We arrived in Puerto Iguazu, the most north easternly point where Argentina meets Brazil and Paraguay, after a very long and stuffy bus ride. We only had a couple of bus rides left and we had yet to find such a bus that fitted with the fabled ‘amazing’ standard of the Argentine buses that we had heard so much about before in Colombia. Even from inside the semi air conditioned bus we could tell that the outside temperature had risen quite considerably. Upon leaving the bus we were hit with a wall of heat so fierce it made me dizzy! We searched and found our hostel under the searing forty degrees heat and both had long cold showers.

After talking to a few people we decided that we would visit the Brazilian side of the falls first then the Argentinian side. From what we could gather the Brazilian side held more panoramic and overall views and the Argentine side allowed you to get closer to individual waterfalls and had more trails and land to explore. So after cooking ourselves a dinner we had an early night in an ice cold air conditioned room.

Unfortunately we were so comfortable in our cool and sleepy bed that we didn’t get the earliest start that we had planned but still after coffee and media lunas we were on our way to Brazil!

The journey took hardly any time at all and no fuss at immigration on either side. When we arrived at the visitor centre though our eyes started to take in the inordinate amount of tourists in several very large queues. It was a weekend and the Argentinian summer holidays. After asking around we began to realise that we might be sometime before we can actually buy a ticket. Then there was another queue for entering the park and another to get on the buses that take you to the start point of several trails and to the cataratas (waterfall) trail.

It was all very well organised and although we were there for quite some time it didn’t feel like it and before we knew it we were zooming down the lane to the start of the cataratas trail. On the tourist sheep bus we travelled through the jungle on a neat tarmacked road. It was odd. I did hear some sounds and definitely smelt some smells that I remembered from spending time in the jungle before. I tried to imagine the jungle before the tourist road was built.

Then we were walking along the wooden trail path and under the shade of some trees and through some vines I caught my first glimpse of Iguazu Falls. 

It was literally breathtaking. I stopped and stared at it, not really able to believe that it was real because it looked so perfect. We walked on, eyes fixed on the falls as they came more and more into view. There were lots of other people all around us but they too seemed to be so transfixed that there was a kind of hush that descended on the moving masses of humans around me. Then we started taking photos and we didn’t stop the entire day!

As we progressed along the walkway we saw the falls from different angles. We saw the Argentinian falls come into view completed with a huge Argentinian flag (of course) at the precipice of Garganta del Diablo.  

We were able to see great widths of the enchanted masses of water falling and falling. The huge falls were cut into in great swathes by rock formations and huge bushes. This led to breaks in the water falling and magnified the paradisiacal effect of the scene before my eyes.

Amongst the shady parts as we ambled, multi-coloured butterflies fluttered around, strangely shaped birds hopped and warbled and we had to watch our toes as the Coatis (cute racoon/anteater creatures) started to nibble at them. 

The sky was a bright pale blue and the greenery around us seemed so lush and jungle like and so vividly green. At some points during the walk we would look up in the sky to see many, many huge birds soaring wings outstretched round and round above the waterfalls. Even with all the people around us, it wasn’t hard to close my eyes and imagine that I was on my own finding this place for the first time. It is a magical place.

Further along the walkway took us closer and closer to a huge part of the falls. A standing platform enabled us to watch the sheer power of the water rebounding back up onto the falls itself. And the noise – it was so immense! 

There were different height levels of these standing platforms which all afforded a unique and enthralling perspective on the mesmerising water. We kept having to shake our heads to confirm what we were looking at!

My favourite part of the walkway on the Brazilian side was the long windy walkway that stretches out before the falls and out into the large flowing river and culminates in a view right over one small but really powerful waterfall. Again, despite the hundreds of people we had to squeeze passed, I found it so easy to gaze in a steady awe at the greys rock boulders with sprigs of lush bright green grass springing from them, which punctuated the azure and crystal water as it flowed away from the immense power of the falls that had put them in motion. All the while we were walking along this walkway we were being soaked with the fine mist spray that had been picked up by the wind. It was an unearthly experience.

