Final Reports - The Trip in Numbers

For those that know me from an academic or work perspective you will know I am quite analytical and geeky. And as I didn't have enough on my plate writing a blog every day I started to document interesting facts and figures along our journey. So here is the culmination of hundreds of facts and figures I have collected throughout our trip. I hope you find them interesting - I certainly do when reading back through as it gives a great overview of the diversity, variety and sheer number of different experiences we have had along the way. 

The trip in numbers...

147 days

4 Continents

19 Countries

68 places visited 

3 American states visited: California, Nevada, Arizona

Most amount of time spent in a country: Brazil 21 days, USA 18 days, Peru 15 days

45 new passport stamps (and only 3 pages left)

55 different hotels (averaging 2.6 nights per stay)

22 - Number of Mondays we have not had to go to work! (Best fact ever!)

Countries now visited in our lives: 

   Aaron 48

   Nat 43

Target by the time we are 40: 75 each. 

GETTING AROUND

27 flights

13 different airlines

97 hours of flight time

Only 3 delays (only one of which was big)

22 long Bus journeys (over 5 hours)

2 overnight bus journeys

2 cars hired (USA and New Zealand)

(Surprisingly) only 2 trains (Machu Picchu, Iguazu Falls (which isn't really a proper train!))

1 Funicular railway (Santiago)

13 boat rides (Halong Bay, Mekong River (two days), Isla del Sol (return), Ilha Grande (return), Shark Island for Sydney New Year (return), Ilha Grande to Mendes Lopez) (return), Iguazu Colonia to BA

1 speed boat ride (Phuket for our break neck tour of the islands)

Too many Tuk Tuk's to count

Countless cabs that ripped us off (usually when first leaving the airport in a new place)

6 different undergrounds/metros: BA, Mexico City, Santiago, São Paulo, Bangkok, Rio. 

1 hot air balloon rides (Vang Vieng)

5 rivers - Mekong, Amazon, River Plate, Pastaza (White water rafting one), Luang Prabang 

THE BLOG

22,240 page views in total

Number of blog posts 162

Average of 136 different viewers per blog 

8 Special Reports (6 from Nat and 2 from Aaron)

3 final reports from Aaron (including this one)

226 number of blog comments 

99% of which were undoubtedly from Eric

Hours spent writing the blog estimated to be around 160 hours in total. 

Blog post with most views - strangely Day 2 HCMC

Audience in 10 different countries 

36% of blog posts viewed via an iPad and 35% via an iPhone

2 major instances when the blog went down

1 week - amount of blogs I lost in one outage. 

PHOTOS

6,327 photos taken on iPhone

5,818 Number of photos take on camera 

48gb of storage used across 4 memory cards. 

12,145 photos in total 

487 pictures of us sky diving from the go pro. 182 of us rafting and canyoning. 

28 video clips taken on phone 

3 DVDs purchased (white water rafting, Iguazu falls, sky dive)

SIGHTS, TOURS & ACTIVITIES

12 tour guides (Sun - Cu Chi tunnels, Jonny - street food tour Hanoi, David - Halong Bay, Si - Mekong River,  tedious man - Angkor Wat, Jay Jay - Phuket Islands, Marceleno - Inka Trail, Patricio - Banos white water rafting and canyoning, Fernando - Bogota bike tour, Lorena - Mendoza wine tour, Mark - sky dive, Jason - Grand Canyon)

5 treks (3 hours +) - Isla del Sol, Inka Trail, Jungle, Lencois waterfall, Grand Canyon

13 beaches (Mui Ne, Phuket, 3 x Thai Island Hopping (the 'beach' beach etc), Bali, Goat Island, Vina del Mar, Paraty, Lopez Mendes Ilha Grande, Ipanema Rio, Copacabana Rio, Venice Beach 

5 bike rides - Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Banos, Bogota, Maipu Mendoza 

4 zoo/animal reserves - Singapore zoo, caiman farm, manatee reserve and zoo in Iquitos. 

