The Big Freeze - El Calafate

So after a short and inconsequential bus trip of 30 hours or so we arrived in El Calafate more than slightly worse for the wear. A cracked windscreen, a missing wingmirror and a partial running over of a hitchhiker later, we arrived. The views though were stunning; Condors, Rheas, Alpacas and the Andes, enough said.

El Calafate is home to the Perito Moreno- a big but beautiful chunk of blue ice. In every way this glacier is incredible. The sheer vastness (apparently the size of Buenos Aires), the blueness of the ice, the spectacle of house sized wodges of ice cracking off. -

 Who would have thought that there would be a lake just by the hotel with tonnes of Flamingos. Now we had always thought that Flamingos belonged in hot places - it turns out not. These ones we have been told happily stand on the frozen over lake in the winter months - loco.

Bariloche: the return of winter!

Obviously I (Matthew) am now the happiest bunny in the world as it is cold and there is wind and there are mountains and lakes and lots of pretty landscapes. Which I will use as an excuse for my poor standard of English. Things this exciting and beautiful are just too interesting to be written about in boring prose! Harriet from this point will now write. The photos though are mine (bar the ones of me)!

Bariloche is simply Geneva but in SA. There are cuddly St Bernards, oodles of chocolate and hotels uniquely named "Edelweiss". The scenery is stunning. Shame about Matt and his burning desire to take a photo from every angle conceivable of the said scenery.

Had a particularly fun time taking Mum up and down three chairlifts (by the way the best way to climb a mountain). Turns out she was mildly afraid - lol! I did my best to reassure her by jumping up and down like a crazy loon.

(Matt again) The next day we had the pleasure of visiting an enchanted forest - the name was a very clever marketing ploy. We saw no signs of enchantedness-ness nor of the promised Bambi. The trees were very cool though but clashed a bit with my hair as they had a kind of orangey hue.

Also had to really slum it in a terrible hotel, didn't have the best view ever or an infinity pool or a sauna - oh wait yeah it did. Was AMAZING!

Iguazu ( Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay-Sorry Sam)

After the poshest coach journey ever, courtesy of Mum, the seats became actual beds, we arrived in Puerto Iguazu a town which seems to only exist due to its proximity to the Falls.  We had two days to explore the Falls, so one day on the Argentinean side, the other on the Brazilian side. Basically the Argentinean side actually "own" the Falls but Brazil has the best  view of all of the Falls (apparently, hard for us to confirm with the somewhat ridonculous amounts of rain).

Visiting the Falls on the Argentine side meant braving the ridiculously hot and humid tropical weather, we were up for the challenge but the three of us definitely sweated like old fat men! The park is full of Coatis which were extremely cute but little devils when it came to stealing food. 

We started the trip by seeing the the Devil's Throat - , Matt had considerable concerns for the cameras safety here due to the amount of water in the air so the photos are taken from a bit of a distance. it was incredible though, the water vapour also created rainbows due to the sun, it was pretty damn cool!

Here are some of the other falls that all make up Iguazu.

Next day was a more than substantial contrast as the weather descended into tropical storms, imagine jumping into a swimming pool, then having a shower and then sitting in a sauna for an hour! - this nicely sums up the climate. The views were incredible but unfortunately it was all a bit misty so it was not as cool as I was imagining after seeing the falls the previous day. In fact it was so wet that the little camera protested and decided to stop working, luckily after some very tender and loving care, dry and warmth it came back to life.

Probably the best bit though was our miraculous timing of arrving at Full Moon, this meant that there were Moon walks around the Devil's Throat on the Argentinean side. It was beyond amazing, slightly spoiled by all the mushy couples getting engaged and rubbish like that. However, it was definitely amazing and although quite expensive I would certainly recommend it!

Spot the Argentine

 How could we visit Buenos Aires and not go to the two most famous areas of the city: Recoleta Cemetery and La Boca.

