Conclusions from South America

The best from South America:

• The night sky – whether gazing at it from the bus window, the catamaran in the Galapagos or some town in the middle of nowhere it was spectacular. 
• Activities – this is a continent where there is always something to do in every town and travelers are kept busy and on the move. 
• The Andes – absolutely spectacular scenery from geysers to lakes to snow capped peaks or jaw dropping canyons. 
• Buses – particularly in Argentina where luxury buses are an experience in themselves.
• Spanish – we’ve loved challenging ourselves to learn a new language and been pleased at being able to get by.

 

The worst from South America:

• Activities – this is a continent where there is always something to do in every town often with ridiculously high prices and travelers are kept busy and on the move with very few places that are good for a few down days. 
• Toilets – specifically having to put toilet paper in the bin, not the toilet. 
• Opportunistic theft – if you leave something anywhere (like a hostel) it will be gone within five minutes even something like prescription glasses. 
• Buses – it’s a big continent and distances are long we found ourselves thinking that 24hours is doable 7 hours is a short jaunt.
• Spanish – getting frustrated at not being fluent and when locals do the talk louder thing in the hope you’ll suddenly get it.
• Cold – oh why oh why did we not bring the ski jackets from Canada?

 

 

Africa - conclusions

I hope to do this for every continent, but we'll see. Africa has been a fascinating place to travel. We have met travellers who have come here 10 times, without wanting to go to Asia or South America or Australia, we have met people who have been here 10 months when they planned on 2... we on the other hand did not fall in love with this continent in that way. In fact it took us quite awhile to get into Africa. After being here 2 weeks, we thought the planned 4 months would be way too long. By the time we had been here a month we thought it would be about right but that we wouldn't return. By the end, we were sad to leave and have planned at least the next 2 trips to Africa.... but I doubt they'll happen for five years or so.

Now, for some facts:

Surprises: Mobile phones are more common than electricity or running water (hence a roaring trade in mobile phone charging shops).
Things seen on a bicycle: A family of six, a man holding trays with over one hundred eggs in one hand whilst steering with the other. 100s of kg of rice/coal etc. Trees stacked vertically about 4m tall.
Items lost: 4
Items returned: 3 ( money belt fell off on a bus in Botswana was returned by locals; daypack with all valuables was left in a restaurant in Dar Es Salaam and returned intact when we went back 2 hours later; contact lenses left in Stonetown were returned one week later - luckily one of the few times we backtracked). One t-shirt never got returned.
Sunglasses broken: 3 (generally from getting sat on during safaris)
Illnesses: 2 (food poisoning twice in Ethiopia - both Ellen)
Number of breakdowns/flat tyres: 6
Marriage proposals: 4 (all to Ellen)
Declarations of love: 32 (all to Ellen)

So now we're off to South East Asia for 6 weeks.... should be fun!