After 166 days, 22 countries, 52 different hotels,about 450 restaurant meals,32 flights and countless numbers of taxi-,train- and busrides, big cities,
small villages,waterfalls, markets, volcano´s, animal-encounters, rivers, rainforests, beaches, mountains,churches, museums,
festivals, dance-shows, boat-trips, islands, monuments and so on - we are now home.
After the last update, we´ve spent five days in Santiago, Chile. The excitement- and experience-factor from there is quite low
though. Partly because we only had five days to spend, but mainly, I think, because we knew we were close to going home now,
and we were just plain tired, and not really up to any more adventures. So we stayed in Santiago - never even left the
city centre.
I liked the city though. It´s charming, not too big and it is way more organized and neat than many of the other capitols
in south america.
We lived just by the pedestrian street - a couple of blocks away from the main square. So we explored the city
a little by foot, saw a few parks and sights, and really, thats all I can think of writing about Chile.
- oh, exept for the fact that I was caught off guard and had my phone stolen. I let a little loose, and for one day, I wore
my small backpack on the back instead of in front. Big mistake. Somewhere during the 15 minute walk from a nearby park to the
main square, someone had opened my backpack and helped themselves to my phone.
This has, by far, been the most annoying thing about south america in general.
Not knowing the difference between yours and mine is a bit of an issue there. Its such a shame, because most countries there have
so much to offer, and are absolutely stunningly beautiful. And most people are friendly and helpful and well-meaning.
And no doubt, we´ve had some of the most exciting and memorable experiences of the trip in south america.
But the fact that you have to be on guard all the time, gets really annoying, and this is why for me, there is no question
that Asia will beat south america any day of the week in the "world´s best continent - competition".
Someday, we´ll be back though. We still have unfinished buisness with south america. we still want to see rural Argentina
and Chile. Mendoza, Ushuaia and from there exploring Antarctica. The easter islands and Galapagos are still awaiting,
and ofcourse Brazil. Next time we´ll be sure to catch the carnaval in Rio, and we´ll definetly need to explore the
amazonas more.
After Chile we had a few days in Brazil. Originally we´d planned for the trip to end in Brazil, flying home after a couple of
weeks in Sâo Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.
However, during the trip, we got notified that there were buyers to our house in France.
Since we figured that asking for some extra vacation from work and school to empty the house, would probably not be well
recieved :-), we decided to end our trip a little early to fly to France and get the house ready for sale.
Therefore we had to skip Brazil, and only got a few days there.
We enjoyed them thoroughly though. After one night in Sâo Paolo, we flew to Rio and were greeted with lovely +32 c and
sunshine from a cloudless sky. Ahhh....a good way to end a great journey.
We quickly eyed the famous beaches Copacabana and Ipanema, and then spent the rest of the day dazing by the poolside
sucking in every last sunbeam. On our last day we drove up to see the one sight Rio´s most famous for. Christ the redeemer,
the great big statue of Jesus on the hilltop, overlooking the gigantic city of Rio.
And it was an impressive sight (althoug the modern escalators to get to the top seemes a little.....hmm...off place... )
Unfortunately we were in a hurry to catch our flight back to Europe, so we saw it, took some pictures, and then had to
hurry back down. Japaneese sightseeing, as Patrick concluded.
On our way to the airport, passing some of the city´s over 700 favela´s - the huge slum areas of Rio.
Rio has some of the biggest slum areas of all the cities in the world - and also the most dangerous.
And by the sound of it, you really wouldn´t want to find yourself wondering about in one of them.
Rio is easily one of the most dangerous cities in south america. There are a few visitor friendly areas in the city, but most of Rio
is definatly off limits for tourists.
After Rio, it was off to Europe again. A 12 hour flight to London. Most of the flight we slept - or atleast tried to.
Close to arrival, a flight attendant came to ask if Leon and Sofie would like to help the staff. It was
"red nose day" a day for charity and fundraising for kids in need . So after breakfast, Leon and Sofie wore the red noses
and walked through the plane raising money. As a thank-you for the help, the pilot invited the both of them to the
cockpit after landing. So when the rest of the plane had left, the kids got a tour with the pilot, sat in the chairs with
the pilots hat on and so on. They loved that. They were also filmed for TV, but unfortunately we had to fly on, and
didn´t have time to see it.