We visited Recoleta early in a desperate bid to avoid the crowds, but as we arrived and questioned the staff on how to find Evita, the response was to follow the overwhelming number of tourists. In fact, it was difficult to spot the Argentines and not be trampled by the gazillion tourists and tour groups. However, Recoleta maintains a cool spooky feel, especially as you can look into all the tombs and see the coffins- serious question- how do the bodies decompose in marble? Anyway, questions like these and sights of mouldy coffins completely freaked Mum out, once I realised this I was hugely sympathetic and saw ghosts around every corner. Turns out Mum isn't a very keen sightseer of cemeteries but we got some very 'artistic' photos.

La Boca is a complete contrast as its a working class neighbourhood with cobbled streets and boldly and brightly painted wooden houses. Complete tourist ville, nonetheless it maintains a certain charm. In between the offers of posing with 'tango dancers' and 'Maradona' the neighbourhood is beautiful and quirky. Mum felt that this was more like the South America she had imagined but as we explained, Buenos Aries is the most European city that we have yet found or will find in South America.

Dakar Rally

Completely on purpose, we witnessed the end of the Dakar Rally. This time starting and ending in Buenos Aires, Matt became ridiculously obsessed with taking a gazillion photos of the arriving motorbikes, quad bikes, dune buggies and trucks!

We've been tangoed!

Well, we went to a Tango Show in Buenos Aires in an old tango venue. We were wined and dined and then followed dancing and singing galore!

The dancers and singers had some amazing outfits. The gentlemen were very daper and the ladies wore 'hold your breathe, in fear, that the last strap of the dress was also going to break'. The dancing was brilliant and we maintained a steady 'Strictly come dancing' commentary and cynicism the entire way through.

l'addition si vous plait....

The mother has arrived and insists on speaking French to very confused Argentines, waiters are very confused by requests for l'addition and Mum gets confused by the their expressions so all is good.

After a horrifically delayed journey Mum has eventually arrived in Buenos Aires and I have a slight concern that Matt will never again accept hostels or slumming it around. We are staying in a lovely Hotel and feel faintly sick from a huge breakfast.

Yesterday we began to see Buenos Aires and went to see Evita's Casa Rosa in the main Plaza Mayo and then we wandered down to find San Telmo. Very excitingly on the way to San Telmo we found Malfada (an Argentina cartoon which was the learning material at school in Uruguay) I was ecstatic!

San Telmo was a perfect people watching and cafe hopping neighbourhood. Here we saw Tango on the streets and many antique shops which was pretty cool to be honest.

On the road with Sparky

 Despite having spent 5 weeks in Uruguay, when it came to 7th we found ourselves unwilling to leave, so we jumped at the chance to explore the interior. James and Sam (a couple we met in Paraguay) suggested renting a car and exploring the interior of the country. So in a tiny Chevrolet Spark "Sparky" we set about this mission to explore the country in three days.

Sparky

The road to......???

We managed to cover a very respectable distance and went to an Estancia (ranch), saw a gazillion Gauchos (cowboys)- including a beret wearing motorbike driving gaucho, a huge beach resort on a lake and finally the sea. Photos of places are all below.

Harriet in the river at the estancia

Matt, James & Sam

Matt paddling

Mercedes - taking advantage of having someone to take couple photos

Paso Del Torres

The LAKE

 Cool horsies

Gaucho

In order to keep us entertained during the ling car journeys there were many games including 'fist pump' successes when a gaucho returned a wave and Matt's desperate bid to take a photo of a cow road sign while moving- attempt 100 later and we got a semi decent photo. 

 Matt getting serious envy (not in shot!)

Matt desperate bid to photograph the elusive cow sign - the holy grail of signs

Now we are actually on our last day and we are in Colonia, a tiny heritage city in Uruguay and from here we are getting the ferry across to Buenos Aires. Colonia is quite quaint, a bit like Paraty in Brazil is what Matt thinks of it. A few last minute dashes and rushed phone calls to say a final goodbye to all the friends we have made in Uruguay and then we are off to explore Argentina!

Marriet embracing the SA culture of posing like fools

Matt Chilaxing

The street of sighs