Back in Rio we agreed to go ahead with the one quote we'd managed to get for flying the bikes home - a similar price to the sea freight quote we'd receieved but more importantly we were told we could complete the process in a few days whereas to send the bikes by sea might require up to 15 days of hanging around just to get them through customs. Unfortunately the quote turned out to be more of a guestimate, with extra costs being added on at the last minute for forgotten necessaries, but at least it happened. We arrived back from the mountains on the Monday, checked into a hostel carefully sourced for being able to park our bikes safely outside, and immediately had to get back on the bikes to take them to the crating company - our last ride of the trip. The next day we hoped to do our last bit of sightseeing, as well as finalising things with the airfreight company, but Emily was very ill from what we assumed to be food poisoning, leaving Ric to work out how to get thousands of pounds of cash out in 24 hours - at the last minute we found out that the freight company don't take any form of credit or debit cards! On Wednesday morning we packed our bags, picked up our enormous wodge of bank notes and went to the freight company at 10am to hand over the money. We then accompanied our freight guy to the airport to get the bikes through customs: the last task we needed to complete before we could leave the country. After five hours of our guy altering forms, making photocopies, being told by different people what else he needed, and getting us to sign things, we finally got to the grand finale of taking a customs officer to check the VIN numbers on our bikes and we were free to go - the bikes would follow on a flight the next day.
Epilogue
- Expected mileage (before we left): 25,044
- Total miles ridden: 31,370
- Days on the bikes: 180
- Days without setting foot on the bike pegs: 50 (19 of which were in Rio de Janeiro and Quito / Galapagos)
- Days Ric put a plait in Emily's hair: 142 (probably - no she couldn't just learn to do them herself)
- Average daily mileage: 135
- Most miles in one day: 480 (on boring Ruta 3 in Argentina)
- Most miles in a 24-hour period: 685 (racing to meet Ric's Mum in Chile)
- Amount of petrol consumed: about 5 tonnes
- Amount of money consumed: a lot (but it was worth it)
- Highest altitude ridden: 5,046m (South Bolivia)
- Lowest altitude ridden: -9m (Peninsular Vladez, Argentina)
- Hottest riding temperarure: 46C (Arizona, USA)
- Coldest riding temperature: -5C (South Bolivia, but only Emily's bike started)
- Ratio of days in Argentina to number of steaks Ric ate: 1:0.97
- Number of photos taken: 10,678
- Number of bikers we saw before Brazil wearing a pink crash helmet (other than Emily): one (a crazy Australian woman in Argentina)
- Number of bikers we saw in Brazil wearing a pink crash helmet: about a million
- Number of times:
- We got a puncture: 5
- We had to pump the hand pump to get a full tyre of air: 840
- We ran out of petrol: 0
- Ric's bike said it had run out of petrol: 2
- Emily dropped her bike: 6
- Ric dropped his bike: 8
- Ric also dropped his bike with Emily on the back: 2
- Ric would have dropped his bike if someone didn't save him: 4
- Emily got Ric to park / manouvre / generally deal with her bike in order to keep her drop rate down: many
- Ric swore from fear of falling off in a very painful / fatal manner (Emily doesn't swear): 30
- Emily cried from fear of falling off in a very painful / fatal manner (Ric doesn't cry): 3, she just grit her teeth and went rather pale the other 27 times
- We got stopped by the authorities: 25
- We got fined by the authorities: 1
- We phoned home: 1 (are we bad children?)