5 caves visited (some good some poor)

1 Sky dive!!!!

1 giant Jesus statue

Many Inka Ruins

1 jungle (Amazon)

Countless activities: canyoning, zip lining (3 times), white water rafting, swings off the side of mountains, bike rides, swimming, running, eight training (including Nat!), trekking, tubing, kayaking, snorkeling, sky dive

10 Waterfalls visited (210 if you count all he Iguazu ones!): Diablo Banos, 4 whilst canyoning, Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng (x2), Iguazu, Lencois tallest one, the Wynn fake one.

ENTERTAINMENT

1 Football match at the Maracana

3 Football stadiums visited - Maracana, São Paulo, Boca Juniors

Baseball matches 1

1 evening of wrestling in Mexico

1 Cirque de Soleil - Michael Jackson One

2 carnivals (1 Rio Carnival and 1 build up in Salvador) 

1 Tiempo drumming gig in BA

1 Tango BA

1 Gig - Nirvana tribute at Whisky A Go Go. 

9 Museums - War in Vietnam, Cu Chi tunnels, Hanoi Hilton, Lao limbs war museum (can't remember name!), Eva Peron Museum, Singapore history museum, ice maiden Arequipa, MALMA BA (Testino), Anthropological museum Mexico City, 

4 cinema visits: Anchorman 2, Gravity, Wolf of Wall St, American Hustle) 

2 celebrity spots - Tommy Lee Jones and the Kardashians (who I am counting as one!)

WEATHER

38 degrees - hottest temperature in São Paulo

-10 degrees - coldest temperature in Tisuyan (Grand Canyon)

98% - the humidity in Iquitos

Volcano eruptions 1 (mirage hotel in Vegas excluded)

2 times seen snow - Vegas (red rock canyon), Grand Canyon

3 inches - amount of rain in 2 hours in Paraty 

6 tremendous thunder storms 

1 witnessing of lightening hitting the ground in Party 

Over 120 days of sunshine

18 months of summer in total for us (including this summer in the UK!)

HARD ROCK CORNER

11 Hard Rock Cafés visited - HCMC, Bangkok, Phuket, KL, Singapore, Bali, Sydney, Santiago, Lima, Bogota, Buenos Aires

11 new pint glasses to add to my collection (much to the disgust of Nat!)

1 broken glass upon transit (Singapore) 

2 Hard Rock Hotels stayed at during our trip (Vegas, Palm Springs)

47 total Hard Rocks visited in my life time! (Def one for my CV!)

FRIENDS & FAMILY

 

18 people from home seen along the way (in order) - Caroline, Dave, Lynne, Nick, Rach, Helen, Amy, Graham, James, Emily, Firth, Mum, Dad, Eric, Nige, Elaine, Pete, Selena

9 new friends met (Trent & Sasha, Suan & Weng, Annari and Renier (South African dudes), Veronique and German from BA, Patricio)

READING

11 geeky books read by Aaron - History of the Vietnam War, Pol Pot: The history of a nightmare, Naked Statistics, Naked Economics, Street Smarts: Adventures on the road and in the markets, How to measure anything: Finding the value of intangibles in business, Killing Pablo, Financial Intelligence, Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour, The Snowball - Warren Buffett biography, Letters to the Shareholders by Warren Buffet. 

3 booked read by Nat: Vietnam war, Atlas Shrugged, psychology book

At least 1000 hours of Daily Mail online reading

HEALTH & BEAUTY

5 injections each pre trip

Malaria tablets taken: 30 each.

Bouts of illness (Nat 1 Aaron 0). 

Visits to dentist (Nat 1 Aaron 0)

Sloppy poos (sorry!) Nat countless. Aaron 1 ;-)

1 haircut for Aaron. 0 for Nat

5 Massages - Mui Ne, Vientiane, Siem Reap, Thailand x 2

2 of the best tans we have ever had!

