• Countries visited: four (Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia)
• Visa stamps collected: sixteen (including cheeky unofficial ones from the Inca trail, Macchu Picchu, Galapagos Islands and Easter Island). Lucy might run out of passport space before we are done!
• Temperature range: 25C (Galapagos) to -20C (Bolivia – brrr!)
• Min and max pieces of clothing worn: one (swimming with sharks in the Galapagos) and 16 (Lucy in Bolivia, not including three blankets, a sleeping bag and a hot water bottle at night)
• Max days without a shower: 3.5 (twice – Uyuni Salt Flats and Inca Trail). For the record, it’s OK if you are both smelly at the same time
• Pisco sours drunk: 35 (best one claimed made by James in Easter Island). And 35 isn’t as bad as it sounds between the two of us over a whole month! On second thoughts, how did we drink so little?
• Rodents eaten: not entirely sure. Rodents eaten on purpose: one
• Highest altitude: 4,900m (on the Uyuni salt flats tour. Gasp, wheeze.)
• Most bone rattling ride: it’s a close call between the bus ride from Uyuni to Potosi (Lucy hit the ceiling at one point, from a reclining chair) and the final night crossing in the Galapagos (Lucy hit the ceiling at one point, from a prone position in bed)
• Best building: you might think the Incas would win this, but our hotel room in Puno after four days in a jeep had a duvet! And a hot shower! And cable TV!
• Best monolithic structure (South Pacific island category): the HUGE double ice cream cone that James ate in the shade of a stone Moai on Easter Island
• Best new expression: “Poop!” – used twenty times a day by our guide in the Galapagos, and now a common part of our joint vocabulary. (But think about it, he has grannies and toddlers in his multi-lingual groups – how better to say it?)
• Most unexpected cake: it’s a tie between the one five days out of port on the Galapagos boat trip baked on a slant in the galley, and the one three days into the Inca trail, baked on a propane burner. One said “Happy Honeymon” (sic) in icing; the other had bright green jelly on top – decisions, decisions
• Scariest flight-related moment: a toss-up between Lucy in a turbulent six seater Cessna over the Nasca lines, and James when a condor about the size of the aforementioned Cessna flew low over his head in Colca Canyon
• Closest wildlife encounter: you might think it was in the Galapagos, but almost being pushed off the Inca Trail over a sheer drop by a pack Llama probably clinches it
• Intrepid Points gained: hundreds!

So, goodbye South America, roll on Papua New Guinea!