South American Honeymoon!

Well what can we say, the falls are FABULOUS!

We stayed on the Argentinian side first and we really liked the town (Puerto Iguazu), lots of lovely parillas (grills) where we made the most of the steak in our last Argentinian town! We stayed in for a few days in a hut in a womans garden which was interesting......the electric shower had scary looking wires hanging out of it and made all of the lights dim when you turned it on, yet was still freezing cold!

We went to the falls quite late in the day - we were told to leave it for another day so we could go early morning but we were too excited so we went anyway! There is so much to see though we ended up running around like mad trying to fit it all in (and we did!). There are walkways taking you all around it and we decided to go straight for the good stuff and made our way to the Devil's Throat (Giganta del Diablo). It was absolutely stunning and you get so close to it that the spray drenches you (now we know why everyone was wearing ponchos on a sunny day!).

When I finally managed to drag Steve away from that part (he does love a waterfall!), we walked along the upper walkway which takes you around the park giving a (high-up obviously) view of hundreds of waterfalls. Then the lower walkway which takes you around to the bottom of hundreds of waterfalls. We were stunned by how many there are, every corner we turned there were more and more. We took so many photos it was difficult to just choose a couple to put on here but you get the gist!

We spent Steve's birthday lazing around the pool in our lovely hostel we found (we know we should've saved the falls for this day but we couldn't wait that long!). We got bacon and eggs for breakfast which was a definite treat as we have been severely lacking in fry-ups since leaving England! Then we just chilled sunbathing before going out for a delicious meal (steak of course) and far too much wine!

The 11 hour bus journey wasn´t great due to the fact that the bus had a speed alarm that buzzed loudly if the driver went over 90kmph, which he did repeatedly all throughout the night!

Cordoba is a big city full of students with lots of restaurants and bars, and we had a windowless room in the centre of it all! The city is nice enough but we went there mainly for the side trips you can do.

We went to the ´Ernesto "Che" Guevara museum´ in Alta Gracia. It´s a lovely looking town and it was where affluent Argentinians went for their summer holidays. People also moved there to privately recover from TB - as it was thought to be an embarrassment to have the illness in those times (1930s) and the air was cleaner there than in the cities. Che´s family moved there because he suffered from severe asthma.

The museum was actually a house that Che and his family used to live in, and it shows the history of his life with lots of photos and letters written by or to Che (Including one from Che to Fidel Castro in which he resigned his post in the Cuban Government). Castro himself had even been there for its opening in 2006.

We bought a book there called ´Becoming Che´which was about the journey he did through South America before the Cuban Revolution and it was very interesting - made our trip sound rather dull and unadventurous!

The next day we visited an old Jesuit Mission in Jesús María. The building and grounds were stunning. They had a collection of old coins from all around the world going back to Roman times which was quite interesting.

Next stop Puerto Iguazú......

The bus from Valpo to Mendoza was stunning, gorgeous views practically the whole way. The road twists and turns up and over the Andes and it felt more like we were on a tour (until we had the painful 2 hours at the poxy customs!)

What a journey!

Steve talked me into trying a parilla - a mixed grill served up on a bbq next to your table. It all looked lovely and the steak was great (of course) but then we realised we'd accidentally eaten what we can only assume was intestine, YUUUUK!!!

Went to the Spanish school around the corner from our hostel and signed up for 15 hours each (1-1 lessons). The school and all the teachers were fantastic and we had a great week there. Don't have many piccys as we were at school 8.30-13.00 and there was usually stuff going on afterwards - extra conversation classes and activities. Then we had loads of homework to do every night becuase we each had 2 teachers - one for the morning class and one for the afternoon class!

Went on a wine tour with some other students, went to 3 different wineries and an olive oil producer. The wine was nice but could hardly understand a word they were saying on the tours (yes despite the 15 hours of tuition - they speak very quickly you know)!!

Had a fantastic asado (bbq) on the last day of school with endless amounts of gorgeous steak and wine....then when we'd all had a few, a tutor from the school sat and played a guitar and sang Argentinian songs that she wanted us to sing along to - yes it was as cheesy as it sounds but a good way to end the week!

Next stop Cordoba...........

Stayed in a gorgeous hostel in Bariloche, a couple of minutes walk from Lake Napuel Huapi. It was out of town, very relaxing, and couldn´t have been more different from Buenos Aires. We really enjoyed our time here, meeting lots of very interesting people over numerous bottles of wine!! We managed to practice our Spanish quite a bit and got lots of help from other travellers there who are fluent already - very jealous!!

We went on a tour of some the lakes in the area, including Nahuel Huapi and Gutierrez, on the way to Mount Tronador which is on the border with Chile. We spent most of the day on the coach (on a very bumpy, unpaved road) between short stops for photos which was a shame, but some of the views were fantastic and we also got to see a couple of woodpeckers!

We finally managed to drag ourselves away after four nights and headed south to El Bolson. We had heard that it was meant to be less touristy and full of hippies but other than a fantastic steak meal it was quite disappointing and quiet. We only stayed for the one night and after visiting a craft market, with a fantastic coffee table with a map of the world carved into it (unfortunately no room for it in our backpack!), we headed back to Bariloche so we could catch a bus over the Andes to Chile the following day.

After a looong journey here our first week in Argentina has been fantastic!

The first place we went to was Plaza Dorrego where they perform music and Tango in the streets which really got us in the Argentinian mood....the huge steaks and nice wine helped too!

Recoleta Cemetery, where Eva Peron (Evita) is buried, was amazing to see. The tombs are huge and very impressive, but it was more like a tourist attraction than a cemetery as there were tour buses arriving and guides to take you around - a bit too morbid for us!

We went to see a Tango show on Saturday night, not sure how authentic it was but we loved it. They danced all around the tables in the bar and we narrowly avoided being made to dance with them....good job as everyone else seemed to know how to Tango and we would've been useless!

Steve dragged me to see my first ever football match yesterday. Boca Juniors vs Colon - The atmosphere was fantastic, though we never did work out what they were singing we tried to join in as much as we could! We were behind the goal and the singing didn't stop for the whole game, and the jumping around - not easy in the 30-odd degree heat. Boca Juniors won 2-1 so it was great game to see. We did a tour and paid GBP25 each for what was actually a 4 quid ticket with a sausage sarnie thrown in before the game. Mind you, they promised to get us there and back safely and that's what they did so we're not complaining!

We're off to Bariloche today in the Lake District, apparently it isn't as warm there as it is here but luckily enough I'm not one to complain about being cold !!