How things work in here... We arrived to Buenos Aires yesterday after a not so pleasant trip. I told you that from Puerto Iguazu to Buenos Aires its 20 hours in a bus. That's why we booked a nice one with cama seats (meaning that they were like beds. Literally so confortable, with pillows and blankets). Well... They noticed that something was wrong with the bus quite soon after we left. It finally broke down after few hours. And we had to change to a normal bus (not good!) and finally they arranged that some people went to a one and [View Full Entry]

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Thurs 27th. Caught the local bus from outside the hotel and went to Iguacu Falls. It cost 50 pence for a 1 hour ride. Weather today is 35 deg. with a breeze, which is perfect. Our first sight of the falls left us speechless, but then as you walk further it gets better. Words can´t describe it. So just pack your bags and come and see for yourselves. Makes Niagara look like a dripping tap! Even the ecological presentation of the tourist areas, the Brazilean engineering authorities have got it so right! We saw lots of gorgeous Quaties rooting around and [View Full Entry]

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Buenos Aires is a lovely city with tree lined streets and old buildings -at a glance you could be in New York, Paris or London but the best thing is everything costs a fraction of the price. We stayed at the Gran Hotel Oriental in the Congreso area - sounds a bit like the Mandarin Oriental, but at only 5 pounds a night each including breakfast, the name is where the similarity ends! The hotel was a bit strange but fine, as long as you don´t want a hot shower in the evening and you don´t mind walls that have been [View Full Entry]

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Having got settled in Buenos Aires and lost the tension brought on by such mammoth road trips, me and Rich decided to have a night on the town. Rich was looking particularly gangster in a sharp new pinstripe suit as we set forth. And what else would you go and see in this old town apart from a Tango Show! Determined to do this in style, we ordered the most expensive champagne and got the best seats in the house next to the dance floor and waited for the show to begin. By which time we were already on our third [View Full Entry]

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Well I had a raging birthday party thanks to the boys' mum Monica and her partner Bruce. In true Argentine style we had a great parilla for dinner and a birthday cake with candles and everything. They also very nicely let me bludge off them for nearly two weeks at their beautiful house in Buenos Aires and looked after me very well! Buenos Aires is such a fabulous place. It has a strong European influence, which is refreshing after all the American-ised coutries I have visited and is very fashionable. The city itself is amazing, the architecture is gorgeous. But the [View Full Entry]

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On arriving in Buenos Aires we were pleasantly surprised by how modern and ´European´ feeling the city is. It lives up to its reputation as ´The Paris of the South´. We found a nice hostel online but when we arrived they hadn´t quite finished building it! However, the people running it were friendly and we stayed anyway. Our first excursion was a trip to watch the local team, Boca Juniors, play football. It was a great afternoon, Boca won and we saw Diego Maradonna cheering his team on from his balcony. Luckily we had no trouble, although apparently it is quite [View Full Entry]

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My cousin Vanessa and I are staying in a wonderful flat in Buenos Aires with the old lady my Aunt used to work for. When I say flat, it probably doesn't quite give the right impression, since she owns the whole floor and I´ve never seen an apartment this big in my life! She's being so kind to us and is so active that I can't believe she's 80. Definitely says something for the Argentinian way of life! We went to her weekend house today and I saw my first polo players practising nearby. Also visited a local museum, which had [View Full Entry]

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So, it's been a while since my last blog and lots have happened. The "practicalities" didn't work out as planned in Argentina so I decided to head back to the US earlier than planned. However, not before flying to Buenos Aires to visit my friend Mariana and her boyfriend Martin. I got to know Mariana in Hawaii about 5.5 years ago when she was there with some friends of hers for vacation. We had a great time and they were excellent hosts all weekend long! They drove me all over town so in just a few days we covered, Tigre, La [View Full Entry]

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So here we are in Buenos Aires!! Our first three days here have been a very gentle introduction to South America, we will return here several times before we leave so it will be interesting how our perceptions change. First impressions? What a superb city, clean, modern, impressive - at least in heart of the city where we´re staying. And very affordable, thanks to the favourable exchage rate. We´re really easing into the trip. We booked into a nice hotel just off Avenida de Mayo, have been sleeping well, eating well - even have satelite TV with over 70 channels. It [View Full Entry]

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Well, after months of thinking about it, I'm actually here in Buenos Aires! Having spent fourteen hours on the flight from London, I decided to spend most of the afternoon wandering around the city to get the blood flowing again! My first impressions are that it's a big, fairly grimy city but it doesn't really feel hectic. For me, it's kind of 70% Madrid, 30% Havana. I'll hopefully get a better taste for it when Alison and Vanessa are here with me next week. I did start by having my first Argentinian beef at lunchtime though and am looking forward to [View Full Entry]

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