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Published: August 4th 2008
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Well, I'm so sorry guys that it took us so long with this blog entry but we have been busy bees and we have been a little lazy too. We have received a few complaints, so here you go!
Back in civilisation...what a relief 😊 You really feel like you're in the western world. Everything looks different than the rest of South America (well, what we've seen so far) and the best, you can walk around the streets at any time of the day and you're safe (most of the time anyway). One more thing that we were happy about was the food! After Bolivian treats, it was great to have fantastic food again and my god, was it amazing! Steaks the size of wagon wheels and cheap as chips and amazing pastry and cakes wherever you look. You wonder how those Argentines keep so slim. I'd be bloody 25 stone if I'd live there 😉
Our first stop in Argentina was Salta, just a few hours away from the Bolivian border. It was truly a beautiful place with an amazing Plaza and we managed to get into a lovely new hostel for only 20 Peso a night. We arrived
pretty late so we went straight out to get some food and we had the most amazing steak! We were eating quite late but the restaurant was packed! Something we found out later is, that Argentinians generally eat out very late. Don't even try to get into a restaurant before 7pm, no bloody chance! If you turn up at 8, they might be open but it will only start filling up at around 10!
Well, after a couple of days rest and filling our bellies we were heading towards Iguazu and what better place to stop to break up the journey than Resistencia. According to the guide book the city is lined with beautiful sculptures and it sounded great. Let me tell you, it's not as fantastic as it sounded. There are a lot of sculptures but that was it. Apart from that, there is not that much to see so after 2 nights we were off to Puerto Iguazu to see the famed waterfalls.
We were ready to go with our tickets in our hands and then were told that the busses were not leaving Resistencia because the bridge to the next city, Corrientes, was closed due to a
police strike. The bus office wa telling us that if we could make it to that city in time, we could hop on the bus there. We had one hour to do so, with the prospect of walking over the bridge as no traaffic was allowed over it. Now that's a challenge. So, the taxi brought us as far as he could and then we were walking up to the bridge. A few lads with scooters were standing around, so we asked them if the could bring us to Corrientes. They said they could bring us as far as the road blocks but then we have to walk to the end of the bridge and would have to take another taxi. Ah well, on we hopped each of us on one scooter with our big backpacks and a daypack! My friends, what can I say...what a ride! We were so lucky because they waved us through and the guys brought us all the way to the bus station. I couldn't believe we made it in one piece and they only charged us the equivalent of 4 Euros for that trip. Most importantly of all, we made it just in time
for our bus...amazing!
After the horrors of Agua Calientes being the most horrible city near a major tourist attraction we didn't expect a lot of Puerto Iguazu but it is such a nice little tranquil place, it's unbelievable. There are a lot of restaurants and some of them serving some good food too but obviously the main reason to go there are the waterfalls and they are truly amazing. We spent a few hours wandering around and visiting all the different falls around the national park. We have also spent (or should I say, thrown away) some money for a boat trip which main purpose was to get everyone on the boat completely drenched. All in all, it was a great experience and the falls are truly magnificent!
Next stop, Buenos Aires and finally we managed to book a ticket on a first class bus. US$ 60 each for a ticket but well worth it. We got good food, wine or beer and a glass of champagne and the seats recline horizontally for a good nights sleep. I never want to be on a regular bus again! Enough about the bus and on to Buenos Aires. God, I loved that
city. Beautiful houses, treelined streets, amazing plazas and beautiful people! We stayed in Palermo Viejo, a little bit away from the city centre and a good walk from Plaza Serrano, which was unfortunate as it was my favourite place in Buenos Aires. We only stayed for 3 days, so we met up with Veronica and Isabel, the girls we have met in Panama. They brought us out for some nice steak and wine and afterwards a party. We had a really good night and just chilled out the next day. Ed really wanted to see a Boca Juniors game and luckily our hotel organised trips to the matches. So, off we went with another guy that was staying in the hotel and it was good fun indeed. The atmosphere was great and Boca won...yay! What else do you need? Shopping for me, if you ask me, haha!
What comes close to shoopping for a girl? Horses and I managed to get Ed to go to Urugay with me to stay on a Ranch and you can read up on that in the next blog 😊
After almost a week in Urugay we came back to Buenos Aires for some serious
shopping and the our last stop in Argentina...Mendoza. Mendoza was a bit of a dissapointment as a city because I thought it was supposed to be a beautiful city according to the Lonely Planet but it wasn't really. It was lashing down rain and if it wasn't raining it was just freezing cold! Well, we liked Mendoza anyway. The people were super friendly and there were lots of great restaurants annd bars around. It might not be visually appealing but it has so many good sides otherwise. Also, it is famous for its wines and we went on a bus tour as it was too cold for cycling. The wineries we visited were not that brilliant unfortunately but we still had a good time.
Unfortunately we coulddn't take the bus from Mendoza to Santiago de Chile as the pass through the Andes was closed. Not our lucky day because we had to fork out around 200 Euro each for a flight to Santiago 😞 I was quite disappointed because the drive through the Andes is supposed to be beautiful. Ah well, maybe another time 😊 We decided to spend a few more days in Mendoza and only fly to Santiago
Resistencia
has a lot of sculptures scattered all over the city and it would be too boring to put them all into the blog. So, just one nice example :) the day we have to catch our flight to New Zealand. So it's adios America Sur after 3 1/2 months and back into english speaking lands!
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