Number games

No, I'm not talking about Sudoku, although I can highly recommend Sudoku as a way of passing the time on long flights, but about the many statistics of our trip:

No. of flights: 23
(CT-Jhb-Sao Paolo....Rio-Brasilia-Manaus...Belem-Recife-Natal-Salvador-Brasilia...Cusco-Puerto Maldonado-Cusco...Bariloche-Buenos Aires...Sao Paolo-Houston-San Francisco-Vancouver-Seattle-Honolulu-Kona-Honolulu-Tokyo-Kuala Lumpur...Pangkor-Kuala Lumpur-Jhb-CT)

No. of hours on aeroplanes: +/- 80
(That's 960 Easy, 320 Medium, 160 Hard or 0 Challenger Sudoku puzzles)


No. of airlines: 13
(Kulula, SAA, Varig, LAM, TAN, Aerolineas Argentinas, Continental, Alaskan, Horizon, North-West, Aloha, Malaysian, Berjaya)
Best airline: Malaysian
Worst airline: Continental

No. of countries: 9
(Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, USA, Canada, Japan, Malaysia)
Favourite country: Bolivia, Malaysia
Least favourite: Hmmmm....they were all good but Peru ripped us off the most!

Total distance travelled (as the crow flies): 72 815 km
(only 1/5 of the distance to the moon!)

Distance by plane: 55 218
Distance by boat: 1 436
Distance by bus: 10 051
Distance by train: 782
Distance by bicycle: 110
Distance by car: 5 143

Most southerly point: Puerto Varas, Chile: 41.32° S

Most northerly point: Whistler, Canada: 50.10° N

Coldest place: Altiplano, Bolivia with wind chill to below -10°C

Hottest place: Manaus, Amazon basin, Brazil with temperatures approaching 40°C and extremely high humidity

Longest non-stop trip: 22 hours
(Bus trip from Chile-Peru border to La Serena Chile)

No. of photographs: 3412 (mas o menos)

Number of different beds: 64
Best bed: Isla del Sol, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (with a stunning view of the lake)
Worst bed: Samaipata, Bolivia (the floor was more comfortable)

Mass of luggage at the beginning of trip: 40 kg
Mass of luggage at end of trip: 60 kg

Number of our friends/family who fell pregnant or had a baby while we were away: 8!

Worst experiences: Finding out our luggage had caught a bus that we had missed!
All that rain!

Best experiences: Finding our luggage!
The Bolivian altiplano - what a place!
Birdwatching in the Amazon and the Pantanal
Machu Picchu!
Eating chocolate in Bariloche
Driving the backroads of Texas
Snowboarding!
Watching lava flows (and Toby poking lava with his shoe!)
Flying from San Francisco to Vancouver on a clear day

The numbers are a bit mind boggling, but don't be daunted - you too can take on an epic trip like this! Trust us, it's worth it. And gauranteed, we'll be adding up the km's again one day - it's addictive!