So I have been back in the US for about a week now. I was in Portland for a couple of days where I managed to unpack, do some laundry, and sort my mail. I even managed to sneak in a quick trip to see a movie….Walk the Line…I had no idea that Johnny Cash’s life was just a trainwreck.
Now I am in Chicago and I am really enjoying meeting my nieces for the 1st time. They are really cute and a lot of fun. You know that I must really love them as I have even changed a couple of diapers. All in all it is very cool and I am really enjoying being an uncle. Besides that I am spending lots of time preparing to watch a whole lot of NCAA basketball the next couple of days. And just to show you how strange that it is to be home….I still have to think twice before I stick my toothbrush under the faucet and have to remember to throw the toilet paper in the toilet and not the garbage can. And last but not least…if you ever need culture shock spend a couple of hours in Babies ‘R Us…wow that place is out of control!
To wrap up my travels I am in Chicago through the end of the weekend. After that I head to Florida for a couple of days to visit my Grandmas and then wrap things up in Atlanta where I will be meeting some friends to go to some of the college basketball tournament games. After that it is back to reality which includes finding a place to live and going back to work.
Random facts and tidbits from my trip:
Number of days on the road: 181
Number of countries visited: 11 plus Antarctica
Number of time zones that I was in (including US): 5
Number of continents: 3 (North America, South America, Antarctica)
Number of times I crossed the border between Chile and Argentina: 7
Number of days spent in each country (based on where I woke up in the morning):
Guatemala 35 Nicaragua 20 Argentina 48
Belize 4 Costa Rica 6 Chile 17
Honduras 5 Brazil 4 Bolivia 21
Antarctica 9 Peru 9 US 3
Note 1: One of the days attributed to Argentina was really spent in Uruguay during a day trip.
Number of books that I read excluding Lonely Planets: 22
Best books that I read:
1. Birds without Wings by Louis DeBiernes
2. Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Hadden
4. Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
Most disappointing books that I read:
1. In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin-This is supposed to be the quintessential travel book on Patagonia but I found it to be boring…of course maybe I should have waited to read it until after I had been to Patagonia rather than reading it in Central America.
2. Digital Fortress and Deception Point by Dan Brown-Both were super quick reads and were entertaining but not a whole lot there and very formulaic.
Best purchases that I made for the trip:
1. New digital camera and then upgrading and buying a zoom lens before going to Antarctica
2. Patagonia rain jacket
3. Lonely Planet for Central America
Worse purchases I made for the trip:
1. Rough guide to Central America-it didn’t have any bus times in it so I sold it and then bought a Lonely Planet
2. A sleep sack---never used it once…good thing that REI has such a great return policy
Amount of time I spent traveling around…this only includes getting from point A to point B and does not include travel during sightseeing trips. It also exludes the time spent on the cruise ship going to and from Antarctica which would add another 80 plus hours.
Buses: 294 hours or about 12.25 days
Airplanes: 43.50 hours
Other (boats primarily): 13.50 hours
Number of vehicles I was on to make the above trips: 136
Number of times the bus I was on had some sort of mechanical problem: 4
Number of buses that I saw overturned in a ditch: 2 (makes my mechanical problems seem insignificant)
Number of rides in the back of a pickup truck: 4
A list of some of the things that I managed to lose during the last 6 months: about $300 US (taken from my money belt and my pack at different times during the trip—both times because I was careless with my stuff), a Lonely Planet Central America book (taken accidentally by a fellow traveler), 3 Nalgene bottles, a lens cap cover, and 2 things of dental floss).
Number of times that I intentionally started my day prior to the sunrise: 19
Number of days that it rained in such a way that it impacted my plans for the day or at least got me a little wet: 98 or over half the days…I guess that is what you get for traveling during the rainy season…all in all not too much different than Portland during this time of the year.
Number of haircuts: 5
Number of times that I had some sort of stomach virus: about 4 times but this was a lot less than I had expected and only once was I really and truly sick.
Number of museums that I visited: 16
Total number of miles that I hiked on proper hiking trails: over 250 but most trails did not have great descriptions so I don’t know the exact mileage
Number of volcanoes that I climbed: 5
Sporting events that I attended: a baseball game and 2 soccer games
Number of pages that I wrote in my journal: 187…for the record this is the 1st time that I actual was able to maintain a journal for my entire trip
Well that will just about wrap it up. I hope you have enjoyed my trip as much as I have.
Love
Scott
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