Argentina

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From Lima the flight was 4½ hours to Buenos Aires but it was as though we had arrived in Europe. The people looked European, the motorways were good however the driving skills were somewhere between crazy Italian and carefree Portuguese! Our hotel in the San Telmo district (which we booked at the last minute) had terrible reviews but turned out to be one of the best we've stayed in so far. It was clean and spacious with ceilings over 4 metres high. After a day of aeroplane food we headed straight out for dinner. Our friends Fiona & Sharon had recommended a restaurant on the corner of Chile and Peru street called Gran Parrilla Del Plata. Wow.....what a meal!! We had the best steak of our lives!! The Argentinian red wine, service and atmosphere were all perfect as well. People dine out really late in Buenos Aires - we stayed chatting and drinking until 2.30am and the restaurant was still full. The food was so good that we returned 3 more times in the space of a week!

The next day we walked around San Telmo - a relaxed area with antique shops and boutiques. The streets are full of lovely looking restaurants and cafés, some inviting, some too expensive, but all of them stylish. The buildings are all tall, old and full of character. After strolling around we took a bus to Recoleta to visit the cemetry where Evita (Eva Peron) is buried. The cemetry has tombs dating back hundreds of years. It's where the rich and famous are buried, and each tomb is like a small house, and a work of art - with impressive marble statues.

We spent the next few days exploring the city visiting each of the districts and seeing some beautiful palaces, museums, cathedrals, parks and even some energetic street tango dancing. The shopping areas around Florida and Santa Fe Avenidas are packed with 'one-off' original stores as well as all the usual global brands. With all of the steak available, it's no wonder that there's a lot of great leather - it's not cheap, but it's excellent quality. Check out Dave's leather jacket when you see him, he might also be wearing his Bolivian “Ray Bans” to complete the look!

Whilst in Argentina, we decided we had to visit the Iguazu Falls - one of the biggest and most impressive waterfalls in the world. It's a long way away on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The flights were really expensive, so we booked ourselves onto a coach. Our seats were big and sumptuous - which was a good job seeing as it was a 20 hour non-stop journey. We left at lunch time and arrived the following morning. After spending 8 hours at Iguazu, we jumped back on the coach for our 20 hour return trip back to Buenos Aires! Out of 48 hours, we were on the coach for 40! It was completely worth it though - Iguazu is out of this world. There are over 200 falls that make up the Iguazu National Park, all set in amongst lush rainforest. There are thousands of colourful butterflies all around as well as lots of lizards and birds. Wooden walkways link the viewing areas making exploring the waterfalls easy. We took a boat ride along the river which went so close to the falls that we got absolutely soaked from the spray - it was as if we'd fallen into the river! We left the best 'til last, and our final stop of the day was the 'Devil's Throat' - an awe inspiring waterfall where huge rivers meet and thousands of tonnes of water cascade over the edge. The power and sound has to be experienced to be believed. It left us speechless!! What an amazing day....! See a brief video clip we took on

After our 20 hour journey back to Buenos Aires, we went out for another well earned steak at our usual restaurant. Our last day was spent chilling out in the cafés of San Telmo close to our hotel and browsing around the many boutiques and antique shops. One shop had an old British Colonial stamp collection dating back hundreds of years, with each stamp telling a story of the once Great British Empire. Although we're not exactly into stamps we decided to buy the collection anyway. A beautiful piece of history and maybe a canny investment as well. For our last night, surprise surprise, we had steak and red wine - it's almost worth flying from London to Buenos Aires just to go out for dinner, it really is that good.

We had such a great time in Argentina - the people are friendly and the architecture in Buenos Aires is on a grand European scale with only the slightest battered up hint of South America. Oh and just in case you forgot, the food is in a class of it's own. We were really sorry to leave, but we had to move onto the final adventure of our trip......Brazil.

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