THE LAST POST - A LOOK BACK

Throughout the trip we kept track of every penny spent.  Bank fees, food, toll charges, a square of toilet paper - you name it, we know how much it cost us.  And now I need to make use of those numbers.  So here for you, in no particular order, is a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

TOTAL COST IN FUEL 
$2750.80 for the land rover
$464.74 for the stupid uhaul (and thats from Washington, (at the Canada border) to Edmonton
GRAND TOTAL IN FUEL SPENT $3215.54

OVERALL MPG
20.32 for the land rover

OIL CHANGES
5

FLAT TIRES
1

EVERY CENT SPENT ON THE LAND ROVER THROUGHOUT THE YEAR
$3740.80 - this number hurts

WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE LAND ROVER
broken rear differential x 2, throttle cable snapped x 2, clutch failed, 10 bushing failings, windshield wiper blew off, 1 flat tire, wheel alignment was off and ruined 4 tires, fuel shut off failed (can't turn the truck off), replaced 2 glow plugs, broken headlight, steering box leaked out all of its oil, muffler blown, emergency brake caught on fire, speedometer failed, roof rack broke in 3 places, electrical shorts causing headlights not to work, replaced 2 shocks, blew all fuses in a rainstorm, lots of mold and lots of ants

NUMBER OF TIMES WE SAID THE WORD 'DIFF'
one million

a common occurrence 

MOST EXPENSIVE DIESEL
Belize - it worked out to be about $1.39L or $5.25G

CHEAPEST DIESEL
Mexico - when we first entered Mexico it was about $0.64L or $2.42G (December 2010)
By the time we left it had gone up a bit to about $0.82L or $3.10G (September 2011)
This was by far the cheapest fuel of anywhere we had been.

TOTAL AMOUNT OF KILOMETERS/MILES DRIVEN
26007 km or 16160 miles

TOTAL AMOUNT SPENT ON TOLL ROADS
$286.27 (just Mexico)

TOTAL AMOUNT SPENT ON BORDERS
$1050.50 - this includes $200 USD to cross Guatemala in one day, a years worth of Mexican auto insurance, border helpers etc.  This is for 17 border crossings (entry and exit).  The most expensive border was Mexico, our first entry cost us $329.80.  Its high because of the insurance, $239 for one year.

NUMBER OF PHOTOS KEPT
7567 - I'm sure we deleted at least that many too

NUMBER OF DAYS ON THE ROAD
364

NUMBER OF FIGHTS
Strangely enough, we didn't fight very much - and we were together 24/7.  And we always had things to talk about.  We did have to give each other space at times,  Justin would go work on the land rover and I would read a book.

BRIBES ASKED
0
In a way, we feel cheated out of an experience.  We were prepared for whatever they threw at us but it just didn't happen.  What am I complaining about!

BRIBES GIVEN
1
To speed along the process Justin put a $5 in each of our passports so we could get ahead of a long line of people exiting Nicaragua.  It worked and likely saved us hours of waiting.

TIMES SICK WITH COLDS
I had 5 and Justin had 4 in about 6 months time.  I think it was due mainly to bad air conditioning.

TIMES SICK WITH A  "______REVENGE" SORT OF SICKNESS
Not many times at all.  Besides all the colds we had at the beginning of the trip we were hardly sick.    We ate everything they tell you not to eat.  We had unpeeled vegetables, we ate from street vendors and had ice cubes without the holes. We did take Dukoral before we left and we also had it brought down to us twice, so that could have something to do with it.

NUMBER OF BANDAIDS USED
We don't have an exact amount, but it had to of been over 50.  We were always getting banged up.  We had a well stocked first aid kit that was always getting used.

WHO HAD THE MOST MOSQUITO BITES
Nadine
We were bitten relentlessly.  My legs are full of scars.  I think we both spent the year scratching!  I believe the amount of bites we were getting was the only reason we kept taking our malaria medication. This is where some of the excessive bandaid use comes in as Justin was very afraid of the potential of a bot fly laying eggs in an open wound, so he kept them covered!

BEST FOOD OF THE TRIP
Turkey filled Christmas tamales we had in the Baja.  We had tamales throughout the trip but nothing compared to these.  Honorable mention goes to the lady selling fish tacos by the ocean, in Sayulita.

the tamales were made by Albertos (above) wife and her family

WORST FOOD OF THE TRIP
So hard to pick.  Mine was a piece of bread that had about an inch of sardines on it and olives.  Justins was grilled cactus and mystery meat.

now doesn't that just get the juices flowing?

ROBBERIES, PICKPOCKETS AND THAT SORT OF THING
1- 1/4
The truck was broken into, in Costa Rica.  In California, someone tried to steal the 2 jerry cans off of the roof of the truck. When they realized they were empty, they left them.

NUMBER OF DIFFERENT PLACES WE STAYED
110
We had 3 long term stays of a month or more, other than that it was usually about 1-3 days in each spot. We've included in this number sleeping at gas stations and on ferries.

