• Live: last minute of the coronavirus
  • Photography.This is what our readers see from their windows
  • Tips: am I entitled to a refund? How airlines and hotels work against the coronavirus

His challenge started on October 31, October 2017, when the Argentine Martín Echegaray Davies (62 years old) left the Patagonian city of Ushuaia with the aim of reaching Alaska ... on foot. He had more than 22,500 kilometers on his back when, already in North Dakota , the coronavirus ended his adventure when the borders between the United States and Canada were closed due to the pandemic.

There was no other choice but to turn around and return to his native country, but the Argentine is clear that, when the health crisis ends, he will try to finish his feat, which is called the Three Americas Walk . To develop it, he had to promote a crowdfounding campaign to subsidize the adventure, whose cost he had valued at $ 6,000.

With a car in tow

The only thing he carried with him during the trip was a modest car in which he carried his few belongings such as clothing, food, a tent and little else. He has been referred to by Echegaray on Facebook as "his five-star hotel." After 22,500 kilometers in tow and a thousand anecdotes in between, he has a bitter feeling , but he considers himself optimistic and is clear that he will achieve his challenge in the future.

The Argentine, with the car with which he has traveled the world.

At the moment, he has had to stop it, as he commented on the networks a few days ago: "Unfortunately, with this issue that we are all going through, the border was closed completely and flights by plane too, so I have decided to return to Argentina Momentarily, as much as the borders are opened in a month or two, I won't have enough time to get to Tok, where I wanted to complete my rally. "

Walk between snowfall and -29 degrees

The specific place where it started was Lapataia Bay , a fjord on the banks of the Beagle Channel, on the Big Island of Tierra del Fuego. After touring the 23 provincial capitals of Argentina, he passed through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica . On June 11, 2019, he reached El Guasuale, on the border between Nicaragua and Honduras after 17,317 on foot. Later would come El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and the United States.

The adventurer on his way through Colombia in August 2018.

The adventure had to be abandoned in the city of Fargo, in North Dakota , a state that had traveled in recent weeks between monumental snowfalls and temperatures down to -29 degrees. He intended to reach the Canadian state of Manitoba from there, but the coronavirus and Donald Trump's decision to close the U.S. borders prevented it. The final destination was Tok , a population of just 1,200 Alaska residents, and he intended to reach it after the summer. It will have to be another time ...

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • tourism
  • America
  • Coronavirus