18(.5) Months: The Stats

With just a few short breaks, we´ve now been going for over a year and a half! To sum it up in numbers...
Distance bicycled: 15,108 miles (24,314 kilometers), approximately
Countries visited: 14
Bird species positively identified: 509
4,000-meter (13,100-foot) passes bicycled: 43
Highest altitude bicycled (loaded): 16,325 feet (4,976 meters), Punta Pumacocha, Peru
Highest altitude bicycled (unloaded):  18,900 feet (5,760 meters), Cerro Uturuncu, Bolivia
Highest altitude attained on foot: 20,144 feet (6,140 meters), Volcan Queva, Argentina
Most water carried up a pass: 9 liters (2.25 gallons) each
Most water carried at a time: 12 liters (3 gallons) each

Awkward flamingos at the Bolivia-Chile border with Hannes and Julia, our wonderful friends from Germany

Just for kicks, we tallied up how many cycle tourists of each nationality we have met during our past year in Latin America (Mexico and south). The winners:
France: 10
Germany: 9
Canada: 5
Spain: 5
Our US of A is not too far behind with four, three of whom are from the Bay Area and two of whom are solo females. Rock on, Adriana and Huyen!

Controlling for the populations of these countries can tell us how likely someone from those countries is to go cycle touring in Latin America (and meet us, of course)! Compared to the US, here´s how much more likely we are to meet someone from one of these countries on the road:

Canada: 11.3x
England: 2.5x
France: 12.1x
Germany: 8.9x
Mexico: 1.3x
The Netherlands: 14.2x
Poland: 6.2x
Spain: 8.5x

We included here all countries from which we have met more than one group of cyclists. Is your country not on the list? Get on a bike and start pedaling! And find us, of course, so that we include you!

*This is not a scientific study. For another cyclist to meet us while on the road requires an element of randomness; were we on more traveled routes, surely we would have much more accurate statistics!  But we can at least see that we should be meeting more cyclists from the US based on its population, not to mention its proximity to Latin America.