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Published: March 24th 2013
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Torres Del Paine
Happiness would be waking up to this view every morning 505 days of travelling is a long time. It enabled us to see an entire continent and a bit more and we experienced some incredible stuff. To achieve what we did took a lot of planning and a lot of hard work, especially as we also had to move out of our home before flying off. Thankfully our family and friends helped us otherwise this wouldn’t have happened. The trip itself was a dream and was filled with incredible highs and the occasional lows, below are some stats, loves and hates that hopefully may inspire others to do the same.
Years of dreaming of this trip and not thinking it would ever happen: 12
Countries Visited: 17
Cities/towns/villages Visited: approx. 120
Bus journeys over 3hrs in length: approx. 110
Flights: 20
Best Flight: Nazca lines
Worst flight: From Georgetown Guyana to Port of Spain where the cockpit door was left open for the entire flight and of course the one home.
Kilometres travelled: Don’t want
Galapagos
The late great Lonesome George to even think about it
Photos taken: Nearly 17,000
Most nervous moment: Ordering my first beers in Spanish “dos Cervezas por favor”
Biggest surprise: Getting those two beers
We gained an appreciation of: Botero art, taste of Pisco sours.
Highest height: 5000 metres on Cotopaxi Ecuador.
Stuff stolen or lost: 5 sunglasses, 2 wallets, 1 daypack, 2 sanities, 3 toe nails
Stuff broken or damaged: 2 SLR Camera lenses, 2 Main backpacks, all our clothing, 1 ankle, 1 knee.
Objects found: 2 sense of humours and 1 USB drive
Scariest bus trips: Colombia
Most amazing bus trips: Colombia
Best skilled gained: How to photograph the stars, photographing trees and telegraph poles from a speeding bus
Best lunch: Stale bread roll with tuna salad overlooking the Gray Glacier…what a view, Christmas in Mendoza.
Best spectacle: Rio Carnival Sambadrome. It is the greatest show on earth.
Biggest thrill: Rappelling into the cave at Bonito.
<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
Nazca Lines
Small plane, big experience normal;">Who loves a parade? Peru of course, but Ecuador is catching on.
Biggest shock: Getting Shelley to swim with sharks in the Galapagos.
Never do that again: Inca Trail, Ciudad Perdida, drinking Pisco Sours/Cuba Libras all night.
Most important lesson learnt: Who is in the tour and who leads it can make or break a trek (see above), never pull out the camera when drunk, at the end of a big night of drinking never say “one more for the road”
Biggest regret at missing: Angel Falls, Easter Island
Best food: Markets at Montevideo
Favourite Countries: Cuba, Bolivia, Colombia
Favourite Cities: Cusco Peru, Buenos Aires Argentina, Ushuaia Argentina, Cartagena Colombia, Havana Cuba, Macapa Brazil, Montevideo Uruguay, Parbo Suriname.
Don’t drag me back to: Quito Ecuador, Mar del Plata Argentina, Georgetown Guyana, Ciudad del Este Paraguay, Mancora Peru,
Most expensive country: Venezuela
Cheapest Country: Bolivia
Best drink: Pisco Sour, Caprahina, Chocolate milk shake in Cuenca
Worst Music: Peru…what is that stuff they
Havana Cuba
Just love this town listen too?
Best Music: Anywhere in Cuba
Best souvenir: Pinochet Voodoo doll, Original Che signed Cuban currency
Weight of bags when we started: Main backpacks 35Kg, Camera bag 10kg
Weight of bags when we came home: Main backpacks 55Kg, Wheelie bag 15kg, Camera bag 10kg
Parcels sent home: 3, with a total weight of 45 Kg (and they all made it)
Best laid plans that came to naught: Not being let into Brazil
Scott’s least liked country: Can’t tell you but there is a hint in the above answer.
Most stressful experience: Escaping Venezuela and of course that day on the Brazilian border.
Gained an appreciation of: Argentinian wine, the “art” of pantomime,
You know what? I think we could live here: Valparaiso Chile, Salento Colombia, Playa Giron Cuba.
Best “I see dead people” moments: Evita, Butch Cassidy, Sundance kid, Che, Simon Bolivar
Gee we just wrote about them and then they died: Lonesome George, Oscar Niemeyer, Hugo Chavez.
<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
Planning
The night we said lets do it normal;">Biggest goose bumps moment: Landing in Buenos Aires on our first day, Seeing the concrete laundry slab where Che was laid out, Seeing where Butch and Sundance bit the big one, Entering the Panama Canal.
Best scenery: Torres Del Paine Chile, San Pedro Chile to Uyuni Bolivia, Tupiza Bolivia
Best wildlife moment: Galapagos Islands
Never leave home without: Laptop, band aids.
Wish we had: Better back packs, GPS, better boots, more socks, more time.
Most annoying problem: WiFi
Least used item on trip: Mobile phone
Best place to get a beer: Argentina…it comes in a chilled glass with a bowl of peanuts.
Best Bar: Prado 12 Havana Cuba.
Cost: Something I will never sit down and calculate
Worth: Priceless
Best part about coming home: Family and friends
Things we miss on our return: Saying “thanks” instead of “gracias”, getting on a bus in the morning, waking up in a new town.
Thank you to all our new friends on
Packing
How we ever going to carry all this? Midnight the day before leaving travel blog and hopefully we may meet somewhere down the road on our next adventure.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Fantastic summary!
An amazing experience you've had. We hope to follow in your footsteps at some point in the future. We will certainly keep your blogs handy when planning any time in South America. Welcome back and hope you are enjoying old things which probably are feeling a bit new and yet familiar. Amazing shot of the stars in Bolivia!