Buenos Aires - Argentina

It´s a huge city of 13 million people, and loads to do. We really enjoyed our 11 days there. We did 5 days of Spanish lessons, and after 2 days we were both frustrated enough to ask for separate teachers, as we are at different levels. I find it quite frustrating, but finally some things are starting to sink in. Stayed in a great, really friendly hostel - called Pangea. We went with them to a Boca Juniors Soccer match and stood in the stands with the hooligans! Apparently this was one of the safer places to be, as if someone stole something from us, they would beat them up. Hadn´t realised that they sang and jumped up and down the whole time! Most of the time couldn´t see much due to all the huge flags they had flying around. Maradonna (huge country icon) was at the match for his birthday. Experienced the local late nights out - the go out extremely late thing, at 2am and partying for a couple of hours until 4pm. And it wrecked us for days! My time clock is managing later nights now though, and we are having dinner mostly around 10pm. Loads of steak and wine. Will need cholesteral checks! There is loads of Tango and dancing on the street which is interesting to watch, although I don´t think that the rigid back and surprisingly bendy legs that seem to go everywhere, is really my thing (as lessons are a big thing here). We did go to the Evita Museum which was extremely interesting. She and her husband did an amazing amount for the country, and she died so young at the age of 34. We also visited her tomb, where the cemetry has ridiculously HUGE monuments, usually with numerous family members. Some really old and not kept ones, we could count at least 15 coffins in some. Bumped into Richard in the street (as we seem to do), although we knew he was around. Remember we previously spent 11 days with him around Oktoberfest time. Tigre: Only an hour from BA, Tigre is a favourite weekend destination. It is popular for its markets, river cruises, lazing on the grass of the river banks, and the fun fare. We took the 4 hour ferry from here to Uruguay. I assume its not as popular as the route from BA.

As far as Ian and I got to having Tango lessons in BA. 

The stands of the Boca Juniors soccer match. Diego Maradonna was there and celebrating his Birthday. The crowd love him, even though he cheated by tapping the ball in with his hand against England at the World Cup Semi Final in 1986, in Mexico. 

Iguazu Falls - from both Brazil and Argentina

Brazil - Foz de Iguazu: The Catarates de Iguazu (Falls) can be seen from both the Brazilian and Argentian sides. Which we did. The Rio (River) Iguazu plunges and crashes 80 mtrs in 275 different falls. The Brazilian side gives the grand overview, and a cold shower from one of the walkways that leads out above the water and below some falls. The town itself is nothing special, and the only reason we stayed for 2 nights is because there was rain on the first day and there was another attraction that we wanted to see. This attraction was the Itaipu Hidroelectric Power Plant. It claims to be one of the 7 wonders of the modern world. It provided 75% of the electricity to Paraguay and 25% to Brazil. We went on a free tour which was interesting. It attracts so many visitors from around the world. Probably though because they are already there to see the Falls! Puerto Iguazu - Argentina: The Argentian side of the Falls give you a much closer look. There are more walkways (4kms) over the water, upper and lower walks, there is a tourist train and you get to go up really close to Garganta de Diablo (Devil´s Throat) - the greater of the Falls. There is 55,000 hectares of sub tropical rainforest here and there are actually jaguars. Happy not to have seen them though. This side of the Falls was heaps better (although when the water is high, it does prevents you from seeing as much). We spent 6 hours looking around this day. The town itself is really small, compact and has a nice feel. And we shared our deliciously huge steak left overs with some local dogs, as there was no way we could get through our meals.

Ian managed to get a rainbow in this shot. Very artistic. 

The Falls from the Argentina side, showing the many waterfalls. 

Garganta del Diablo (Throat of the Devil) from the Argentina side. 

Iguazu Falls from the Brazil side. 

Paraguay Background Info.

This country has suffered one of the regions most durable and brutal dictatorships, harbored escaped Nazis and remains dogged by corruption and contraband. It´s dictator was only outed in 1989, its vice president assassinated in 1999 and continues to have degrees of turmoil. Paraguay is a major producer of cannabis. It´s small on the map, but larger than Germany, and almost exactly the size of California. There is a population of 5.5 million people, of which approx. 20% are immigrants of Germany, Japan and Korea. More than 95% of the population live in eastern Paraguay and around the capital, which is Ascusion. There are dual languages of Spanish and Guarani, and some people in the north speak German rather than Spanish. The landscape changes from well watered plateaus of rolling grasslands with patches of sub tropical forest, to extensive inhospitable plain drought tolerant scrub. There are several National Parks and in the north Chaco, which accounts for over 60% of the territory, only under 3% of the population actually live there. This may be one of the last frontiers where the people are not used to seeing tourists. Up north is where the Mennonites live. They speak German and initially came frpm Canada in 1927, after authorities reneged on guarantees against conscription. They believe in adult baptism, the separation of the church and state and pacifist opposition to military service. Afterwards came refugees from the Soviet Union and Ukrainian Germans arrived, many of whom served unwillingly in WWII. There is a population of 10,000 Mennonites. We had a limited amount of time to spend in Paraguay, so we saw the capital on the west, the other large city of the east, and some ruins in the south.

