The Final Statistics

Days away - 322
Number of flights – 29
Road trips - 7
Number of miles – countless (best guess to be announced)
Number of photos – 10,500
Number of times moved bed – 153
Longest stay in one bed – 8 days
Number of overnight journeys – 12
Number of languages attempted - 8
Furthest north – Healy, Alaska
Furthest south – Balclutha, New Zealand
Coldest – Beijing
Hottest – Outback Australia
Largest animal encountered – Humpback whale
Nastiest animal encountered – Midgie (upon return to the Lake District)
Number of people met who we already knew – 73
Number of new acquaintances worth noting – hundreds

There'll be more in the book... :-)

Hair today, gone tomorrow!

From start to finish in several photos and many laughs.

Every man should grow a beard at least once in his lifetime. With four months of unrestrained follicle freedom, Phileas doesn't think he'll ever get such an opportunity again!

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Please feel free to add names to the styles that particular take your fancy!

Have you ever looked in a mirror in the morning and actually recoiled because you didn't recognise the person there? Hmm, it's peculiar!

And the only question that remains - which weighed most? The hair on my head or my chinny chin chin?

Tempus fugit... and so do we.

A final evening about Buenos Aires saw us wander the streets of Recoleta and take in a film before retiring to the Art Hotel to reflect on the past year. Thanks to Steve for providing the perfect focus in his 100-question inspeckted bloggers' quiz!


Then morning came. Time to eat, pack and be a foreigner for the final time!


And how to feel about it all being over? It's hard to describe but perhaps some understanding comes in imagining having eaten the best meal ever. There comes a time when you're happy to stop eating and simply appreciate what you've tasted.


A fitting sunset over Brazil on our final flight.

3.5 films, the lightest of reading, a smudge of writing, inconsistent sleeping and most importantly 15 hours later..


Home. Of sorts. The journey continues...

Adios!

And so our Argentinian dalliance came to an end with a final fling with the Sanchez family. Two nights and three days of fun, laughter, and good (from Lucrecia) and bad interpretation.


It's good to share the finer points of linguistics over a coffee, looked over by an indoor merry-go-round...


And share a fine meal, whilst on the joyful translation merry-go-round!


But we did alright!!


Phileas even understood the Paddle game - he may even consider playing it if he could find any similar Real Tennis courts in the north...


But all good things must come to an end... How good it was to spend time with lovely people once again. New people. People who didn't 'exist' before but who now we will never forget.

Happy Birthday Hilda!

Sorry we can't be with you, but we're thinking of you all those miles away! Hope you have a great day! Counting the days till we see you again...

Lots of love,

Phileas

Mixing with the locals

Yet more lovely Argentinians we are mixing with. They say they don't speak English, apart from what they learned at school. Well, it's obviously not a bad standard of education then! But that's not to say the translating machine doesn't get well used more than a poquito!


Phileas, Andy, Lucy, Aurora and Orlando. (Some names are easier to Anglicise than others!)



With Orlando being a teacher, we had the opportunity to tour a school in Cordoba. Nice staff, good kids, just a bit disturbing that classrooms tended to resemble a toilet block.



We had some fun with these 15 year olds as they practised their English and voiced their desires to have girls in school. They even recorded a video message for Phileas' class back home. Somehow, I doubt the reply will be in Spanish!

Forgive and forget?

Our Argentinian experience is enveloped in the hospitality of good people. Andres and Camile have shown us great kindness in opening their home, and simultaneously provided and encouraged laughter.

Andres and Camile, hosts for our longest stint of 'stay still'.

Tania

But this is not to say that we haven't reciprocated. Phileas tried to tell them that they had 200,000 people in Cordoba. Instead, he managed to tell them that people in Cordoba have two teeth!

But like some of Andres' stories, some tales are not a joke...


There are some things you can forgive.


But there are some things you can never forget! (It's the T-shirt of Homer Simpson handling the ball that really catches my eye!)