Half way through our trip, as we entered Asia, we asked ourselves if we could quantify the differences in development amongst the countries we had visited so far. At the time, coming from Australia, the differences were obvious, but we asked ourselves: could those differences be measured objectively?

In our initial approach we used GDP as the index, but our readers pointed out that GDP is not a good indicator, and pointed us to the Human Development Index: “a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life.”

Sorted from higher to lower HDI:

With a very high HDI:

Australia
The Netherlands
United States of America
New Zealand
Canada
Spain
Singapore
Chile
Argentina

With high HDI:

Mexico
Panama
Malaysia
Russia
Peru

With medium HDI:

China
Thailand
Bolivia
Mongolia
Honduras
Vietnam
Guatemala
Laos
Cambodia

The Netherlands is at the second place, and Spain ranks fourth. Not bad!

After more than one month of voting and a small dip to the second position, this week we are back to the head of the preliminary phase. We keep our fingers crossed because on Monday, November 1st, at midnight, the audience vote will be closed. That same week the finalist blogs will be announced.

If we end up in the top three of our category, then we move on to the final phase. The winner is chosen by a jury on November the 11th in Madrid, during the interQué conference.

We’re nervous!!!!

La vuelta al mundo de Los Fogg. 22 países. 13 meses. 1 foto al día.

Música: Caravan Jam por Dan Sistos

This week we start a new series of posts in collaboration with artists, professionals and travelers. We have asked our guests to select the best pictures published on Los Fogg and to tell us what they see on each photo.

Our first guest is the Belgian artist Dupiereux; painter, traveler and photographer: “When selecting the best pictures I tried to select the ones with the best content and the human story behind each picture.”

Dupiereux has selected 25 pictures we will rescue from our archives in the coming days.

Update: here are the 25 pictures

Friend, traveler and photography lover. After thirteen months traveling around the world, and more than six hundred pictures published… we need your help!

We have been selected for the Bitácoras 2011 award, one of the most prestigious in Spain. We are first in the preliminary count, but voting is still open until November 1st. It’s very easy to vote, and it only takes two minutes:

1. Use these links to sign up with your existing Facebook or Twitter accounts, it only takes one minute:

• Facebook
• Twitter

This is what you’ll see:

No need to fill the second field “Contraseña”The first field is the username you want to have. Fill that field and press the “Crear” button. You will be redirected to the homepage and you’ll be able to see a green band with a green checkmark. Obvious explanation: That means everything went ok.

2. Now you can vote. Go to the voting page on this link. We have pre-filled the vote on the “Mejor Fotolog” category:

Now you just have to fill in the Captcha (weird letters to check if you’re human) and press on “Votar” (not on the image below, but on the bitacoras.com page):

Thank you!

For extra karma points for you, promote us in Facebook, Twitter, amongst friends and family. Every vote counts!

After 14 months of travel, we can say that our trip has come to an end. Since we left Spain on July 21st 2010, we have been tracking a few things on a notebook. A very short summary of our amazing trip:

Countries, towns, cities, villages

• 22 countries visited: U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, China, Mongolia, Russia and The Netherlands (Our route on Google maps)
• 2 countries in transit: Belize and Latvia
• Longest stay in a country: Mexico, 40 days
• Shortest stay in a country: Singapore, 4 days
• 162 towns/cities/villages visited
• Longest stay in a single place: 15 days in Port Montt and the Metri bay in Chile, WWOOFing

Sleeping

• 220 hotel nights (homestays, hostels and hotels)
• 47 nights at friends
• 61 nights CouchSurfing
• 19 nights in night buses
• 20 nights in camping tents
• 12 nights in a campervan
• 11 nights in rented apartments
• 5 nights in trains
• 3 nights in airplanes
• 2 nights in airports
• 1 night in a boat
• 1 night on top of a volcano

Spare time

• 44 books read (24 Manu, 20 César)
• +20000 pictures shot

A lot of stories, memories and anecdotes… and we’ll never forget all the people we’ve met on the way that have made this trip unforgettable.

