Bayartai, do svidaniya, auf Wiedersehen, Adios, good bye & until next time

---

---

We are done!

That's it. Trip done. We were on the road for over 6 months 23 days or 206 days, travelled once around the world, visited 3 continents & 14 countries & over 57 cities and wrote 28 travel blogs (each taking 3-5 hours. You do the math).

We were on the steppes of Mongolia, marvelled at the red Square, had beer in Germany, spend time with family in Austria, visited Castro's Cuba while he was still alive, admired the Panama canal, wondered what the fuss is about Costa Rica, stared into an active volcano in Nicaragua, had a quick beach stop in El Salvador, roasted marshmallows on a volcano in Guatemala, saw our first Mayan ruins in Honduras, explored a cave in Belize, ate tacos in Mexico and visited Mickey in Disney World in the states.
All that while narrowly avoiding two hurricanes, the death of Fidel and departed the States only days before Trump became president. No one was seriously injured or sick, we had heaps of fun and saw so much we could talk about it for years. I call that a success.

Unbelievable it's over. What a trip though.

Special thanks to Kathy for being the original travel buddy & for her travel tips, to Maureen for joining us in Germany, friends & family in Germany for entertaining us and last but not least to you for reading our blog. Hope you enjoyed it. Apologies for all the spelling mistakes. Pretty hard to write blogs on a tablet.

A big apology goes to all the poor people of Cuba and central America who were exposed to me butchering the Spanish language. It got what I wanted but I appreciate out wasn't pretty.

Dillon has been a truly great travel companion and endured endless hours in trains/buses/vans without a complaint (and often but not always without a device), walked long distances and visited numerous ruins like a true explorer (many times acting as our tour guide) . We have enjoyed spending the past 7 months 24/7 in his company, he is quite the comedian, now fluently gibbering in the German language + a little Spanish. We are very proud of him, will treasure this special family adventure.

Kellie, Dillon, Geoffrey the giraffe and Meffrey our imaginary dog would like to give three cheers and a very special thanks to Ralph, who did an absolutely superb job of masterminding every leg of this unforgettable adventure, booking all transport, accommodation, researching many of our tours, daily adventures and where we would venture out to eat each day. He has also documented our trip in this blog for the three of us to treasure into the future. Certainly our trip has gone relatively glitch free given we have been wandering about with him. His Germanic Project Manager tendencies are well suited to this nomadic lifestyle and we have noticed that this is when he is truly in his finest element. Thanks Papa and hubby.

Below are some stats about our trip and our favourites.



What will you miss the most:
Dillon: Mickey Mouse
Kellie: spending time with the family embarking on a new adventure every day
Ralph: Spending 24/7 with Dillon

Favourite Country:
Dillon: Disney World & Germany
Kellie: Mexico, Austria, Nicaragua
Ralph: Can't decide. Mexico, Russia and Germany

Best Adventure:
Dillon: Horse riding in Lachatao
Kellie: Go carting 7km down Austrian mountain with whole family (mum, son, 2x nieces, bro & sister law and hubby) + swimming the ATM cave in Belize
Ralph: Volcano Boarding in Nicaragua

Best historical experience:
Dillon: Schloss Neuschwanstein, Germany
Kellie: Hermitage, Saint Petersburg Russia
Ralph: Red square, Moscow Russia

Best Food:
Dillon: Germany
Kellie: too many to chose El Salvador (Street vendor burrito), Lake Baikal Russia (smoked fish), Yekaterinburg, Russia (Turkmenistani food bread, shish kebabs), Augustiner Bier Garten Munich (BBQ Mackerel)
Ralph: Mexico

Best city:
Dillon: Magic Kingdom
Kellie: Moscow
Ralph: Moscow

Best beach:
Dillon: Puerto escondido, México
Kellie: Guardalavaca, Cuba
Ralph: Varadero, Cuba

Most beautiful place:
Dillon: Magic Kingdom
Kellie: German Bavarian Allgaeu Region and Austrian Salzburg region (medieval towns, lakes and Alpine scenery), Guatemala (Rio Dulce river, rainforests, waterfalls & canyons), Mexico Yacutan Ceynotes
Ralph: Schoppernau in Austrian monta

Biggest surprise:
Dillon: The toys he got from Santa and the trip to Disney World
Kellie: Nicaragua, lush green scenery, lakes & volcanoes, beaches. Ralph’s ability to converse in Spanish
Ralph: How well Dillon spoke German with his nieces & all of Russia. How good it is and how friendly the people are

Worst experience:
Dillon: Being sick Christmas night
Kellie: mini bus trip from Rio Dulce to Semuc Champey in Guatemala (edge of my seat for 8 hours straight)
Ralph: Being sick for 8 days in Nicaragua

Countries visited
14 (Mongolia, Russia, Germany, Austria, Cuba, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, México, USA)

That brings Dillon's visited country count up to 19 at the age of 4!
Cities visited
57 which means we checked in/out 114 times (Ulaanbaatar, Irkutsk, Listvyanka, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Moscow, St Petersburg, Cologne, Rüdesheim, Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Ulm, Schoppernau, Kempten, Forstau, Munich, Havana, Vinales, Varadero, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Camaguey, Santiago De Cuba, Guardalavaca, Panama City, Boquete, Bocas Del Toro, Puerto Viejo, Fortuna, Monteverde, San Juan Del Sur, Granada, Lago De Apoyo, León, El Tunco, Antigua, San Pedro, Copan Ruinas, Finca tatín, Rio Dulce, Semuc Champey, Flores, San Ignacio, Caye Caulker, Bacalar, Tulum, Valladolid, Merida, Campeche, Palenque, San Cristóbal, Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Lachatao, Puebla, Orlando, Mexico City)

# flights
10 (3 to Mongolia,1 to Germany,1 to Cuba,1 to Panama, 2 to Florida and back, 2 to Australia)

---

Photos

we started with 2 bags and come back with 5
Credit card is a little worn out

I remember the time when you travelled with 2 books and one camera
Now we have 2 cameras, 2 tablets, one Powerbank and two mobile phones

Dillon studying the safety instructions
He really likes them