We did not aim to do this, but it is just the way that it happened.
Starting our year off on a cruise headed for Antarctica (a long held dream) we found ourselves starting our year spending New Years Eve floating off Copacabana Beach in Brazil after having already spent some time taking in the sights of Brazil.
Having done that, we spent the next little bit bouncing around South America as we headed towards Antarctica.
This saw us visiting Uruguay (Montevideo) and Argentina (Buenos Aires, Puerto Iguazu, Puerto Madryn, and Ushuaia) then Chile (Punta Arenas, Valparaiso and Santiago).
This saw us dumping the boat and continuing on land in order to see the absolutely magical Iguazu Falls.
But before that, our Antarctica exploration took in Drake Passage, Gerlache Straight, Dalhan Bay, Paradise Bay and Elephant Island.
We saw icebergs, glaciers, seals, whales and penguins (on icebergs) and basically fully ticked the Antarctica experience box fully.
From here it was back to bouncing around South America after we hopped off the boat in Valparaiso (Chile). We experienced our first ever earthquake (5.0 magnitude) before heading back into both Argentina and Brazil to take in both sides of the absolutely amazing Iguazu Falls.
The South American bounce continued with forays into Paraguay (Asunción), Bolivia (Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Samaipata), back to Argentina and Chile before heading back up to the US flying into Miami. After some time in Miami we continued our journey on another cruise ship that took us into the Caribbean, South America and importantly into some previously unvisited Central American nations.
So leaving Miami our first port of call was into Costa Rica for an up close and personal experience with sloths, and then on to Cartagena (Colombia) for yet some more wildlife encounters.
A few more Caribbean islands (Bahamas, Jamaica) and it was back in Miami readying ourselves for a decent sort of Transit to Europe. Nothing too silly this time around just a quick visit to France and Portugal.
Before heading off to Northern Africa for bit to see Morocco (with a special stop off to visit Casablanca) and then on to Tunisia.
Leaving North Africa it was back to Europe to stop into, and be totally blown away by Malta. And then on to Turkey where we were shocked by the prices.
But despite the prices charged in Turkey, we did get to see some global bucket list items (Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia).
From Turkey it was a quick dash to Asia (Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam) to catch up with mates, before heading into Australia for a snappy 48 hour turnaround before hopping on the next boat out again.
And that was it. New Year’s eve watching in the new year from Copacabana Beach in Rio De Janeiro and by the 12th of April we were in Australia having touched down on every continent. Once again, it was not something that we planned or aspired to do, just the way that the cards fell.
But an interesting little sideline to our ongoing adventures nonetheless.