Puerto Iguazú - Buenos Aires

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After a long bus journey with no drinking water on board, it was replaced for us by fizzy drinks and tea, we arrived in BA and made our way to our hostel that we booked a couple of days earlier. It took us a while in our sleep deprived state to find the hostel, and after grabbing some breakfast and showers headed for a wander before we were able to check into our room. On our return we found our friends Dave and Ollie and planned to go out for a famous BA steak dinner later on, before hitting the equally famous BA nightlife! My steak was amazing, and not to mention the hugest piece of beef I've ever seen, and Dani enjoyed her fish dish equally I think, as well as the complementary sherry and lemoncelo! After eating we headed to a bar for a few drinks and then on to a club on the water front. Unlike England few nights finish before 6.00am and by the time we climbed into bed we were certainly feeling the tiredness!

The next day we did in fact manage to drag ourselves out of bed and headed off the district of San Telmo where a big vintage market, complete with street music and Tango, was being held, full of fantastic jewellery (I had to hold Dani back before she bought EVERYTHING!) and even a stall selling gramophones!

The following day was Dani's birthday and after spending the morning pottering around, and getting my broken glasses fixed, we met up with Ollie (Dave was in his afternoon Spanish lesson) and walked down to look at the waterfront in the light. We then headed to see the International Buddy Bears, a set of bears, one from each country in the world painted by that country, which were fantastic, some more so than others but a great sight to see in a park in the middle of Buenos Aires. That night, after a quick meal of take out pizza (the popular chain sells only one size margarita pizzas) and salad we all headed out for the birthday celebrations, which continued until the early hours of the morning! The morning after was fairly painful and we pottered around the centre, under the breathtaking contrast of new and old buildings, once we had feasted on pancakes for breakfast. That night, once again, we headed out for a meal, this time to a buffet, serving fresh grilled meats, a multitude of salad items, chinese food (!?) and fruit and ice cream for dessert. Obviously we all ate plenty of food, and I even tried the intestine that many grill restaurants sell here, quite chewy really!

Feeling guilty about largely sticking to the sights at night we desided to stay an extra night and make our final two days a real culture tour. We wandered around the working class district of La Boca, filled with brightly painted houses and Tango shows, the main street through was geared highly towards tourists, we ventured out to a collection of plazas near the waterfront and Retiro as well as heading to the upperclass neighbourhood of Recoleta and to the famous, very impressive cemetry there where Evita was buried, although it was odd to see coffins on show behind the glass doors of the family tombs.

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