QUESTION MOST ASKED OF US
You drove through Mexico?

It is always asked with wide eyes and in a tone of shock.  And it isn't just people from Canada or the States asking us, its also everyone from all of the other countries we've been to too.  On another note, something we noticed, is that each country thinks that the neighbouring country to it, is too dangerous to travel to. In Guatemala the people would tell us don't go to El Salvador - its too dangerous and the people from El Salvador would tell us the same thing about Guatemala.

SCARIEST MOMENTS
For myself, it was being clobbered by a wave and it flipping and flopping me all the way to shore.  I couldn't get myself out of it and I remained a little afraid of the ocean for the rest of the trip.
For Justin, it was when the diff broke.

AMOUNT SPENT ON LAUNDRY
$174.83
Having your laundry done is actually really cheap, about $12 for a months worth (thats what we would average).  We actually didn't do laundry very often.  We would wear our clothes until we couldn't wear them anymore.  Sometimes they would get washed in the sink and sometimes we would end up buying whatever we needed out of necessity (not often).  We were always happy when we had freshly laundered clothing. This number is high because of the coin machines we used in the States.

AMOUNT SPENT ON ACCOMMODATIONS
$15563.18
This number is a killer.  When we planned this trip, we thought we would be sleeping in the truck for the most part.  When we decided to bring Anna, we knew we would be in hotels.  We tried to keep it as cheap as we could but whenever you add in air-conditioning the price goes up.  We stayed in a range of places, from your cheap $20 a night room to about $80 a night for something really fancy.

this was one of my favorite hotels, definitely out of budget at $80.83 a day

AMOUNT SPENT ON OTHER TYPES OF TRANSPORTATION
$1911.04
This number includes the ferry to the mainland from Baja ($315.83 total), 2 other ferries, lots of cab rides, buses, tuk tuks, tips for people who led us places when we were lost, boats and parking because I didn't have a better category to put it in.  It also includes $1147.72 that we paid to U-haul.

WE COULD NOT OF DONE THE TRIP WITHOUT
Gatorade and Powerade
We had about 3 months of insane temperatures.  The heat just really did us in, we never thought in a million years that we would of been so affected by it.  Water just did not do it.  Then at one point we started to drink about 5 Gatorades a day - each!  And that worked, our heads cleared and we just generally felt better. We drank so many that we would have to force them down.  I can't imagine how much we spent on these - regardless it was worth it.

we also lived on ice cream

air conditioning!

WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT THE MOST
Absolutely, without a doubt, at some point everyday we would talk about BUGS.  Usually ants.

NUMBER OF POUNDS THAT JUSTIN LOST
about 50

FAVORITE PLACES
We both love the Pacific coast of Mexico the best.  As for things to see we both loved swimming in the underground cenotes in the Yucatan.  Our favorite thing to do was always to just wander up and down the streets and check places out or to sit in the square and people watch.

THE BEST KITTY CAT EVER
That would be our 18 year old Annabell.  It was a tough decision to bring her, she has some medical issues and we weren't sure how she would handle it.   And really, who brings their cats places?  We knew that this was not a normal thing to do!  But hey, she thrived.  The heat was good for her old achy bones and she was able to chase cockroaches.  She didn't exactly make any friends but she did put a smile on a lot of peoples faces.  She was good for us too.  We're both really happy we brought her.

MOST DIFFICULT ITEM TO FIND IN CENTRAL AMERICA
Cat litter.  Easy enough to find in Mexico but it took until Costa Rica to find it again and that was at a vet. They look at you crazy when you are try to explain what you want, they tell you that a cat just goes outside. Oh, and they always want to know if she has had babies.

Anna and Justin sharing a meal

and the big one......

THE TOTAL AMOUNT SPENT 
$48140.51
That's it, that's all, that's everything!  Way, way higher then we ever thought it would be.  About $10000 over.  When you add up all the mini disasters we've had, it about works out.  If it wasn't for those though, what would we of written about?

This trip was worth every last penny.

To us, THIS WAS MONEY WELL SPENT!!!!!

This past year has been incredible -  its just too difficult to sum it up.  Good times or bad - it felt like this year was lived out fully.

Thanks to everyone who supported us, commented on the blog and emailed.  It really meant a lot to us!

Until next time...

OUR UNBELIZEABLY EXPENSIVE TIME IN BELIZE

Crossing the border, we were very excited for a new country.  Belize wasn't one of the destinations that was high on the list of must sees but it was in the way to get to Guatemala, so we figured we would give it a quick look.

