Buenos Aires

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Hey!

I am writing this from Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, we arrived here early hours this morning and are feeling a bit like it's groundhog day as we woke up in New Zealand on the 4 February and then after flying 4 hours to Rarotonga and having a little sleep we woke up again on the 4 February, so we have had the 4 February twice because the Cook Islands is back over the date line, very confusing!

Anyway, Buenos Aires. We arrived in the morning after our long night bus journey and started off with some sightseeing (after I'd locked myself in the loo of the cafe where we had breakfast), mainly looking for the balcony that Eva Peron stood on. We were wandering around a bit lost and took photos of various buildings but didn't realise at the time that we had found it (it's the pink palace looking building in my photos). We saw the widest avenue in the world (according to the Argentinians) and most importantly I got some Havaianas which are now my favourite flip flops in the world. I thought they were a lot of hype when I was back in the UK but they really are the nicest and comfiest flip flops ever and thankfully a lot cheaper in South America than at home (I got another pair before I left).

That night was a our last night out with our tour group. We went to an amazing steak restaurant called Desnival's in Sam Telmo (I'm told the steak was amazing, it tempted even veggie me). Ruudi had one of the biggest steaks I have ever seen and in the process gave us the quote of the trip: "I have to do a big job". He was referring to how much he had to eat but we thought he meant something else! Ruudi, Maire, Jorgen and I then went to see a Tanga show at the Almacen; we had champagne and saw fantastic dancing (it was just like Strictly but a bit better because of the setting), there was also a band playing Andean music which reminded me of Peru. We then went the Krakov bar and spent the evening playing on the Wii and playing drinking games. I wasn't very drunk but after a bit of encouragement thought it was a good idea to get up on the table and have a dance, at which point a passing drunken chap stopped to stare and did a 'Del Boy at the bar', falling over onto the floor, it was very funny!

The next day was our last with Alice and Ruudi (we'd said by to Lucy and Milla the night before) and we went to La Boca which was an interesting place; very colourful, lively and busy. We saw the Boca Juniors stadium from a distance (there were no games on whilst we were in Buenos Aires which was a shame) and had a nice lunch watching a bit of a show. We then went over to Puerto Madero which was very hot, saw a Hooters (took a picture for Bear, I tried to get the others in there but they weren't interested) and then went back there for the evening after saying bye to Alice. We went to another great restaurant called Siga La Vaca and as I hadn't been feeling very well due to the limited vegetarian food I had a steak and it wasn't too bad. Caryl had to cut it up for me though! (I had it another time after that but now don't want it at all, think I must have just needed it). Once back at the hotel we said bye to Ruudy and just as he was leaving we had a power cut and the whole hotel was in darkness. Luckily, we knew exactly where our torches were and got out the head torches that Georgina gave us.......so they did come in very handy!!

Then it was just Maire, Jorgen, Caryl and I. We went to Recoleta the next day, walking there from our hotel (the Hotel Carsson in Downtown, very nice) past a tower that looked like Big Ben (we had been told it was a present from the UK but not sure if that's true), befriending a local dog (which I was scared stiff of) and visiting a micro-brewery which sold a drink called 'Red Headed Slut' which really amused Caryl. We went to Recoleta cemetary which is fascinating. It's designed to show a families weath and some of the tombs were huge, some even looked like mini churches, we saw Eva Peron's family tomb. That evening we went to Plaza Serrano in Palermo and had a very nice evening watching a local band play and being amused by the groupie girl who was literally hanging off them. I had a bit of a nightmare that day as I realised I had lost 2 account cards, I knew I'd lost one and thought I'd just mislaid it somewhere but when I lost the second I realised I something was up and can only figure 'd been leaving them in the ATM machines. They do things in a different order in Argentina (i.e. give you your card last, in the UK they give you your money last) so I was just leaving my cards in the machine, so be warned! Luckily I still had two other cards and Caryl to help me out 😊

The next day we went to Colonia in Uruguay which is beautiful, reminds me of Greece and it's so cheap, we paid about 3 UK pounds for a steak burger called a Chivito. There were so many lovely pink, purple and blue flowered trees everywhere and we sat for the afternoon drinking Sangria by the sea. There were old cars everwhere (that reminded me of Cuba) and one had flowers growing out of it. Unfortuntaly I started getting sick that night, think it was side effects from the Malaria tablets, and was poorly for the next few days but feel much better now.

Then Caryl and I had our Estancia (ranch) stay! The day didn't start off very well. I was still feeling poorly and before going anywhere I had to try to get cash to pay for the stay (my 3rd card hadn't worked the night before). The card didn't work again so we had to just go back to the hotel and wait for our transfer to the ranch and hope we could sort it out the next day (the cash situation ended up being the least of our worries)....... So, we waited patiently outside the hotel and a man in a little car drove up and came out saying 'Carole'. So we said yes and got in thinking we were on our way, we couldn't say much to the driver as he didn't speak any English and we didn't speak enough Spanish. We stopped a little while later to pick up another couple who also didn't speak English and then started off through Buenos Aires. About 15 minutes later we pulled into a garage (which was a bit odd) but when we saw we were going into a leather shop (it was a vegetarians worse nightmare!) we thought 'maybe this is to get us measured up for our chaps'. So we went in and were a little surprised when they started trying to sell us leather jackets, handbags etc (I mean, we are backpackers and at the time I had no access to money). Caryl thought it was hilarious and wanted me to take some pictures of her with some of the goods on but I'd started to get a bit worried. The other couple with us didn't look like they were going horse riding and nothing the ranch had said suggested we would be taking a shopping detour. So, Caryl asked the one person in the shop who spoke English whether we were on our way to the ranch and after looking at us a bit blankly went to find our driver who confirmed that no, we were not going to the ranch. We were in fact going on a tour of ther leather shops in Buenos Aires! We had ended up on the wrong transfer!!! (As it unravelled it came to light that the driver was picking up someone called Carlos for the tour of the leather shops, and when he showed us the room number it was the one next to ours, a bit wierd). So, the lovely man at the leather shop got in touch with our hotel and confirmed our actual transfer was still waiting for us (which I thought was very nice considering we were nearly an hour late) and sent us on our way in a taxi (I don't think the other transfer went back for Carlos so he missed his tour of the leather shops!). We got back to the hotel and into a lovely car with a new driver and went on our way, again. I asked him to stop at a bank for me but when my card didn't work again I rang 'my bank' who kindly informed me they had stopped the card as they thought it was stolen. They were able to lift the stop straight away so I was able to get cash for the trip. Phew. Any as a precaution my Mum & Dad have transferred money into Caryl's account so I can use they too until I get my new cards, thank you Mum & Dad 😊