The next day we ventured out very early to the Argentine side of the falls. We got a local bus and arrived very quickly. In keeping with our experience in the rest of Argentina the organisation was sporadic, mismatched and a little confusing but after we made the mistake of joining the legions of other tourists on the little green train we decided and were able to do our own thing and walk the rest of the trails.

It was a lot more peaceful this side, a lot less people enabled us to wander and meander a lot more, and continue to take a gazillion photos. A second day out in the strength of the sun felt very dangerous though and we were covering up as much as possible. I’m so very glad that the sun was out however as there were many different brightly coloured butterflies fluttering around and we saw huge lizards lumbering across the paths and tiny curious monkeys in the trees who had tails that curled into a spiral. The best thing that the sun did when combined with the spray from the falls was create huge rainbows, beautiful!

The Argentine side allowed us to go very close to the tops and bottoms of different waterfalls. It was crazy the contrast between the peaceful sliding of the water as it flowed towards the fall and then the torrid loud movement as it tipped over the edge and crashed down to the rocks below. There were points on each walkway that allowed you to look down right over the falls as the water fell to the bottom.

We decided to get the green tourist train to the crescendo of the Iguazu Falls, the Garganta del Diablo or Devil’s Throat. After walking along many walkways across large sections of river and through wooded parts, the walkway opened up to the most colossal sound and the most unbelievable sight. The falls stretched around the high up edge of the land as an unfathomable amount of water was falling over the edge in colossal swathes. It was all we could do to stand and watch the incredible spectacle before us. The sheer amount of water was almost too much to comprehend and the sound was enormous. There was a fair amount of spray continuously soaking us and rainbows everywhere!

The walkway  spread around the highest of the falls and enabled us to look straight down the colossal body of water as it fell. It was an incredible experience and one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in my life.

Return to Buenos Aires

We arrived off a twenty hour bus journey from what felt like the middle of the sun, excited to be back in beautiful Buenos Aires. There was much fun to be had! As we tramped the streets we felt the same feeling as before, loving this place! The air temperature was warmer and unfortunately the purple trees had disappeared, their blossom having turned into lush green leaves but the sun was shining and there was an almost constant summer breeze flowing passed our skin.


With our new feeling of the lightness of our beings we walked to the subte (tube) and took it up to Plaza Italia to find our hostel. As we neared we heard our names in the distance and there was Lene and Jakob across the road! So reunited with hugs we all went into the hostel, as they were staying there too. After washing the nightbus off our skin we all ventured to a little cafe that my lovely friend Simone, who lives in BA, told us about. Oui Oui in Palermo. If ever you should find yourself in Palermo Hollywood I urge you to go there. They serve such delicious food (proper food, full of goodness and love unlike other fare you find in Argentina) and the best coffee we found in the whole in the country. Also the best lemonade we have ever drunk, which has inspired me to try and make some of similar quality myself when I return and find a new home.


After filling our bellies with delicious food we booked a table at another delicious restaurant round the corner called Miranda for New Year's Eve which was the next day and headed to Recoleta cemetery. Full of catch up conversation and laughter, unfortunately Sam had a bit of an accident. As he was in mid flow he turned around and BOINK hit the side of his head on a lamp post! Styling it out he seemed okay. It wasn't until the next day (NYE) that he realised that he actually had mild concussion, bugger! That wasn't to be the only misfortune that came across his path on that day either. Whilst travelling on one of the many escalators into the subte, the escalator decided that it was hungry and that its appetite would be sated only by eating one of Sam's flip flops. Thus followed a baffling few seconds whilst Sam tried to wrench his foot out of the tightening grip of the escalator stairs and had to resort to pulling it out with his hands! Now it looks like a shark tried to eat his foot and took a chunk out of the heel! We couldn't stifle our laughter.

