Buenos Aires

So, from Cordoba, our next destination was the big city - BA. Surely the most charming of all South American capital cities. We were lucky to find ourselves a lovely hostel, called the Garden House, a little outside the main city centre, which acted as a home-from-home in the big city, and was the first place we'd stayed for a good while where we could comfortably cook for ourselves (and hence have what felt like a 'normal' meal - simple things, but I've missed that so much!)

We had planned to be in BA over the weekend to catch the Rugby World Cup semi's, in order to cheer for England and Argentina, the respective underdogs in each match. That weekend, Argentina also happened to be playing Chile in a World Cup qualifier in BA, which we decided was a match not to be missed, despite the 2 hr queue for tickets! We were joined in BA by our partners-in-crime Anna and Sam from NZ, happily settled in the pub to watch England vs. France until we had to drag ourselves away at half time to head for the River Plate stadium. Torn loyalties!The poor Chileans were somewhat outplayed by thier Argentinian hosts, (who won 2-0) as, surprisingly were France by a a gutsy if not flambouyant England. What better cause for celebration and another good steak than seeing England reach the final of the RWC for the second time in a row.

The Recoletta Cemetry (a bit of it!)

After watching the Pumas put up a respectable fight against the dominant Springboks, the sport fest was over for another week, freeing us up to enjoy some of the more cultural aspects of the city, architecture, cemeteries (they're big here!) street markets, live music, tango... and shopping! Think of all those steaks consumed in this country every day - well the hides have to go somewhere. One thing you can safely say about the Argentinian meat industry is that there-s no waste! As well as all internal organs being fair game on the grill (a little extra caution required when ordering!) you can get a lot of good handbags (shoes, jackets...) out of a cow! Probably a good thing our rucksacks were already full to bursting, as the shops of the Palermo district are enough to bring out the big spender in anyone.

The Pink House - like the White House but pink!

One day from BA we took a trip over to Uruguay (yes, we'll do pretty much anything for a few extra passport stamps these days!). The city of Colonia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site is easily accessible in a day trip by catamaran. It was quite a chilled place to wander round after hectic BA, but unfortunately home to a particularly ravenous breed of mosquito, which we were quite happy to get away from!

Interlude

Feels like we've been slacking a bit on the blog entries recently... too many other exciting things to be doing! I've come to the conclusion that part of the delay in writing up our adventures comes from the fact that so many of the internet cafes we use to keep in touch are such singularly uninspirational places to pen amusing and witty travel anecdotes. We meet a surprising number of people on the road carrying laptops, which I've always thought a crazy idea, (too much like being back in the office!) but the one advantage they do give you, I've recently realised, is the freedom to be able to tap away in far more congenial surroundings than the local internet dive!

So in the interests of keeping the blog alive, here I am, back to good old pen and paper, sat in a deck chair looking at this wonderful view, in a little village in Welsh Patagonia (I'll get back to that!) ready to fill you in on some of our recent exploits in Argentina, starting with Buenos Aires... Thanks for waiting!