Ascusion - Paraguay

Ascusion is the capital. With only a few high rises it has a river setting (although some shanty houses are there), it has a feeling of both modern, but slightly dodgy. We had a mix of responses to us, initially not particularly friendly, and Ian wouldn´t be served in the change shop; to one really friendly taxi driver who was teaching Ian some Guarani words. I was surprised by the music being entirely European. We didn´t some across any other tourists, even when we went to a Brittanua pub for dinner. We spent 3 nights here. We went to the Museo Etnografico ¨Dr. Andes Barbero¨, of which the feather head dresses were very interesting. We also took a day tour of 200kms to 9 outer towns. There was only the two of us and our driver, who was very patient with us and talked slowly and repeated himself many times when we did not understand his Spanish. It´s not unusual that all throughout South America, if we ask someone to repeat themselves they will reply in English. We actually find this frustrating, as its important for us to understand what they are saying in Spanish for our Spanish to improve. We would have missed out on loads of information, which in one way is alittle disappointing because we felt we didn´t know as much about Paraguay as we would have liked to, especially the historical and more recent political situation. We wondered whether because the country was under a dictator until 1989, and maybe not having too many foreign visitors, was this the reason why some locals were stand offish with us??? The tour included a lot of driving, which put me to sleep, but it was interesting, particularly the 18th century wooden painted church, the shrine and the local weaving called ´nanduti´, which looks like spider weblace.

Cuidad del Este - Paraguay

It only takes 5 hours to drive from the west to the east part of Paraguay. Cuidad del Este is an interesting place for its chaotic feel, the cheap electronics and various other crap that is sold on the streets. Everything is quoted in Brazilian money, although this is the other side of the border. There is a lot of rubbish on the streets (more so at the end of the day), and it does appear grubby. There are before and after advertising pictures showing what improvements have been made to the city though. We only stayed the night to use the border crossing the following day. That in itself was mad. We sat in a taxi for ages in a traffic jam waiting for the border bridge to be opened. Vendors streamed past wanting to sell you anything and everything. Even the taxi driver told us to wind up our windows when we were crossing over the bridge (no mans land) between border controls, as there are heaps of people walking across the bridge, and we got the impression that anyone could lean in and try and take our bags. If you believe anything the Lonely Planet says it states that the city has an ¨unfortunate reputation as one of South Americas most corrupt cities, frequented by smugglers and money launderers¨.

The Jescuit Ruins near Trinidad. 

Trinidad - Paraguay

Due to being so close to the Argentian border, we had left Paraguay, gone to the Falls and traveled down Argentina to a city called Posadas, before crossing back into Paraguay at the town of Encaracion, and visiting the Jescuit Ruins just before the town of Trinidad. There are also ruins on the Argentian side, however, we decided to see these ones instead, and made a day trip across borders. We caught a bus from Encaracion and got off, at what felt like the middle of nowhere, to then walk for 10 minutes to the Ruins. Luckily there happened to be a guide who spoke some English, otherwise we may not have really enjoyed our day adventure so much, due to not really having any background information about the ruins. The Spanish Jescuit priests went over to set up indigenous communities to protect them from the Spanish invaders, to become self sustaining and turn them to Christianity. The two faiths were quite similar anyway, so this didn´t take much. There was 2 churches, one massive one which would be interesting to have seen in its glory, some homes, squares and fields. They ate 30 cows a day! The community was armed to defend themselves, but some other priests suggested that the locals may pose a threat to the Spanish rulers, so they threw out the Jescuit priests who had been protecting the community. Later the community broke down.

Resistencia and Corrientes (Argentina)

Resistencia: Overnight bus to Resistencia. As we were heading for Paraguay it was somewhere to break up our journey. The Lonely Planet states ¨it prides itself on a reputation as the city of sculptures, with more than 300 statues on display in almost every public place¨. Well I thought that sounded interesting. Well it wasn´t. And especially since it rained, which wasn´t conducive to walking around and looking at statues. So we only stayed the one night. Corrientes: One of Argentina´s oldest cities, and within 20 minutes of Resistencia, we thought it may be worth a look. Well it was still raining and we decided not to stay (on the off chance it would clear up), and moved on straight away. Maybe one of the things about this place is that it is on the river (although described as muddy), but it has a carnival which apparently attracts crowds of up to 80,000. Our trusty and at times frustrating Lonely Planet does not though mention when it is!! So here´s our tip - miss these towns althogether.

Cordoba - Argentina

Cordoba is a historic university city. Like all other cities attractions it included a Cathedral, some museums and a tourist bus. We did none of these, and therefore didn´t get much of a feel for the place. We only stopped for a couple of nights and were happy to move on. We caught up with Richard who had a very different feel for the city, as he had met some locals who showed him around. Rich (we blame him) suggested we go to the Opera, as he had been told that the best opera was ¨Aida¨. Not only did it go on for hours, it had 3 intervals (which is when we decided to leave), it was hot and it was putting me to sleep. Don´t you hate that jerking head feeling when you snap back into consciousness, and look around you to see whether others have noticed you´ve been sleeping! There was also a big story line, but all in Spanish. At least the guy next to us told us what it was all about, in English.

