We did it! We made it around the world in 381 days and have come safely home. We are definitely enjoying the comfort of our own beds and pillows, as well as a pantry, some foods we missed, a washing machine and friends! The map above gives a good picture of the countries we went to, though it doesn’t include the three separate 24 hour-ish layovers in the mainland US (the cross-over lines got too confusing!)
Before I give a run-down of all the statistics, I’ll share just a few thoughts and reflections that came out of our time in Wales where we deliberately took time to review the trip and remember both the good and the bad, as well as what we have learned along the way.
Favourite Country – people have asked us this all year long and we anticipate the question coming frequently these next few weeks as well. Short answer: we don’t have one 
It depends on whether you are asking about the scenery, the food, or the animals! A few of our favourites though do include New Zealand, Hawaii (which we refer to as a country!!), Guatemala, South Africa, Peru, Australia and Norway.
Most Beautiful – every country has its beauty. And often, so many places of stunning beauty. We certainly learned the magnitude, splendour and creativity of God’s magnificent creation. A few particularly beautiful countries include New Zealand, Norway, Peru, South Africa, Scotland, Iguazu Falls (we know, not a country!!) and Canada. But, I think our single most jaw-dropping moment of incredible beauty was at Moraine Lake in Alberta, Canada.
Favourite Foods – everything dulce de leche (Uruguay, Argentina), passionfruit cheesecake (Peru) and passionfruit ice cream (many South American countries), el pastor tacos (Mexico), pad Thai and pineapple fried rice (Thailand), shawarma (Israel), bubble tea (Taiwan), and Christmas Turkish delight (Turkey).
Favourite Experiences – we did so, so many excursions and interesting things, but some that stand out for us include the hot air balloon in Turkey, paragliding in Guatemala, hiking Mt. Sinai in Egypt, the safaris in Africa, seeing lava and the Napali Coast in Hawaii, taking in a concert at the Sydney Opera House in Australia, hiking the Blue Mountains in Australia, cooking class in Thailand, stencil painting in Japan and hiking around the Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil.
Scariest Moments – hands down for all of us, our scariest moments occurred during transport in South America!! And there were several, including a boat!
Hardest Moments – these range from being away from family during a medical crisis, to not having space or time to ourselves, being away from friends, grocery shopping in foreign countries, having bad weather make something that we were greatly anticipating not be enjoyable, and our terrible 18 hours being cold and wet on the mountain during the Santa Cruz trek in Peru.
Major Trouble – while hundreds of things didn’t go exactly according to plan, we really only had two (maybe three) major incidents. First, the ankle injury 10 days into the trip. Still so thankful it wasn’t broken and we could keep going. That ended up being our only major medical incident or sickness of the whole trip, which is incredible. Second, the Vietnam Visa issue. By not submitting it early enough, we got caught in the government shutdown for the TET holiday (Chinese New Year) and ended up spending one extra week in Taiwan (with family which was awesome) but one less week in Vietnam and needing to rebook several things. The third, was the Botswana border crossing – the one and only time that we did not have the girls’ birth certificates with us for a border crossing was the one and only time they were needed! In the end, despite it being very stressful, we did get through.
Life Lessons Learned (mixing important with funny):
- Don’t take the little things for granted (like toilet seats, top sheets, salt & pepper, eating fruits & vegetables, etc).
- Deadlines can be a good thing and very motivating!!
- Sometimes the only way out of a tough situation is to keep going (eg, the Santa Cruz trek in Peru).
- To be hospitable.
- Community is important.
- Don’t walk behind a donkey – they kick!
- How to be okay in unknown and sometimes uncomfortable situations.
- How to do laundry in a sink and for the girls, about exchange rates, reading maps, etc.
- So much of the world and the people in it are the same and so much of it is different. Both the similarities and the diversity are wonderful.
Other Lessons:
- Our preconceived notions of developed vs developing countries were greatly challenged. Also, our “single story” of Africa was shattered, which was a very good thing.
- How huge, beautiful, and diverse the world is. It made all of us want to take care of it better.
- Despite the beauty everywhere, we also live in a very beautiful corner of this planet.
- Having missed some of the seasons, we learned how much we enjoy all four of them and were surprised to learn how much they regulate us and our body clocks.
What we will miss about travelling – seeing new places, meeting new people, trying new foods, learning new things, fewer day-to-day responsibilities.
What we will not miss about travelling – finding food, no schedule, the actual “travelling” part (long plane, bus, car rides), bad beds, communication barriers, doing laundry in the sink, no pantry, always trying to figure things out.
Key words to sum up the trip – amazing, challenging, wonderful (or “Our Year of Wonder” was “Full of Wonder” ).
And now, the statistics. They are pretty fun to look at and almost mind-boggling to think that we did it all!
We went to 34 countries
and 214 cities.
We took 57 flights
and have been 74 airports.
We were away for 380 nights
and slept in 155 different beds
in 19 different time zones.
We took 19 different modes of transportation
and saw 132 different wildlife species (of significance).
We did 106 hikes
and 147 excursions/activities
and went to 20 different churches.
We visited 24 Youth Ambassadors
and 2 cousins
and 6 friends.
We tried 198 new foods.
We watched 9 TV series seasons
and 7 movies.
We listened to 26 podcasts episodes.
And we read so many books!
Matt read 37 books.
Julia read 87 books.
Marika read 181 books (plus 3 for school).
Annika read 162 books (plus 17 for school).
All in all, an incredible adventure that we are all so thankful we got to do together. Thank you for following along. We hope you enjoyed the journey vicariously and that you learned something along the way!