Argentina - futbol, tango, meat, and man those waterfalls are big!

Welcome.

First activity in Argentina was an 18 hour bus trip up to Iguazu. The thought of it made our skin crawl, with memories of the Bolivia hell trip still reasonable fresh in our mind and occuring in our nightmares on a regular basis. But to our surprise the bus was dreamy. We are talking boy band ass dreamy. The seats were fully extendable lazy boys, so much leg room and we got meals. There were bus hostesses - although one guy was a little inappropriate when he made Ainsley flick through his phone photos, only to have a picture of a big butt appear. What was more disturbing was that he said it was his sister. We may have misheard the Spanish but frankly he was that creepy it didn´t really surprise us.

Our hostel in Iguazu had a pool, which was awesome given the heat and humidity. It was at the poolside bar that we had our first taste of the national drink - Caiprihana (sugar based spirit, on the rocks with limes) and met a heap of Irish chicks one of whom started a rugby argument with us within the first few minutes of the conversation. Apparently Richie McCaw should not have been awarded the Player of the Year, Paul O´Connell should have. She was so rugby obsessed Jane gave her an All Blacks cap to rarck things up when she got to NZ - look out for her.

Iguazu falls. They are big. Humungous even. There was a lot of water and butterflies and a toucan. Unfortunately there were also a lot of bees and both Jacky and Ainsley got stung. We went in a rafting boat down below the falls, coming in close to them and getting absolutely drenched - like a fire hose in your face. We couldn´t stop laughing at how retarded we looked. There were awesome walkways around the falls and the views where incredible. Full credit to Argentina DoC.

Jane trying to take a selfie of her and her butterfly friend - thanks Ainsley.

We saw the falls from both the Argentina and Brasil side (on Ainsleys birthday) - crazy going through border patrol for a 3 hour visit to another country. Ainsley´s birthday was full of caiprihanas and meat. Meat in Argentina is divine.


We spent time in Buenos Aires doing a bit of shopping, eating cheap steaks (El Desnivel is the best restaurant ever - thanks Rudy for the tip!), drinking cheap wine and doing a few other touristy activities. We visited the main cemetary in the city where Eva Peron is `buried´. The thing is, they don´t put the dead in the ground like we do - the cemetary is like a little town with little houses and streets. You can look right into them and see the coffins right there. Creepy! And there were heaps of cats hanging around. We think they may have been reincarnations of the people in the plots they where hanging out next too. We tested the theory by calling out the names of some dead dudes ´Pedro! Renaldo!´and the cats looked up at us. Pretty convincing evidence I hear you say...

Looks like Mr Giraldes to us.

We also visited the Pink Palace where Evita did her thing on the balcony, and we went to a Futbol/football/soccer game - River Plate v Racing Club. It was nuts. The game wasn´t held at the home teams stadium due to it being closed 2 weeks earlier after a riot between 10,000 fans from each side and 1,000 cops. A couple of people got shot and were pushed off the top stadium. We went to the game in a group with our hostel, who ripped us off, but it was good to have someone looking after you and getting seats in the less rowdy stands. The support from the fans was unreal. Chanting, drums, yelling abuse and the huge flag that covered everyone in the visiting teams stand made it an event well worth going to. Nothing like the rugby matches back home. They have to let one teams supporters in and out of the stadium, by different gates and at different times to prevent any riots. 800 Riot police were hanging around, shields and guns all ready for any trouble that might happen. And they don´t serve alcohol there - we could only wonder what the crowds would do if they were on the booze.


This guys left index finger is moving in and out of a circle made by his right hands. A prize for the person who can guess what he is yelling out to the other teams supporters.


We decided to cross from BA over to Uruguay for a couple of days - one more stamp in the passport, next stamp! We headed to Punta del Este for a bit of beach action - great swmming and icecream shop (we were regulars). Although we shared a room at our hostel with a woman who had some serious nasal/foghorn issues. The first night we didn´t know what was going on - why would a mufflerless car be revving outside our window at 4 in the morning? Then we realised it was the crazy woman sleeping next to Jacky - one good jolt of her unstable bunk quietened her down for a while...


The only photo we took in Uruguay. We were the only people that thought this was funny.

On our last night in BA we went to a Tango show - the dancers were amazing. The flexibility seemed unnatural, we hope they did plenty of stretching before the show. The tango dance is mesmorising, but due to our physical condition we will have to stick to the fourth form shuffle.