You expect things to be somewhat similar when you cross the border because really its just an imaginary line but the contrast between the two countries is like night and day.  Being able to read signs, menus and have conversations with people was a treat.  Not to forget watching t.v. - choice in programming almost made our stay in Belize a lot longer.

tastes like Saskatchewan Pilsner

Belize is the most expensive country in Central America and for this reason we knew we had to cut our stay short.  One of our favourite things to do in a new place is check out the local grocery store.  It was exciting when we saw a variety of chocolate bars that we recognized and flavours of chips that weren't going to set our tongues ablaze.  Except that a bag of chips could cost up to eight dollars American (no joke! wish I would of taken a picture).  So we knew we had to partake in the countries specialty of rice and beans or beans and rice if we were ever going to fill our stomachs without breaking the bank.

The cost of things was crazy to us (12.5% sales tax), especially after our stay in Mexico.  Decentish hotels with air conditioning were at least double the price.  The cost of fuel at the highest was 5.5 USD a gallon. Tours, local attractions and all things touristy are not made for the budget traveller here.  This is a country loaded with things to do and see for those with deep pockets.

our 3rd bushing change

land rovers are a dime a dozen in this country

So onto the heat.  Just can't describe it.  It completely limited all activities.  We never realized how much the heat was going to affect our trip.  Thing is, we both love hot weather but this is not livable.  Even the locals would stop us and tell us to go get water if we didn't have a bottle in our hands.  We would talk about how great it would be if it would just damn well rain (and it is rainy season and everyone keeps telling us how strange it is that the rain hasn't come yet.  On another note the rain still hasn't started in Guatemala yet either.)  Days that we had to drive, we would be up at four am to load the truck to be on the road at sunrise and hopefully at our destination by about eight am because at that point we had to get ourselves and Anna into air conditioning.  Sometimes after we had been outside for awhile and would go into ac, our eyes would fog up from the temperature and humidity change.  (We think thats the reason but it could be our malaria medication.)  We were feeling so listless, foggy headed and just plain terrible all the time.  Water wasn't cutting it so we started to drink gallons of Gatorade everyday (about four or five bottles each a day) and that really seemed to help.  I know every post we seem to complain about the heat but it has ruled our lives for the last three months.

We didn't want to leave the country without seeing some of the sights, so we ignored our budget and booked some activities in different parts of the country.

First we went to the Belize zoo.  It has all the animals native to the country and it wasn't so much a zoo as a animal rescue/education center.

Then in western Belize we arranged for a canoe ride through Barton Creek cave.  This was truly the highlight of our stay in the country.  We drove through massive orange groves and mennonite communities on an insane road built of boulders to get there.  We also had to do two river crossing and cross a bridge that appeared to be half built.  The cave was amazing.  Stalagmites and stalactites galore, mayan burial grounds, skulls encased in minerals, pottery, catfish and bats to name some of the sights we saw inside.  We got to the end of the passable part of the cave and our guide asked us if we wanted to go further - and we said of course!  So we all had to rearrange ourselves and lay flat in the canoe as the ceiling was only about a foot or so above the water.  Once we got to the point that we absolutely couldn't go any further, Teddy told us to turn off the flashlights and we were in complete darkness.  That was somewhat frightening!  On the way back to the hotel we crunched on sugar cane and were introduced to our new favourite treat - cassava chips.

orange groves

water crossing

bridge with planks not nailed down - driving on it was interesting!

entrance to Barton Creek cave

exiting the cave

The next day our guide Teddy talked us into going tubing down the Mopan river with him.  So we all piled into the land rover, picked up some inner tubes at his mothers house and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon floating down the river.  He pointed out different birds, lizards and bats and talked about the history and how life is lived for the people of Belize.  We saw horses in the water, watched families doing their laundry in the river and saw evidence of how high the river gets in the rainy season - and its extrordinary.  Then we asked him about crocodiles (which we shouldn't of) because it seemed like a likely place for them to be.  He told us its fine here but farther up and further down is where they are - yeah right!

Mopan river in western Belize

our awesome guide Teddy

This seems to be getting really long so here are some other things that happened while in Belize....

• both of us being bitten repeatedly by sand colored ants that burnt like fire
• finally getting bacon on the side and not mixed into our eggs
• Anna chasing a cockroach through a hotel room and catching it, totally proud of herself, while one of us was screaming
• learning all about the contraband items in Belize and realizing we had a lot of them
• not realizing again, that we were in a different time zone and showing up at a specific time and wondering why everyone is always late
• Justin meeting up with another member of the land rover club and him setting up a driver to Belize city to at last find the correct oil for the truck
• the constant search for bank machines that would work, we were out of cash all the time
• driving through heavy smoke and raging fires on either side of the highway

guy hitching a ride on a pedal bike on the back of a sugar cane truck

We didn't really get to see a lot of what this country has to offer.  We didn't see the islands or any of southern Belize.  We do know its worth coming back to when we have the cash to do it.  It is such a small country that one could see a lot of it by renting a vehicle on a two week stay.  We would also recommend being careful about what time of year you come to avoid the insane heat!!  The people are friendly, the things to do are spectacular - this country is definitely worth a visit.

all land rover over landers stop here

bye bye Belize - Justin (in the blue shirt) starting the paperwork to leave the country