MISCELLANEOUS 

$270 up at Black Jack

293. Number of dog poo's on a five block walk in BA. 

23 days to get cash card back

57 - number of times we have packed our suitcases in the past five months

15 mins - record for getting up, packed and checked out of a hotel

1 lost pair of RayBans (Nat)

2 lost pashminas (Nat obviously!)

MONEY

17 currencies (Dong, Reil, Bhat, Kip, Singapore dollars, Malaysian ringitt, bali rupiah, Aus dollars, NZ dollars, US dollar, Chilean Pesos, Bolivianos, Soles, Colombian Pesos, Brazilian Real, Argentinian Pesos, Uruguayan Peso, Mexican Peso)

EATING & DRINKING

Eaten out around 250 times including breakfast, lunch and dinner (excluding hotel breakfasts)

BEER.... SO MUCH BEER

119 Number of different beers sampled on the trip 

14 of which we have tasted before

Here we go....

Vietnam: Hanoi, Saigon, Saigon Special

Thailand: Leo, Singha, Tiger

Lao: Lao beer, Lao beer dark, Lao gold, Cambodia: Cambodia, Ankor

Bali: Bintang, Bali Hai, Storm, 

Aus: fat yak, little creatures, coopers NZ: macs gold, speight gold medal ale, saw mill pale ale, saw mill crystal, epic pale ale, Orleans house, hop head red, cartel and tecate (both Mexican)

Chile: Austral, Crystal, Royal, Imperial, Escudo

Bolivia: pacena, judas

Peru: Cuseuena, Cusquena malt, trigo, red, Pilsen Callao, Cristal Copa, Pichanga

Ecuador: Pilsener, club, brahma

Colombia: Aguila, club, BBC monserrate roja, BBC dark

Brazil: Brahma, Brahma Extra, Brahma Dark, Bohemia, Antartica, Skol, Chope Trigo (microbrew, Paraty), Itaipava, Petra, Therezopolis Gold

Argentina: me echo la Burra Trigo, BarbaRoja trigo, Quilmes, Imperial 

Mendoza: Warsteiner (very good), craft beer garden pale ale (best so far), Quilmes Bock, Siete colores artisinal beer pale ale, Gambrinus Pilsen (tasty), Patagonia Weiss, OtroMundo Nut Brown Ale

Uruguay: Patricia, Pilsen, Mastra Roja (best one), Zillertal 

Mexico: Bocanegra Pilsner, Bocanegra Dunkel, Bohemia Clara, Dos Equis XX Ambar, Indio, Hercules Jenny La Mula Pale Ale (best beer in Mexico)

USA. Bud light, La gunitas IPA, dogfish head 60 minute IPA, michelob ultra, Sierra Nevada, Pabst Blue Ribbon (delicious), dogfish 90 IPA, St Barnadus, Green Flesh Palate Wrecker, Firestone Double Jack IPA, Lumber Yard IPA, Alaskan Amber, Hop Notch IPA 90, Sam Adams lager, Sam Adams Boston Lager (the nicer version), Guinness, Rebel IPA, anchor liberty ale, Joseph James hop box (9.3%), shock top, Ellis island brewery pale ale, Ranger IPA, village idiot IPA, stone IPA Sierra Nevada Ruthless, Widmer Hefeweizen (wheat), Big Daddy IPA, Figueora Mountain Hoppy Hop IPA, Sandbar IPA, Firestone, Shipyard IPA, Magic Hat #9 Pale Ale, Sam Smith India Ale (the British one!)

WINE TIME

13 Vineyards 

NZ: Mudbrick, cable bay, Stoney ridge. Chile: Concha y Toro, Aquitania. Uruguay: Bodega Bouza Boutique, Argentina/Mendoza: Angelina, La Azul, Salentine, Trivento, Di Tommaso, Mevi, Zuccardi

So there it is. A good overview of our amazing trip in numbers. Hope you have enjoyed it.