching, especially with kids. We choose the company Orca Spirit Adventure in Victoria because they had four seat available on a little boat for Rosemarie, Alfred, Jay and Kuba. Jutta, Marion and Hermann took a larger and more convenient ship.

Three Astronauts in front of the litttle boat

 

The cruise to the tiny rocks of Port Angeles in USA was quite bumpy. Fortunately we had our warm and cozy Astronaut like gear with a good padding. There was no customs on the border because we had no passports with us. There we met the larger ship with Jutta, Marion and Hermann.

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From Glacier / Waterton to Banff / Yoho Nationalparks

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On July 24th 2018 we crossed the border to Canada via the International Peace Park World Heritage Site Waterton - Glacier. Firstly we drove to Waterton Village to check the actual conditions in the Waterton National Park. It turned out that all streets and most of the trails were closed due to a huge fire last September. Still we were lucky because there was an impressive Pow Wow festival of the Blackfoot Indians, an unforgettable experience for us.

Indian Chiefs

 

There was dancing the whole afternoon including many kids supported by drumming. The costumes were very colorful and so beautiful.

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Wyoming - Bears and More

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We saw incredible much wildlife in the beautiful mountains of Wyoming. This state is adored with two famous National Parks - Grand Teton and Yellowstone, and many wilderness areas like the majestic Absaroka, Bighorn and Windriver Ranges with the tallest summits of the Rocky Mountains outside of Colorado. There is no bigger city in Wyoming, just half a million people are living on 253,000 square kilometers (2/3 the size of Germany!).

Little brown Black Bear climbing on a tree trunk

 

Our first impression of Wyoming was Japanese because we were stopped on the highway close to Laramie by a twin of our car full of Japanese men. They were so excited seeing a European Volkswagen Camper based on EuroVan which is the US version of the European Transporter T4.

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The highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains

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In Colorado are the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, which are more than 4,800 kilometers long and mainly several hundred kilometers wide. The European Alps are tiny in comparison with the Rocky Mountains but have few slightly higher summits.

American people measure altitudes in feet, thus 14ers are important for them (more than 14,000 feet - approximately 4270 meters sea-level). All 58 14ers of the Rocky Mountains are in Colorado. More than 500 summits exceed 4000 meters sea-level. Its tallest point Mount Elbert (4401 meters sea-level) is the second highest summit of continental USA (without Alaska) after Mount Whitney in California.

Marion and Alfred on top of Mount Elbert

 

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Rocky Mountains - Ski Mountaineering and Denver

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End of March 2018 we came the first time to the Rocky Mountains via the highway Interstate 40 between Great Junction and Denver. We had taken our skies from Germany and we were eager to do some Ski Mountaineering. Unfortunately the conditions were everything but good because it was very stormy, cloudy and much to warm. In the year 2018 the southern Rocky Mountains received unusually little snow. Many ridges up to 4000 meters sea-level and more were without snow. However we did two nice tours in the Front Range close to the Eisenhower Tunnel and in the Vazquez Peak Wilderness Area.

Alfred in the valley behind the western entrance of the Eisenhower Tunnel

 

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Monument Valley, Petrified Forest and other treasures on Colorado Plateau

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We came back again to the Colorado Plateau from the south via northern Arizona where some marvelous parks and areas are located. It is mainly the land of the indigenous Navajo Nation which is with more than 300,000 people the second biggest native tribe in USA. In this region we saw many stunning cliff dwellings of the ancient people built approximately 1,000 years ago. It is still a secret why most of them were left around 1300.

Thanks to Marlboro, many (western) movies and film stars like John Wayne Monument Valley is one of the most famous parts of North America. It is managed by the Navajo people and shows in addition to the overwhelming landscape actual and historical Navajo life in an impressive little museum.

West Mitten, East Mitten and Merrick Butte seen from the Visitor Center of Monument Valley

  

Remarkable are 400 Navajo Code Talkers which played a famous role during World War II by relaying radio messages using their own language, which the Japanese were unable to understand.

Our first stop was the beautiful Petrified Forest National Park with colorful specimens from small shards to massive trunks of a prehistoric forest in the arid Painted Desert.

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Grand Canyon and southern Arizona

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Grand Canyon is one of Earth's most powerful inspiring landscapes overwhelming the senses. It's system of gorges created by the mighty Colorado River, 450 kilometers long, up to 27 kilometers wide and up to 1,600 meters deep. In addition to its beauty it's full of live, an island in an arid environment. People lived there for more than 12,000 years. Thanks to the high elevation change a wide range of plant and animal communities are found on its slopes.

Bad weather on the upper Bright Angel Trail

 

To avoid the usual crowd of visitors we came mid of February 2018 to the south rim of Grand Canyon. Sometimes it was a little chilly in the morning on the 2,200 meters high plateau (up to -9°C) and we enjoyed some snow.

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Las Vegas 2nd and its environment

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We came back to Las Vegas on December 19th 2017 and disaster started on the next day: Our little motor-home which we had stored in Overton did not start. First we exchanged the battery, then the starter, then the engine, then the exhaust manifold and so on. We stayed in the Las Vegas region much longer than we had planned - until beginning of February 2018. But this mess gave us the chance to enjoy the American way of Live and to explore Las Vegas including its marvelous environment with many mountains in depth.

