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Buenos Aires, Argentina. When we set off on our trip, this point in the journey just seemed so far away, but, after nearly 6 months on the road, here we were. The fact that we had made it all this way was a great feeling, however we also had the added bonus here of seeing a familiar face from home, and this made it doubly exciting. The person we were due to meet in BA was Donna’s little brother, Matt. Being 21 years old, Matt has yet to stray too far from the shores of England, and so this trip was to be a significant one for him. We only had two weeks to squeeze in as much as we possibly could around the north of Argentina, but between us, Donna and I were convinced that after this fortnight, Matt would have a real sense of what it’s like being on the road, and had a funny feeling that this wouldn’t be his last trip!

Before meeting Matt though, Donna and I had a day to kill in BA. After finally finding our hostel after several incorrect directions from strangers who ‘knew the way’ we were finally able to put down our bags and chill. The weather in BA was perfect with the sun out, not a cloud in the sky, and a nice breeze, and so we headed for the roof deck of the hostel in order to figure out where things were, and where we wanted to head out to. Usually, our first priority is to get some local currency, get some food, or simply grab a beer. However BA was different. Having had a fair amount of tattoos in the past, Donna and I had fancied marking our trip with some more body ink, however as yet, we hadn’t seen anywhere in South America that we trusted enough to do it. That was until we were on the roof of the hostel. Here on-line, we found a studio in BA that were fairly close, looked professional, and was open, so we decided to trot down there to see if a tattoo was possible over the coming weeks. Once there, we spoke to a guy for 10 minutes or so, showed him what we wanted on the internet, and was asked the question ‘OK, who’s first then?’ this was a bit of a shock being so quick, however we decided that as we were here, and had wanted this for a while now, we should just throw caution to the wind, let the moment take us and get involved.

After getting our new tattoos, we grabbed some dinner, and then headed back to the hostel roof for a celebratory beer. Whilst here, we were lucky enough to catch an awesome two piece jazz duo, who played for an hour or so, and welcomed us in nicely to life in BA.

The next day we decided to head down to the Sunday market in San Telmo. This area of BA has a fantastic vibe to it on any given day with its cobbled streets and hoards of antiques shops, however on Sunday, it comes alive! Everywhere you looked there were crafts and antique sellers, street performers and ‘artisania goods’ for sale. There were also hundreds of people milling around enjoying the atmosphere as well as some sporadic Tango dancing in the streets….it was awesome!

So, after a full on day here, we got a bite to eat and headed for the hostel where ‘Movie night’ was the evening activity. This was perfect as all we wanted to do was kick back and get a fairly early night in order to meet Matt the following morning at the airport. So, after a beer or two and having seen ‘Witches of Eastwick’ we were off to bed.

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