We eventually arrived at Estancia Los Dos Hermanos (I can't recommend it enough) 2 hours late and from then on the day got better and better. Alex was so welcoming and showed us to our house (it had 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, bathroom) and then we went for our first ride. My horse was called Chaperon, he was a lovely. We saw a water buffolo and so many different birds (Caryl saw owls) and then met the others at the ranch for the day (a mother and daughter from Canada and a French air stewardess who always stops there when she has a stopover in Bueno Aires) went back to the Estancia for lunch which was amazing. We had Empanadas (they made me cheese ones), cheese and cold meat slices, water, coke, orange and beer waiting for us. Then the first course was meat that come out on a sizzling BBQ and then Bife de Lomo which Caryl said was the best she's ever had. I was back to being a veggie and they bought me some lovely food, I was still feeling too poorly to eat much though. After a siesta in the hammocks under the trees (they had a pool too but I forgot my bikini) we went for our second much longer ride. That was great, we rode along and through fields and had opportunities to trot and canter. As much as I wanted to go careering about all over the place my tummy wasn't up to it so I had to hang back and walk, until I realised that my horse just liked trotting so then decided that going faster than a trot was better for my tummy! When we got back to the ranch we had tea and biscuits and then went out to round up the horses that were in the fields further out as the sun was setting with Don Juan the gaucho (who is one of the loveliest kindest faced men I have ever met). The horses were very well trained so it didn't take much. I was really interested to see that one of the horses had a bell round their neck, when I asked why I was told that it was because SHE (you get that boys) was in charge of the herd. I was surprised as always thought it'd be the stallion but I guess nature knows who's boss! We herded the horses in as it was getting dark (my favourite time of the day) and then washed down our horses. We had dinner that night in our little house which was also amazing; gnocchi pasta, with parmesan in a little dish, wine and all the other drinks we'd had for lunch and tea and a pudding of ice cream. It was so pieceful and relaxing. Until.........

Caryl saw a spider, and Caryl doesn't like spiders. I have to admit it was pretty huge but would have probably ignored it but Caryl couldn't. She wanted me to kill it but I can't do that (and it had started climbing too high up the wall) so I had to go and get help. It was pitch black outside except for some lights that came from the farm building so I steadily made my way over there. I was met by about 10 dogs which scared me stiff (I'm scared of them like Caryl is scared of spiders) but I made it to the farm buildings and found Alex to help us. He came over with the cook, her little boy and a broom and sorted out the spider and checked out the house. Bless him, he was so apologetic as he'd only told Caryl earlier in he day that there were no spiders. Then, when we went to bed I saw another and suggested Caryl left the room. I was quite impressed with myself actually as I caught it in a jar and put it outside (although nearly freaked out as when I opened the door and walked out there was a dog on the doorstep just looking at me, can only assume he was guarding us). Before getting into bed we saw another spider but I was quite impressed with Caryl when she let it just disappear. We eventually got off to sleep until something woke me up and about 3am. I get a bit freaked out in houses if I hear noises at night so I didn't like hearing something that sounded like someone was breaking in. But then we heard the wind and it was so windy and rainy for about an hour until we got off back to sleep, it was quite scary although Caryl said the scariest thing was me lighting up my face with a torch everytime I heard something!

The next morning we had a lovely breakfast (scambled egg with toast and jam) in our house and got on our way (after Caryl had told Alex we'd had no more problems with spiders after the first one, she didn't want to upset him). We went back to the hotel and I had a quiet afternoon trying to recover from the effects of the Malaria tablets. I watched Lost for most of the day (they seemed to have a Lost marathon every day) and then we went back to Desnival's (the steak restaurant) for our last night with Maire and Jorgen). For our last day with Maire and Jorgen we went to San Telmo market which although I'm not a market fan was worth seeing. We then said bye to them and spent the rest of the day at the great internet cafe Caryl found uploading photos (is on Florida street, opposite a Macdonalds), packing up and chilling out.

Our last day in Buenos Aires involved us checking out at 11am and then having to wait until 9pm for our taxi that took us to the airport for our 2am flight to Auckland. We had planned to spend the day in the great internet cafe but it was closed for a 2 week holiday! We tried what must have been every other internet cafe in Downtown Buenos Aires but had to give up as they were so slow. It was a bit boring waiting to go to the airport but eventually we got there, had a nice pizza and glass of red wine and got on our Aerolineas Argentinas flight. It wasn't the best 13 hours I've ever spent on a plane; they wouldn't let us take bottles of water on, even though we'd bought them after security, so I spent most of the time having to get up to have a tiny glass of water that didn't satisfy me, we were sat by the toilets so everytime someone went the flush woke me up and the films were a bit random or didn't even work but we made it to Auckland and it was just so lovely to spend time with the Davis family!

More on that next time as I've bored you enough already.

Take care *Rach Xx

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