after the plundering of saddam hussein, the gulf wars and the is terror, iraq has not really recovered economically. Two generations have been deprived of a well founded education, the schools and the health system are still in a state of collapse. Everywhere are military checks pints, we were probably considered an unusual vehicle and were therefore always inspected with suspicion.

The people are happy about every tourist, they are probably the sign of a normalisation of the living situation, but we really didn’t meet many tourists.

Baghdad has grown from 4 to probably 8-11 million inhabitants in just a few years, and the streets and souks are correspondingly chaotic. The most important traffic rule seems to be: “don’t give space”. And unfortunately, environmental awareness seems to have been lost in the turmoil of war; we rarely have we seen such a littered country.

At the beginning of october 2023, we set off for our middle east trip and wanted to take the ro-ro ferry via greece to haifa and onwards via jordan, saudi arabia to oman. The terror in the world put a stop in our agenda, – the ferry connection was cancelled. All we could do was organising an iraqi visa in ankara and travel to saudi arabia and oman via baghdad.

Our journey through the Americas is coming to an end and I would like to thank everyone who became friends along the way for the time we spent together. It was you who made our trip so unique.

Tschüss, good by, saludos and let’s keep in touch. Thank you.

Our last highlight in argentina was the “laguna brava”, the drive led over a dirt road up to 4305 meters to a salt lake with flamingos and an airplane wreck. On the way, the exhaust suspension broke …

The “parque talampaya” borders directly on the “parque provincial ischigualasto”, but this is in another state and therefore has its own administration and ranger station. there you are not allowed to drive with your own vehicle, but you are driven with a (small) group. Not quite to our taste, you have no chance to wait for better light, nor you can spend the night there.

Through the “parque provincial ischigualasto” you can drive with your own vehicle but only in a group and accompanied by a ranger. Perhaps too much has been trampled in the past …

A small area near mendoza is called “siete colores” and when you see the rocks, you know why. A dirt road leads through this area and it is a great place to spend the night.