La Cumbrecita - Argentina

Due to accommodation at the Oktoberfest being all booked out Ian, Richard and myself decided to try another town for a couple of nights and then go back. We took a bus for one and a half hours to a small Swiss town called La Cumbrecita. Like Villa General Belgrano the houses and hotels had a very wooden Swiss / German feel. We decided to treat ourselves and paid GBP17 each for a room and half board. The half board included all you can eat buffet breakfast (which of course you want to get your money´s worth) and a 4 course lovely meal in the evening. It´s a hilly area, popular for hiking and horseriding. We walked to the top of Cerro Wank, which was our effort at exercise. Although there were mountain paths everywhere. Cerro Wank is actually a brand of beer that we tried at the Beer Festival. The hotel had a pool, so we relaxed, sunbathed and a few beers in the sunshine. If you are interested in some hiking with great scenery, this is a really nice quiet place.

Me, Ian and Richard after having walked up Cerro Wank. 

Our expensive but lovely Swiss style hotel. 

Oktoberfest in Villa General Belgrano - Argentina

Just had three days at Oktoberfest, (the 2nd biggest one in the world apparently) a couple of hours from Cordoba, in this funny wooden small German/Swiss town. Loads of beer, fantastic cultural dances from around the world, loads of traditional sausages and of course struddel. Due to the extremely busy time of the year we did have to visit the tourist office daily to try and find new accommodation. After the first two days it did not look like we would be lucky enough to get anything, so we moved on to another town for two nights, and then came back. We had Rebecca with us the first night, and Richard for the whole time. Rebeccas boyfriend is driving overland truck tours in South America, and guess who we managed to bump into, with his tour group! The interesting night I want to tell you about though was the third one. In the festival grounds Rich was drinking like a fish and pegged the pace rather high. The entertainment was again fantastic, and we saw new dancing acts. The crowd went wild for the Scottish band. Quite bizzare really! (Out of a very serious request from Ian, I have edited this part. If you have already read it, you will know why, and if you have not - then never mind. Make it up for yourself.) ................................................................................... I started off the next morning with a photo, (Richard was not able to join me in my search because he had the biggest hang over ever, and was having to use the tiolet to part with his insides!)...............I did actually find him casually walking down the street towards our place. Considering everything that had happened, I´m such a good girlfriend - cooked him and Rich, a huge spag. bog. Which also meant that we stayed yet another night, for the boys to recover! :)

This was the town that we stayed in. 

The proud owners of beer mugs. 

The beginning of our Oktoberfest experience with Rebecca and Richard. 

One of the many great cultural dancing acts. 

Tafi del Valle - Argentina

This very small town is cheese country. When Ian, Rebecca and I arrived at 10pm on the bus, Richard (whom we´d met in the previous town), had arranged for his hostel to come and meet us, in case we were interested in staying there. How sweet was that! Unfortunately our two nights here was plauged with rain. This though is a great area for treking and horse riding, which is what we would have done, if the weather had been better. Instead we had one of our many lazy times, relaxed, read, and had a night in partaking in many red wines and sampling the local cheeses. To the point that some party games came out, that thoroughly assumed us for hours.

Cafayate - Argentina

Cafayate is some of the wine country in Argentina. Surprising really since it is really dry and dusty. This was the reason though that we were heading there for a couple of nights. In the bus station in the previous city we bumped into Rebecca (NZ chick who has been living in Sydney for ages), who we had met on two other occasions. And she was booked onto the same bus for some muchas vinos (much vine). The scenery (if you could bother taking it in, around some windy roads - abit tough for me) was lovely, and there are actually tours from Salta (previous city) that come this way for day trips. On arrival, whilst having one or two refreshing beers, we also met Richard (African/English/Aussie/ and now in NZ), whom we ended up only spending a day and night in this town, but ended up spending about the next 10 days with him. The four of us did a 5 hour trek which was really pleasant. We hadn´t done anything like this for ages, due to Ian´s back issues. There was some rock climbing involved, and our destination was an icy waterfall. Couldn´t bring myself to take a swim. It was soooo cold it hurt! The others though put themselves through it! We had a random surprise of a bunch of teenagers who were cooking up some great looking sausages, who shared them with us. We hired mountain bikes with the intention of riding around some of the wineries for some tastings. Even a spot of lunch would have been great. We made a couple of mistakes which ended up in riding mostly uphill for 2 hours (to the supposed best one), which was not serving food, (as it did this usually by reservation only, we discovered), but it wasn´t open for a couple of weeks. We only had enough time to ride back into town, and eat in a restaurant, before having to catch the bus to our next destination. So we had to settle with a bottle of red over lunch - just not from one of the many wineries. Shame!

Our trek in Cafayate, which was in the wine country.