From London we flew on to France, arrived in Toulouse and took a cab to Beaumont de Lomagne.
a tender welcome to Europe with lovely sunny weather and an unusually high temperature for this time of year +22c.
We´d dreaded this part a bit, cause we knew how much work still awaited us at the house.
(for those of you who might not know what I´m talking about - we inherited Patricks grandfathers house in France last year,
and after long time dwelling on wether to keep it, rent it out or sell - we finally decided to sell)
We´d begun emptying the house last summer, and continued a little in october, but a 350 sqm house with a huge garden,
two garages, inhabited for the past 30 years by an old man who never threw anything out, well, it takes some time and effort
to make it ready for sales. With no time to waist, since the new owners were to overtake the house 1st of April -
we got to work. One of the friendly neighbours saved us from drowning though. He contacted one of his friends, who on a
regular basis helped emptying houses. He came and had a look. We agreed on some furniture he wanted that would be his
payment, and he´d take it all. Everything. Even the garbage. So for the next week he came every day with his kids and his
trailer, and emptyed the house top to bottom. Some of the french family came as well, as well as the neighbours, and everyone
took what they wanted. Everyone was happy - especially us. We got rid of all the things we didn´t know what to do with,
and it was free of charge for us. And they saved us from doing it all by ourselves.
So. After 9 days in Beaumont de Lomagne the house is emptyed and cleaned. The last papers are signed and the house is now
someone elses to enjoy. A shame. We´d have loved to keep it, but it´s simply too much work and too expencive to keep.
We´ll miss it though. The kids were devastated and didn´t want to sell, neither did I, it´s a fabulous house, and Patrick
ofcourse will probably miss it most of all. His grandfather built the house and he´s spent all his childhood summers there.
Leon told the new owners that if they want to sell in about 20 years time, they should contact him and he´ll buy it back :-)
So who knows, maybe one day we´ll enjoy it again :-).
Ending a long journey, we now have a 2000km drive back home. We bought a trailer in France for the last of the stuff we want
to take with us, and took Patricks grandfathers old car.
A drive that started monday afternoon after signing the last papers. Heading for home without a gps and me as a map-reader -
I anticepated some arguements on the road.We made it to Paris without problems, but then it went all wrong when the highway
to Lille was closed and we had to find an alternative route. French road signing is almost as hopeless as french administration,
and somehow we ended up on a highway going in the opposite direction.In the middle of the night.
Time for our first arguement on the road.I yelled. Patrick yelled. But in the end we found our way again.
A short 4-hour sleep just outside Paris, and early morning we continued.
Outside Bruxelles, suddenly we felt a bump and turning back - saw one of the wheels from the trailer missing, and the other
one smoking. Our trailer had broken down in the middle of the highway in Belgium.After 8 hours of calling around, figuring out a plan,
patrick managed to find a guy to pick the trailer up and drive it to a mechanic.
Apparently in France there are no real regulations on trailer parts, so to save money, everything is underdimensioned,
and crap that wont last very long. Add to that, that we overloaded a bit - well, there you have the makings of a disaster
bound to happen. we were just lucky that we or someone else didn´t get hurt.
Because the delay, we chose to overnight in Bremen in stead of driving all night.
The rest of the drive went well, and wednesday afternoon we finally arrived home.

Back to work, school, cooking, cleaning, driving the kids to football and badmington , gospel, zumba,badmington,
doing dishes,washing clothes,meeting friends and family,helping with homework,shopping, gardening
and all the other regular everyday life stuff. Some good, some great, some boring and some annoying,
but all in all, the making of our lives.
Its been a fabulous, amazing journey. One that we will never forget.
It will take some time to let all the impressions soak in.

Thank you all for following us on the way, reading along,and especially thank you for those of you writing messages and mails, sending greetings, skyping and showing interest. It´s been really nice having you along with us - and nice hearing
from you at home !