Recoleta cemetery is something else. It is an opulent Catholic affair filled with the mausoleums of the very rich, powerful and eminent dead of Buenos Aires. Including Eva Peron. We wandered around and soon observed to a slight point of horror that, unlike similar cemeteries such as those in Paris, you can actually see straight into them coffins and all.

So then followed a kind of weird fascination about when the coffins were placed in there. Some of them were really new, it was very eerie. Then some of the mausoleums had fallen into disrepair but the coffins still remained amongst the broken glass, rusted metal, fallen crucifixes and spider's webs.

Another thing that struck me about the place was the quality of the sculpture. I don't think I've seen such life like sculpting since Rome and Florence.

Beautiful, eerily life like figures adorned the mausoleums and led me to think that a wander around it at night might be a little too freaky.

Symbols that I had never seen before were everywhere.

There were also cats, mangy unhinged ones wandering amongst the dead as well. It was a visceral experience all in all.

The next day was New Year's Eve! We moved to our new hostel and then left for our delicious lunch. Miranda's lived up to initial experience there and we ate up really tasty food. I also drank the tastiest Pisco Sour I've ever had and we drank some delicious wine. Then Sam and I headed to a little plaza in Palermo to have a snooze on the grass in the sun and there was a man playing beautiful Spanish guitar as the breeze through the palm trees lulled us. 

A while later we had Danes and English amongst us so at 8pm we celebrated the Danish new year. We drank the rum we had carried with us since Colombia and toasted the new year by standing on our chairs and jumping into the new year Danish style. I like that! Might carry on that tradition.

Later, after abandoning my hope that we could get high up to see the city at middnight, I had heard that there was going to be fireworks at the port. So we headed down there. On the way we celebrated English new year in the Plaza de Mayo at 9pm Argentinian time.

After an amble around Puerto Madero amongst the uber rich families, the time for Argentinian new year had arrived! There were fireworks aplenty, champagne and sparkler fun to be had. All in all it was quite a tame affair though. In Argentina New Years is more a family thing with Christmas Eve taking the place of the wild and drunken times. It was pretty cool being in Buenos Aires though. Bienvenido 2012!!

On New Year's Day we decided to wander around San Telmo Market, a huge market that spread from a bright plaza filled with antique stalls and couples performing Tango right down Defensa, a long long road. The sun was shining and there was lots to look at and listen to. We saw a fantastic Tango band with the singer bearing his soul, complete with an old Argentinian man, drink in hand, feeling the pain and sorrow along with him. Fascinating. And a few couples performing Tango to the masses.

After an early night we were up on the 2nd ready to go and stay with Simone and Joe a bit further out in a  place called Triumvirato. It was so lovely of then to let us come and stay and they looked after us properly! So good to stay in their beautiful home and have some good meals and laughter together. Joe cooked us a delicious vegetable asado one night then Sam cooked up a storm as usual with a very tasty curry for seven! Joe also made us really good coffee every morning complete with a bag full of media lunas and other tasty fracturas. We were in paradise!

On our first day staying with them we decided to further explore San Telmo using a hand made calendar that Sam had bought from an artist chap at San Telmo market. He had drawn significant scenes from around the neighbourhood and fitted them together in a kind of walking tour on a map. We managed to get quite far on the tour taking photos to match the drawings. Here I am outside the oldest Tango Hall in the area.

Whilst wandering around the calendar tour we came to another old market. In here we found yet more creepy doll shops! What is the deal with this?

The day after we ventured towards the neighbourhood of La Boca. Simone had suggested that we head that way via Plaza de Mayo and the subte Line A. There was something special about the train cars on this line. They had remained virtually unchanged since the 1930s. Beautiful wooden interiors and slated wooden benches to sit on. We got off at the stop to go for some coffee in the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires, Tortoni. It was so beautiful inside, old painting adorned the tops of the walls, beautiful art deco panels and sculpted banisters twisted and turned and the cherry on top being the waiters who seemed like they were straight from when the cafe was established. I had hot apple pie and ice cream and Sam had Lomo sandwich and we both had delicious coffees.

