Around the world in numbers

Doesn’t time fly? I’ve been back over four months already and I still haven’t got round to doing the final round-up posts I planned, let alone told you all what I’ve been up to since. Bad blogger. Anyway, here’s the first of those posts, a quick round-up of my year away in the form of some nice geeky numbers.

I was away for 364 nights, and in that time I visited 19 countries on 4 continents. I spent 310 nights in the tropics and 54 nights outside them. I was north of the equator for 206 nights, and south for 158, I was east of the Greenwich meridian for 199 nights and west for 165. I crossed the tropic of cancer 4 times, the tropic of capricorn twice, the equator once and the international date line once.

I visited 15 capital cities (including both of Bolivia’s) – incidentally the 5 I missed were Guatemala City, Washington DC, Buenos Aires Canberra and Wellington.

I slept in 116 beds, and spent 134 nights in dorms, 77 in single rooms, 76 in double rooms, 17 in triple rooms and 13 in apartment. I slept 6 nights in hammocks, 17 on buses, 2 on planes, 4 on a boat, 16 in tents, and 1 in a buddhist monastery.

Where I slept over the year

I took 176 buses (including collectivos, minivans, chicken buses, jeepneys and so on), 136 taxis, 25 flights, 51 boats, 21 cars, 21 tuk-tuks (and similar), 2 cable cars, 5 jeeps, 6 funiculars, 10 trams, 2 trains, 30 metros and 2 horse & carts.

I visited 34 world heritage sites, 17 pyramids and other pre-hispanic ruins, 44 temples, 34 churches & cathedrals, 5 wineries and 29 museums. I also watched 5 wrestling matches.

I climbed 13 volcanoes and visited 21 national parks, 3 deserts, 4 canyons, 9 hot springs, 41 islands, 44 beaches, saw 1 geyser and 5 salt flats and went caving once. I spent 45 days over 3,000 metres altitude, of which 24 were over 4,000 metres, and 3 over 5,000m (and the biggest regret of my trip is that I didn’t take the opportunity to hike to 6,000m in Bolivia while I was well acclimatised and had the chance).

The highest point of my trip: Volcan Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia

I did 25 dives, went kayaking twice, tubing once, went running twice (and both in the first month, after which I got lazy) and hired bikes 6 times.

I did laundry 42 time, sent 24 postcards, made 37 phone calls and took cash out 106 times.

I walked through one window, visited 3 hospitals, had 38 stitches, and have 5 impressive scars.

I learnt at least a few words in 17 languages (Spanish, Quiche Maya, Quechua, Aymara, Rapanui, Maori, Bahasa Indonesia, Balinese, Bahasa Sasak, Bahasa Ende, Tetum, Portuguese, Filipino, Malaysian, Thai, Burmese, and Khmer). I have now forgotten virtually all of the above except for the Spanish.

I met and had conversations with people from 60 countries, including 192 people from the UK, 109 American (who says they don’t travel?), 79 Australians, 53 Germans, 41 Canadians, 34 French, 33 Swedes (almost all in Indonesia), 30 Filipinos, 27 Israelis (all in Latin America), 27 Dutch, 26 Dutch, 26 Swiss, 25 Irish, 23 Mexicans, 15 Guatemaltecos, 14 Chileans, 14 Danes, 13 Spanish, 13 Indonesians, 12 Argentinians, 11 Kiwis, 11 Burmese, 9 Belgians, 6 Brazilians, 6 Peruvians, 5 Austrians, 5 Finns, 5 East Timorese, 4 Italians, 4 Czechs, 3 Bolivian, 3 Malaysians, 3 Hong Kongers, 3 Chinese, 3 Singaporean, 3 Cambodian, 2 South African, 2 Norwegian, 2 Ecuadorian, 2 Thai, 2 Venezuelan, 2 Colombian, 2 Uruguayan, 2 Poles, 2 Portuguese, 2 South Korean, and 1 each from the Isle of Man, Guernsey, French Guiana, Romania, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, Hungary, Russia, Slovenia, Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroon, Japan & Estonia.
Here’s a map showing all the countries that I met people from:

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