Around the world in 78 days

Sitting here in the Avianca lounge at El Dorado International airport in Bogota awaiting the final leg of our journey home. When we arrive at Heathrow late tomorrow morning, we will have completed 78 days of travel. We have visited 8 new countries for us: Japan, Hong Kong China, Vietnam, Laos, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and here in Colombia. In addition, we have also visited Cambodia, Australia, the USA. We have transited through Switzerland, Thailand and later tonight, Canada.
We have flown on the following airlines : Swiss x 2, ANA x1, United x 4, Vietnam Airlines x 4, Thai x 2, Copa x 3, Nature Air x 4, Air Panama x 2, Avianca x 1 and Air Canada x 2....a lot of airport experiences. We got to enjoy the great delight of train travel in Japan and to a lesser extent in Vietnam. Our lives have been held to ransom by numerous taxi drivers with the vote for the worst drivers being won handsomely by those based in Panama City.
It has rained on just 4 days of the trip and never for the whole day and we had 2 substantial snow falls as well, including the blizzard when in the Japanese Alps. Mercifully, we have remained well throughout, apart from the occasional tummy bug and Tess' cough brought on by too much air con.
The vote for the best hotel pool goes to the Pilgrimage Village Hue. 30m of swimming joy. Of places by the beach we loved Casa Cayuco on Bastimentos Island in the Panamanian Caribbean the best followed closely by Copa del Arbol at Drake Bay in the Pacific South West of Costa Rica.  We stayed in 27 hotels, the best for friendliness and service being Pilgramage again in Hue, My Boutique resort in Luang Prabang, Casa Cayuco on Bastimentos.
We loved the food in Vietnam in particular but the best restaurant award goes to Carmen in Cartagena here in Colombia. Fantastic, clever and delicious fusion food at a very reasonable price. The beer in South East Asia beats that offered here in Central America for taste. After travelling through some of the biggest coffee exporting countries in the world we finally found the best coffee...by a long way...at the Devotion cafe at the Hilton in Bogota.
The best airline network? Not Star Alliance on which we are ticketed. If only One World had better connections in central America then we would have been able to retain our silver status with BA.
The best country ( excluding Australia of course !!!) For Tess it was Laos followed by Vietnam. For me, Japan and Vietnam, followed by Colombia.
If we could have spent more time in a country, we both agree it is a toss up between Laos, Nicaragua and Colombia.
Finally, if we had to be stranded in one place we visited for the rest of our lives, then it would be Sydney of course. How lucky we have been.