To top it all off I was sat next to the bust of Carlos Gardel, an infamous Tango singer who awoke such passions in people, and by people I mean women, that he has reached near saint status, and upon news of his death some women actually attempted suicide.

After many warnings of how rough the neighbourhood of La Boca is we didn't venture too far into the backstreets but still managed to see daily life on the streets, the kids and their games, people sat on their stoops playing computer games, the vibrant graffiti. 

We wandered excitedly to the first home of Diego Maradona or as he is known over here ‘El Diego’, a virtual god in Argentina, Boca Juniors Stadium. It is also known as La Bombonera or The Chocolate Box and it is a fantastic place.

The pitch ends on the same line as the stadium seats start so you have a feeling of being almost on the pitch itself. Unfortunately we visited BA in their summer holidays so there were no matches for us to go to but as we were taken around in a large group and told about the stadium, we had an opportunity to all cheer and yell at the top of our voices, and just from that I could imagine the vastness of the noise that the crowd would generate at matches. They say that most players are intimidated by this stadium and it's not hard to imagine why. When a player from Boca scores the infamous doce section of the terraces goes blindly mental. They rush forwards and many jump up to the top of the metal fence waving their shirts wildly in a circle above their heads. I wish we could have seen this.

We spent a while going around the museum learning about the stadium and the players. Here's Sam 'El Diego' Rawlings...

We spent our final day in Buenos Aires running around trying to post a parcel back home. Fingers crossed it will get there! Not sure we would have even been able to do it if it hadn't been for lovely Simone coming to our rescue. Before long it was time to catch our bus to Puerto Iguazu to see the heavenly Falls.

Searing heat in Mendoza wine country

We arrived in Mendoza and taking our first steps out of the semi cool atmosphere of our twenty hour bus it became immediately apparent that we will be living inside an oven for the next few days. It was unbelievably hot and it was the day after Boxing Day, strange. We made our way to our hostel which was really welcoming and friendly but still hugely skin meltingly hot. We were grateful to see a fan next to our bed. There was a huge a very green grape vine growing all over the outside area and a roof terrace, which was only safe to out on when the sun had left the sky.

Despite all this, we decided to take a bus to the nearby wine making town, Maipu, and hire some bikes to cycle around the bodegas. Maipu was where the Italian immigrant families set up the first bodegas in Argentina, so it has the oldest ones in the country. It is possible to hire bikes and cycle on a self guided tour around the bodegas, taking tours of the wineries and tasting the wines they make. We had heard some horror stories at our hostel about people hurting themselves (one guy even smashed his two front teeth out) on dodgy bikes so we took our time choosing ours. We had a map and made the plan to cycle to the furthest point first and slowly make our way back down to the bike hire shop at the end of the day. Before I came I envisaged boozy, wobbly cycling around country lanes in the sunshine. It was not like this at all. There was a main road that we had to cycle one which was dusty and VERY main. I'm talking about huge trucks and buses zooming passed so close to us that we wobbled on our bikes from the back draft. It was scary and I was stone cold sober! There was no way I wanted to cycle on this road with glasses of delicious but intoxicating wine inside me! So, somehow we managed to keep hold of our safety and make it twelve kilometres to the furthermost point on the map, an olive oil making place, only to find that the next tour was going to be in tow hours time. Bummer. So we skipped that and disappointed we began cycling towards the first bodega, the family run Di Tomasso Bodega. 

It was good that we cycled so far up to that part of Maipu because we got to see the countryside as it was starting to be more beautiful and closer to how I imagined wine country to be like. Stretching out from the dusty madness of the road we were cycling on were vineyards at different stages of growth and fields of olive trees. It was becoming more peaceful as well as most of the giant trucks and buses had turned off the road.

