A maté in one hand, a dance partner in the other

Although Australia and New Zealand had been great, the pace of adventure was a lot slower than we had grown used to in Asia. Both of us had been massively looking forward to going to South America, and thankfully, that was rightfully so. Over the past week, I've fallen in love with travelling again. Although Cambodia stays firmly top of the list as my favourite country so far, Buenos Aires is now pegged as the favourite city. It's fabulous.

The journey to South America was a very long one - Hannah and I travelled for about 3 days in total. We spent a night sleeping on a bench in Santiago airport, where I washed my hair (which made me feel very Tom Hanks in 'The Terminal') and got searched by sniffer dogs entering Argentina. Hannah had me in hysterics as a dog started sniffing and growling around her bag, and a security guard's eyes began to narrow - she suddenly started yelping "I'm sorry, I'm sorry - I've got apples, I've got apples!" with a terrified look on her face.

The first couple of days in Buenos Aires were almost entirely lost to jet lag. The long transit time and the BIG time difference meant that our bodies were exhausted and thoroughly confused as to what time it was. That didn't really change for the whole time in Buenos Aires, which is definitely a city that doesn't believe in sleeping. Life there is made up of many naps, whenever you can.

The hostel we stayed at was great. We'd decided to stay in the San Telmo area, which is the old historic quarter filled with cobbled streets and quirky shops. It is also home to Plaza Dorrego - the birthplace of the Argentine Tango. In this great setting was our friendly hostel, where I made oodles of friends. I had possibly the greatest day of my trip so far in BA. An American called Blake and a Korean girl called Chew accompanied me to the weekly antiques fair in our area, and we spent a good few hours soaking up the atmosphere and browsing the goods. In reality, not much of the stuff there is antique - so the streets are filled with locals and tourists alike in search of a good deal. Our day was broken only to stop for food, where Blake and I had the worst hamburgers of our lives - incredible in a country famed for its meat. On the way back, we stopped at Plaza Dorrego and watched 75 year old couples in love dance one of the most passionate dances in the world - it was magical.

That evening, Blake and I gathered the troops and we went out for a big meal at a parilla, which is basically a steakhouse. Han and I had been there a couple of days before, and had had the best steaks we'd ever tasted, all for about 3 pounds. Unfortunately, the place was rammed and so the staff were rushed off their feet, making the food not quite so tasty - but it was still spectacular. On the way home we found a bar with a really good reggae band playing, and we settled in. I discovered a favourite drink - Cuban hot chocolate - which is hot chocolate made with cream liqueur and rum. We danced, we chatted, and in general had a very mellow night. Around 4am we headed back to our hostel (that sounds very late, but you don't sit down for dinner until 10.30 here!) and welcomed in the morning chatting, playing guitar, and having a really nice time. I tried, unsuccessfully, to nap, but at 8am conceded and went for breakfast instead. En route I tried to pick up Blake from his dorm, and creased up laughing. Blake had the unfortunate luck of sharing a room with 5 very rowdy, very drunken Irish people - all lovely, but also all totally crazy. As a result, their dorm was the "party room" of the hostel. I walked in at 8am to find everyone, plus a few extras, still drinking, still drunk, and playing strip poker. Good times.

Also in Buenos Aires, I discovered maté. This is an Argentinian drink made by pouring boiling water over yerba maté herbs, and sucking the infused liquid through a straw with a strainer. It's very definitely an acquired taste - it's very bitter at first - but the Argentinians are obsessed with it, so I stuck at it until I became a big fan myself. Honestly - it's massively important to the country. Virtually everyone you see is clutching a maté (one word which refers to the drink, the herb and the special cup you drink it from) and sipping away.

On another occasion, the girls in my dorm (we all got on incredibly well and became good friends) and I went out to the same parilla and had another perfect meal. We came back to find it was live music night at our hostel, and a really good duo were playing. Honestly, the music was phenomenal - and the guitarist was totally blind. It was a really good night. Amanda, Roy and I decided to go out to a club once the set had finished, and so we jumped in a taxi to go to Bahrein. It was pretty empty to begin with, but soon began to heat up. We moved onto another club, and Amanda and I left around 7am. It then took us two hours to get to our hostel, largely because I massively stuffed up talking to a guy working in the metro station. Essentially, I needed to go from A to C via B, and we ended up taking the train to Z. Then, through a combination of walking and eventually, splurging on a cab in frustration, we finally got back in time for breakfast.

That day Shelley, Leila and I (two girls from my dorm, Shelley an Australian and Leila a South African - probably the most beautiful girl I have ever seen) went out in search of leather jackets, which are cheap to come by in Argentina. We were given bad advice by two different people who were trying to help us avoid the more expensive tourist shopping areas. Unfortunately, we just spent 6 hours wandering around ugly areas of the town, finding no shops selling leather goods. Around 5pm we gave in and went to Florida anyway - the main shopping street of Buenos Aires, and a sight to behold. There we found shop after shop of leather jackets, and Shell and I each found one we loved, at about half the price of any you could buy back home. We got the metro home and I slept for 13 hours straight.

Another experience was coming across a pretty intense protest in the city centre. There were huge numbers of riot police armed with shields and batons, surrounding a very large group of scary looking masked men brandishing sticks. Through our poor Spanish, Shelley and I managed to ascertain that they were protesting about a teacher who was shot dead by police in a different state - he had been attending a peaceful strike over pay. Pancho, one of the guys who works in our hostel, explained that Argentinians love to protest - apparently, if there is one near his neighbourhood, all of his friends and he will go along to join in, most of the time being entirely unaware of what they are protesting against!

The biggest development in Buenos Aires was that Hannah decided to go home early. She realised that she was no longer appreciating all the great experiences we were having to the full, and wanted to come back in a few years with fresh eyes, to really discover South America. Fortunately for me, Shelley and Amanda, two lovely girls from Brisbane who I got on with really well, had roughly the same itinirary to me, and invited me to tag along with them. So I said goodbye to Han, who was staying another couple of days in BA before flying to Spain to see her parents, and the 3 of us plus Pancho left to take a bus up to Puerto Iguazu, to see the Iguazu Falls. It was very wierd to say goodbye to the best friend I'd shared so much with over the last 5 months, but I knew I'd be seeing her again soon.

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Part of trip: The RTW Gap Year Extravaganza

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