Lima to Medellín

WE MADE IT TO MEDELLÍN! (Yes, I know we finished this trip a while ago, but we can still live in blog time… 🙂 )

So, the ‘official’ fourth leg of the trip is complete and it’s STATS TIME once again – you know you love it! 🙂

According to Google maps you can drive between Lima and Medellín in around 50 hours as it’s ONLY around 3,000km. We took a little bit longer than 50 hours to get there (over 5 months… but we did detour to the Galapagos…).

So, the stats for this part of the journey (Lima to Medellín) are:

Countries visited: 3 (Peru, Ecuador, Colombia)
Distance travelled by bus: 5,790km
Distance travelled including other methods: 8,925km (including 2,700km by plane, 400km by boat, and 35km walking)
Days taken (including 12 nights in Lima): 169 days (3 Oct 18 – 20 Mar 19)
Country breakdown:
Peru – 31 days
Ecuador (including Galapagos) – 82 days
Colombia – 56 days

Number of overnight stops: 31 (not including Lima)
Different accommodations stayed in: 39

So on this leg of the journey we stayed an average of 5.28 nights in each location. Yes, the trend of getting slower continues! :-). The last three averages were 4.66 nights per stop for stage 3 – Santiago to Lima, 4.48 nights per stop for stage 2 – Buenos Aires to Santiago, and 3.44 nights per stop for stage 1 –Santiago to Buenos Aires.

Of course, now we must present the stats for the whole trip so far – which is for the WHOLE of South America! WHOO HOO! After Medellín, we will be flying to Panama and the trip will continue in Central America and Mexico.

You can see the map of the route in the whole of South America here.

Countries visited: 9 (Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia)
Distance travelled by bus: 36,688km
Distance travelled by boat: 2,300km
Distance travelled by 4WD: 675km
Distance travelled by train: 80km
Distance travelled on foot: 35km
Distance travelled by plane: 300km
TOTAL DISTANCE travelled (except for return flights to Galapagos): 40,078km

At this moment I will point out that of course we have actually covered much more distance than this because of the various day trips that we have taken…. these totals represent the official ‘continuous overnight stays journey‘ – yes, I know I just made that term up… 🙂 But stats are meant to be part made up.. right? 🙂

Days taken (up until last night in Medellín): 622 days (07 July 17 – 20 Mar 19) (around 20 and a half months)
Country breakdown:
Chile – 113 days (just under 4 months)
Argentina – 135 days (4.5 months)
Paraguay – 14 days (2 weeks)
Brazil – 41 days (6 weeks)
Uruguay – 20 days (3 weeks)
Bolivia – 83 days (3 months)
Peru – 78 days (2.5 months)
Ecuador – 82 days (3 months)
Colombia – 56 days (2 months)

Number of buses/minivans/colectivos taken: 162 (doesn’t include day trips)
Average length of bus journey: 226km
Number of overnight location stops: 139
Different accommodations stayed in: 163 (including night buses, ferry, and tapir hide)
Average stay per overnight location stop: 4.47 days

Number of clock changes: 11

Different bird species seen: 490 (UNOFFICIAL ESTIMATE! Not all birds have been identified yet….)
Different animal species seen: 79 (UNOFFICIAL ESTIMATE! Not all animals have been identified yet….)

So, it’s time for Central America and Mexico! The final stage of the journey begins….