Relieved to be off that road and onto some friendly country lanes on which Bodega Famille Di Tomasso was built, we parked up our bikes and joined a wine tasting session. 

We actually learned quite a bit. Particularly about how the wine is stored and flavoured. We tasted a wine that had not be put in a barrel and then afterwards a wine that had been in the barrel for six months and I could really tell a difference. They only use French and American oak to make the barrels that keep the wine. The first un-barrelled wine was disgusting, it tasted very chemically and not nice at all. The wine that had been in the barrel for six months was much more tasty, it had what they call 'body' and had a woody taste. 

The wine the family made was not amazing like some of the wine that we had found so far in Argentina but it was really interesting to learn about the process and see where the wine was made and kept. I also really liked seeing photos of the original family when they first came over and had their first harvest of the grapes. 

It was a beautiful and peaceful place. 

We had a meal next to the vineyards of yummy home cooked food. 

Then we got on our bikes and cycled to a large corporate bodega called Trapiche. 

We had a very comprehensive tour of the history and workings of this bodega and tasted some delicious wines. We learned a lot about the different grapes. 

Malbec is a very think skinned grape and can be drunk with a lot of different foods as it is a very easy wine on the palette. Cabernet Sauvignon is a more full bodied wine that the Argentinians like to drink with meat. Syrrah is a very heavy wine which grapes can grow in desert like conditions (perfect for Mendoza) as it does in the Middle East. Tempranillo is a very fruity wine that is so named because its grapes are always the first to be ready in the season (Temprano in Spanish means early). Not bad for a lay person, huh? So after these two tours we didn't have any time left for visiting any others so we cycled back on the torturous dusty road back to the cycle shop and after making it we had a well deserved gaseosa each! Phew! Not the relaxed, boozy and ambling affair I had imagined but interesting nonetheless. 


Our time in Mendoza was spent hanging out trying to keep out of the sun. We had coffees and media lunas under the merciful shade of the trees in the streets and watched the amusing people which seemed to fill the streets of Mendoza. The Old Taxi Guy for one. He was this old guy who had taken upon himself to be in charge of the taxi rank in town (even though said taxi rank would work perfectly fine without him!) He would use his stick aloft to hail taxis even though they were stopping at the rank anyway and then open the door for people to either get in or get out of the cars. He then merrily accepted tips as he stuck his tongue out at the taxi drivers. Plus there were snoggers EVERYWHERE. Everywhere you looked in each street there was a couple snogging each others faces off. Funny.


We decided that the heat and our visit had come to an end in Mendoza after a couple of days so we planned to be in Buenos Aires a day before we originally planned for. That would mean also that the very mid point of our trip (30th December) would be spent in a place we both loved. So off we set that night on a night bus to BA, beautiful Buenos Aires.

A Hot Bariloche Christmas!

After we left lovely El Bolson we made our way to Bariloche to spend Christmas. It was only two hours north so we arrived pretty refreshed compared to other places and as soon as we popped out of the taxi outside our hostel we bumped into one of the lovely ladies from it, Sylvia and then Ben. He took us into the building and up to the tenth floor where we met lovely Annie that I had been emailing about spending Christmas there. Bariloche is quite a big place but by far the biggest and most eye sore part of it is the huge 1960s concrete tower block inside which our hostel was the penthouse. So for us it was fine. We were in the eyesore so didn't see it. What we did see was the most incredible views I've ever seen from any hostel. (When the ash clouds from the volcano allowed!) Below us stretched out a deep blue lake that led up to the mountains all around it, some of which were snow capped. There was even a balcony we could go out on and we had the same view from our room.We spent such a lovely Christmas there, met some proper characters, ate LOTS of food and drank copious amounts of gorgeous wine (well I did anyhow).

