Argentina

Following a few relaxing days in Puerto Varas, Southern Chile with Mike & Heather, we caught a bus through the Andes, and across the border into Argentina. The area, known as the Lake District, was stunning, with glacial lakes and snow-capped mountains all around. We arrived in Bariloche, famous for both its skiing and its chocolate. Unfortunately at this time of year the snow is not sufficient for skiing, so we made up for it by (over)indulging in the chocolates! We also spent a day travelling into the mountains to see a black glacier (very cool). The weather was pretty crappy, but we did get to see a small avalanche, happily from a safe distance!

Running very short on time now we decided to fly the next two legs, Bariloche - Buenos Aires, and Buenos Aires - Puerto Iguazu. We nearly didn´t make our flight to BA because of a taxi strike in Bariloche, but luckily the owners of our hostel gave us a ride to the airport.

Arriving in Buenos Aires from Bariloche was like arriving in Maputo in mid summer from London in winter! The heat and humidity took it out of us, and we spent a couple of days just taking it very easy, seeing the sights of BA. It´s a beautiful city, but the traffic is just mindblowing - a one-way street with 6 lanes is not out of the ordinary, and the main thoroughfare through the city has 9 lanes in each direction!!!

While in BA we went to watch the famous Boca Juniors (Diego Maradona´s club) play at home to a Chilean side in the South American Cup semifinals. The game was great fun, but the atmosphere in the crowd was incredible. The non-stop singing and cheering was enough to get even the most soccer-illiterate (us) excited, and when the home team scored it was just madness!

We did a couple of day trips out of BA, to Tigre, a quiet town on the delta, where the principle means of transport is boating about the small rivers and canals, as well as to San Antonio, a farming centre, and authentic Gaucho town!

Eventually it was time to leave BA, and fly to Iguazu, the massive waterfalls at the triple junction of the Argentinian, Brazilian and Paraguayan borders. Unfortunately we were unaware of a strike at the airline that left almost all of its planes, including ours, grounded. We arrived at the airport to see huge queues of people waiting to organise refunds for their tickets. D'Oh! So we joined the queue, organised our refund, slogged back to the main bus terminal to see if we could get on the 17 hour long overnight bus to Iguazu. Luckily we did find a bus, and we only had to wait 5 hours in the bus terminal. While waiting, one of our small daypacks was stolen! Luckily there were not many items of monetary value in the bag, but our treasured diaries, recording our thoughts and experiences for the past months, were in the bag. This was NOT a good day :(

Happily the bus trip was fine, and we splashed out on the luxury bus, which included champagne! We arrived in Iguazu, and spent today at the falls. Wow. And wow again. Millions and millions of litres of water cascading 70 m over a width of about 2 km, all surrounded by green green jungle. On top of all the water, there is an abundance of butterflies around the falls, and sometimes you feel under attack! Tomorrow we repeat the experience, but from the Brazilian side, and then it´s onto another neverending bus ride back to Sao Paolo to catch our flight to the States on the 1st. We´re rather sad to be leaving the vibrancy and beauty of South America, particularly now that we´ve got to a point where we can actually communicate a little! It has been an excellent 3 1/2 months, and we´ll definitely be back!