Rio, Brazil to Bromborough, Wirral, UK: 5th-6th April 10

So our travels are over and we’re back in England. We nearly missed our plane as there were very heavy rains in Rio – the roads flooded and the traffic came to a stand-still, so it took 3 ½ hours to get to the airport instead of ½ an hour. We’ve woken up this morning to the news that over 11 inches of rain fell in the few hours after we left, the heaviest rain for 50 years - resulting in huge mudslides and the deaths of over 100 people. 14,000 are homeless.

We thank our lucky stars that we got out when we did – another few hours and we would probably have been stuck for several days, but our thoughts are with those that were hurt or killed.

It’s hard to sum up the last 9 months – we’ve had the most amazing time. Of course we’re glad to be back and see our families – and most of you know that we’ve got lots more excitement coming up in the next few weeks with our move to Hong Kong, but it’s sad to end such an adventure. A lot of you have shared in the amazing times we’ve had, via this blog, but we wanted to summarise some of the highlights - just because it’s fun!

So here goes…some of the best things we’ve done/seen/experienced (although by no means everything!) and some amazing contrasts too!

We’ve visited 23 countries on 3 continents, some of the richest and poorest places on earth.

We’ve been skydiving over Namibia, micro-lighting over Zambia and paragliding over Lima. We’ve been white water rafting, dune surfing and quad biking. We’ve taken the world’s highest zip wire off a mountain and a hot air balloon over the Serengeti. We’ve hiked over the mountains of Vietnam, the deserts of Africa, the islands of Lake Titicaca, the glaciers of Patagonia, amongst the Inca ruins of Peru and the jungles of Bolivia. We’ve scuba dived at 12 metres below sea level and walked amongst Guisers 4,900 metres above sea level!

We’ve walked with lions and been charged by elephants; swam with sea lions, sharks and turtles; we’ve petted tigers, been scared by tarantulas and entertained by monkeys; we’ve tracked leopards and hyenas and worked to help the cheetahs; we’ve had bins raided by porcupines, tables raided by raccoons, kitchens raided by baboons - and ourselves raided by lots of mosquitoes!

We’ve visited ancient ruins and hyper-modern cities, Buddhist towns, floating forests and tribal villages, colonial cities and the occasional shit-hole!

We’ve seen Apsara dancers in Cambodia, drag queens in New York, half-naked tribal dancers in Namibia, fire dancers in Thailand and tango dancers in Argentina. We’ve experienced Carnival in Lima, vehicle blessings in Bolivia, city-wide water fights in Peru, alms ceremonies in Laos and freaky weddings in Tokyo. We’ve stayed with a village chief in Malawi and had a Royal encounter in Vietnam. We’ve seen Masai warriors, girls in kimonos, ladies in bowler hats and saffron robed monks!

We’ve eaten crocodile, kudu, ostrich, spring bok, guinea pig and the best steaks in the world - not to mention snake wine!

We’ve experienced typhoons and earthquakes and had a close call with a Tsunami!
We met our friends, Paul and Sharazed in Thailand, Dan and Kathleen in New York, Obe and Penny in Rio and made lots of new friends…Rick, Jill, Emma and Leeanne amongst many others in Africa; Shirley Girly, Jehan & Sam in Cambodia; Linda and Rebecca in Ecuador and Tania in Bolivia.

Phew! What was the best thing? Waking up excited every morning!