Seeking ShangriLa

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Maps - Where am I??

Starting in South America, I landed in Rio, whooshing down to Patagonia and crawled up the spine of the Andes, through NW Argentina, across the High Andes of Bolivia and Peru. Then, I traveled overland from Peru's North Coast, over the Andes, and down into the Amazon basin. After that, Ecuador and the Galapagos, Colombia all the way up to the Guajira peninsula, and over into Venezuela, before flying back to La Paz to hang out for a bit. South America: Feb 8th 2006 to May 18th, 2007
After spending 2 months helping to translate a book, I flew back to the US for a month to visit and restock supplies and then headed off to the 2nd half of the trip: Asia and beyond. Thus, I flew to Shanghai and went overland for 9 weeks to Katmandhu, with a 21 days in Lhasa.. We did buses, taxis, cars, tractors and even the fabled train to Tibet. Mark's color coded map showing the different modes can be found here China to Nepal: June 18th 2007 to August 23, 2007
Mark and I split up in Lhasa, and he continued on to Kathmandu, where I would join him 3 weeks later. In the meantime, I became a semi-employee at Nomad Cafe in Lhasa, rented and rode a bicycle over a 4700m pass with food poisoing, and camped in front of one of Tibet's holy lakes. Nepal brought the delights of the hippie trail: bakeries and used bookstores by the dozens. I trekked around Annapurna for 20 days, and then was picked up by a japanese clothing company to model trekking clothes in the Everest's shadow. Nepal to India: August 23, 2007 to December 5 2007
Rolling into India on their rail network, I pass by the burning bodies on the shores of the Ganges at Varanasi, and past the Taj on the way to the desert wonderland of Rajasthan. Camels camels everywhere! On December 5th, I caught a plane that tossed me from India's comparatively broiling December into the fun and frigid Eastern Europe: Romania and Bulgaria. Christmas and New Year's in the fun-filled shadow of the Italian Alps, and then a plane to Spain.. Romania to Spain: December 5 2007 to January 14 2008
Between Barcelona and Madrid, I kept busy in Spain, also helping to teach an English course in Vallodolid and visit my friends Percy and Maria on their farm in the "Siberia of Spain". Then, whooshed down to Morocco for 2 weeks with my friend Thomas, renting a car and braving camels and Moroccans to see the Sahara. Spain to Morocco to Spain to Italy (again!) for my Birthday: Jan 15 2007 to March 5 2008
Missing my first flight of the trip in Madrid, I lose the window of opportunity to see Portugal, and fly directly to Milan celebrating my birthday with the great Italians before a week in London. After London, I hit Bologna and Florence, and crossed the Adriatic to Croatia and Bosnia. The trip finished up with a finale weekend in Dublin, and a brief stopover in Chicago before Albuquerque rose on the horizon.. Italy to the UK to the Balkans to Ireland to home: Mar 6 2007 to April 7 2008