From Saint Petersburg we flew to our last destination on our round the world trip: Amsterdam. A suprise around every corner.

6:56 In the subway, going to the Saint Petersburg airport

7:42 This airport looks more like a museum

8:05 Getting rid of the last rubles and other currencies

11:56 Change of planes in Riga, Latvia, before reaching our final destination…

13:18 … Amsterdam. In the airport we went to the local food stalls where a native offered us the traditional “patat”

13:21 César risks it and goes for the “patat oorlog met uitjes”, with mayo, penaut sauce and chopped onions

13:30 The local women, with strong thighs, dressed with the traditional Dutch UGG boots

13:38 7 Euro for two train tickets! For that money, in Vietnam, we could travel for 5 hours in a bus. We try to haggle with the machine

14:43 We go to the center and leave our backpacks in the left-luggage. We haven’t seen so many interesting stores in a while, and we have a hard time not buying anything

15:06 We are already missing Asian food, so we have lunch in our favorite Malay restaurant

16:00 Double ristretto latte to get over the afternoon dip

16:32 Traditional Amsterdam street decoration: it’s ok to put your old furniture on the street

16:48 Someone is having a hard time accepting that we are still traveling on a budget

19:14 Lekker gezellig with the welcome committee

Mongolia has been one of the countries we have enjoyed the most during our trip. The freedom of camping anywhere, the respect for traditions and the nomadic hospitality have left a mark in our memories.

We spent three days in Mogod, norteast of Ulaan Bataar. During those days, they were celebrating Naadam, a yearly festival where locals compete in three sports: archery, horse riding and wrestling.

8.05 We slept in a camping tent next to a family of nomadic herders. Morning surprise: even when we were careful with our stuff, the goats found our flip flops and ate them.

8:25 Our host family are race horse breeders. Their family has come to visit them from the capital, so today is a special day. They celebrate by having a marmot barbecue, roasted with hot stones (and a blow torch). Marmot is a delicacy, so everyone was fighting for the best parts. I got a small rib.

10:45 Most of the roads in Mongolia are unpaved. This must be the only sign we saw during our whole trip. Who’s the special guest on the left of the picture? Marta!

12:25 We arrive just in time for the start of the horse race and the first wrestling matches. We are the only westerners and people invite us to drink ayrag, fermented mare’s milk. It’s bad manners to refuse.

13:45 The first wrestling matches are not a lot of fun, so we go back to the horse racing. Even when the distances between events were short (less than 200m), everybody moved around in their cars.

15:45 The local boss calls us to his tent while we watch the archery competition. We have to drink three more ayrag bowls. “Mongolian tradition”, he assures us. Manu and Marta pretend they are allergic to milk.

16:10 Siesta time. We assemble the tent really quick, but we don’t tighten the strings because, what are the chances of the weather turning? The weather turns and the tent doesn’t hold.

17:55 We look for a camping spot. Not too close to the town, so the local drunks don’t come to “investigate”. And not too far, because we have to go back. And not too low, in case it rains. Our driver forgot his gas stove, so we improvise one with three stones and a blow torch.

18:15 A nice tea to stay warm

19:25 We go back into town to see a cabaret show. All the seats are taken, so we seat on the floor with the children.

20:25 We get out of there before the show is over, because the theater gets more and more crowded, and the local bullies have decided to push everyone aside so they can get in. The actors, singers and dancers are only happy to let us take pictures. Actually, Mongolians love to be photographed.

20:35 We play paper, scissors, stone with the local kids. This is a universal game that every kid in every country knows how to ploay. They quickly get excited and we have to make them queue to play.

21:00 Our car won’t start up. With a little help from my friends…

21:15 Manu and Marta are in charge of setting up the tent today with their patented “2 seconds” method.

22:15 Good night!