Happy New Year Las Vegas!

 

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More Articles ...

  1. Northern Thailand - Between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai
  2. Koh Chang - A beautiful island in the Gulf of Thailand
  3. Las Vegas and three National Parks of southern Utah
  4. Arches, Canyonlands and Mesa Verde National Parks
  5. New Mexico
  6. Texas Southwest
  7. Sierra Madre Oriental
  8. Barrancas del Cobre and Chihuahua
  9. Central Pacific Coast
  10. Sweden Central
  11. Norway - Jontunheimen, Kristiansund and Trondheim
  12. Norway West - South of Sognefjorden
  13. Zapotepetl - Nevado de Colima and the state of Michoacán
  14. Xinantecatl - Nevado de Toluca
  15. Mexico Central - East
  16. Oaxaca and Chiapas South
  17. Guatemala
  18. Belize
  19. Yucatan
  20. Chiapas Central and East
  21. Honduras
  22. Nicaragua
  23. Costa Rica
  24. Panama
  25. Cartagena
  26. Sierra Nevada del Cocuy
  27. Nevado Puracé and the upper Rio Magdalena valley
  28. Cayambe and Corazon
  29. The Oriente - Misahualli
  30. Galapagos
  31. Las Pichinchas, Laguna Yahuarcocha and the southern Pacific coast
  32. Northern Pacific coast and Mindo
  33. Beaches and more - Santa Marta
  34. Amazonia the second
  35. Bogota and Coffee Farms
  36. Nevado del Tolima and Farallones de Cali
  37. Pico Fuya Fuya, Volcan Rumiñahui and Laguna de Cuicocha
  38. Pacific Coast North of Lima
  39. Cordillera Huayhuash
  40. Ayacucho, Huancavelica and Lima
  41. Amazonia - Peru
  42. Cusco, Machu Picchu and Puno
  43. Ancohuma and Copacabana
  44. Cerro Austria
  45. Most northern part of Ruta 40
  46. Cafayate and the Yungas of Argentina
  47. Esteros del Ibera
  48. Santa Catarina
  49. Sao Paulo and Costa Verde
  50. Rio de Janeiro
  51. Teresopolis, Nova Friburgo and Arraial do Cabo
  52. Pico da Bandeira, Domingos Martins and Ouro Preto
  53. Salvador and the coast of Bahia
  54. Chapada dos Veadeiros and Chapada Diamantina
  55. Brasilia, Cidade de Goias and Pirenopolis
  56. Crocodiles and more - Pantanal
  57. Torotoro National Park and the way to the Brazilian border
  58. Volcan Parinacota
  59. Cerro Yana Sanca Grande and Cotahuasi Canyon
  60. Condors and more - Colca Canyon
  61. Nevado Chachani and Volcan El Misti
  62. Huayna Potosi
  63. Iquique and Arica
  64. Volcan Tinguiririca
  65. Chiloe and Valdivia
  66. Volcan Chillan and Volcan Antuco
  67. Volcan Lanin, the king of the lake districts
  68. Volcan Calbuco
  69. Carretera Austral
  70. Perito Moreno Parque Nacional and Cueva de los Manos
  71. Cerro Torre, Cerro Fitz Roy and Glaciar Perito Moreno
  72. Pali Aike and Torres del Paine - Christmas 2011
  73. Tierra del Fuego - Argentina
  74. Tierra del Fuego - Chile
  75. Punta Arenas and its surroundings
  76. Torres del Paine - Circuito Grande
  77. Penguins and more - Atlantic Coast of Patagonia South of Puerto Madryn
  78. Whales and more - Atlantic Coast of Patagonia North of Puerto Madryn
  79. Sierra de la Ventana
  80. Buenos Aires
  81. Uruguay - From Salto to Colonia
  82. Northeast Argentina and the Cascades of Iguazu
  83. From Asuncion to Ciudad del Este
  84. Samaipata and its environment
  85. From La Paz to Santa Cruz and the National Park Amboro
  86. Cordillera Real 2011 and Yungas
  87. From Uyuni to La Paz via Potosi
  88. Volcan Uturuncu and Laguna Colorada
  89. Volcan Tunupa and Salar de Uyuni
  90. Salta and Quebrada de Humahuaca
  91. Volcan Licancabur and Cerro Incahuasi
  92. San Pedro de Atacama and its environment
  93. Volcan Lascar
  94. From Copiapo to Antofagasta
  95. Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano on earth
  96. Cerro San Francisco
  97. From San Juan to La Rioja
  98. Mercedario, one of the giants in the Andes
  99. Cordon del Plata
  100. Sierra de las Quijadas
  101. Sierras de Cordoba
  102. South America - Brazil and Argentina
  103. Crossing the Equator - Baptism and Christmas
  104. Africa - Senegal, Guinea and Sierra Leone
  105. Europe - From Hamburg to Tenerife
  106. Our vessel, the Repubblica Argentina
  107. Monte Adamello
  108. Dolomites - Piz Cunturines
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