The first day we were there we got chatting to lots of people and established that we will be spending it with some lovely people in a place that felt like a home. Anyone that has stayed at Penthouse 1004 will tell you it feels like that. In no time at all we were leaving our things everywhere, walking around in bare feet and sharing things. In the afternoon we were at last going to give away all our camping stuff and to shed the weight we had been carrying throughout all our time in Argentina. We were so excited about feeling light and mobile again! We wanted to give our tent, camping stove and utensils and roll mats to a school or a charity shop so we went into the tourist info place and asked where the best place would be to do that. They said that there was a mountaineering place that we could give our things to. I was a bit dubious because I wanted to help by giving it so we went there and asked if they helped children or other people in their mountaineering. They told us that they took groups of children hiking into the mountains and when we showed them what we had to give they were so grateful and started hugging and kissing us! They ended up giving us a mate gourd cup with bombilla (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(drink) ), a thermos flask, some stickers and badges of their Club Andino emblem embellished on them. Amazing! Wandering around town we came across lots of chocolate shops (although Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina we didn't really like the taste of it too much) but we did find this little gem and I had a submarine (hot milk with a lump of chocolate to melt into it and a gorgeous chocolate mousse on a chocolate biscuit base),

there were also lots of outdoor shops and the first in a long list of scary doll shops!! Check these terrors out!!

On our second day we decided to cycle around the Circuito Chico, through the countryside, next to mountains, through some boque (woods) and up to some beautiful lakes. I hadn't cycled since being in the desert in La Guajira Colombia or done any sort of fast exercise for a while so I found the hills a bit too steep! The countryside was beautiful and as we cycled along with Mark and Miranda my nose filled with the scents from the woods, the flowers and plants which were in full bloom. Mark was obsessed with the smell of Juniper berries. He kept legging it into bushes and producing them for us all to smell! 

Such a strange thought that it was Christmas with the glorious sunshine, the heat and the flowers everywhere! We saw some astoundingly beautiful lakes, one was the colour of crystalised turquoise. 

Another was totally clear and still in the glorious sunshine.

We saw some magnificent views over the lakes and forests from on top of the hills we cycled up. 

Freewheeling back down was pretty fun as well. On the way back we were told about Gilbert's a place were he brews his own beer. So we stopped off to sample a taste. It was delicious! I don't think I've ever tasted tasty beer. Lager is ok, I like the fizz but this beer was tasty. So we had quite a bit of it. 

Freewheeling became even more fun afterwards! We were joined for the final huge steep downhill by some skater nut jobs, after being towed up the hill holding onto a car Michael J Fox style they let it loose and skated all the way down. Balls of steel.


The next day was Christmas Eve and everyone at the hostel was going to bring some food to share with everyone. We had been on a bit of a cooking spree of late and didn't fancy cooking so we bought a big tub of delicious helado (Argentinian ice cream is to die for). We lounged around all of that day and then everyone started cooking and drinking. Then we all started eating and I started drinking. I tell you it's really hard not to keep filling your glass up with the wine in Argentina, it just so deliciously like juice. So much so that I ended up drinking almost two bottles by myself and before I knew it it was middnight. Christmas Eve is a little like our New Years Eve at home. The streets below were filled with drunken people and people revving the engines of their cars. At middnight fireworks went off for about ten minutes non stop and much shouting and screaming could be heard all throughout the night. 


When we awoke on Christmas Day I was feeling a little tender, but not so bad considering how much I drank. I just felt like I was in a boat at sea, no headache or anything. Of course I didn't feel as good as most people who had decided to get up and go hiking!! Sam and I skyped the parents and lounged around for the most part of the day. Once I had stopped feeling so dizzy we popped our cossies on and went for a Christmas Day swim in the lake. The water was so pure it felt really good to be immersed in it, if a little cold! After that we cooked up a massive roast for a feast and ate it with Mark and Miranda before falling into bed again at late o'clock.

On Boxing Day we had bought our tickets on the night bus to Mendoza. More wine!