We arrived in Buenos Aires on 2nd February, and checked into our hostel called "The Clan". It´s a huge hostel situated in the heart of Centro from where the whole city is accessible by the metro. As we sat eating breakfast, our friends, the swedes Christoffer and Mikael surfaced (who we had previously spent time with in Buzios and Party). We were fairly jaded from the 18 hour bus journey so spent the first day uploading pictures to the blog and sitting reading on the roof terrace.

Buenos Aires is a huge city that has several districts so we decided fairly early on that we would stay here for a week to see as much as possible. Also the fact that the Swedes were here and the Canadian girls Tamille and Caitlin were on there way, meant "The Family" could spend some time together.

On our first night we went to a local outdoor live music venue where every Monday a huge group of drummers called La Bomba De Tiempo perform. It was absolutely incredible, about 30 guys banging drums with their bare hands, making the whole crowd go wild. Im no dancer, but it was impossible not to move with this beat. After that had finished we went to a couple of bars and headed home.

The second day we headed to Avenida Florida which is basically a street about 3 miles long which is pure shopping. Everything you wanted you could find on this road, be it in a shop or from the thousands of stalls and street vendors. It was fun to walk this road but being on a budget made it difficult to get too excited, although we did go into a department store and spray ourselves with perfume/aftershave as neither of us has any with us - that was a real treat!

The next day we were going to go to some museums as they are free on a wednesday morning, so we got up early, got on the metro and headed for the first museum. Problem was, we never got there. Unbeknownst to us, Buenos Aires Zoo was between the metro stop and the museum, and everyone knows zoo´s are more fun than museums!! (especially at 3 pounds each and in 35 degree heat). We had a great few hours in the zoo seeing things like; pumas, panthers, jaguars, white tigers, white lions, leopards, hyenas, hippos, and the best of the lot, a real live polar bear!!!

The next day it was pouring with rain so we had a lazy morning hanging around the hostel then went to the pictures to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. 3 hours later we exited the cinema to bright blue skies so decided we would go out to dinner. Every single person we met in Brazil or Argentina who had been to Buenos Aires (around 50!!) all named one single restaurant we had to visit for "the best steak in Argentina"...La Cabrera. So 6 of us headed to La Cabrera at around 10pm (the argentinians don´t eat until really late and don´t go to pubs or clubs until 2 or 3 in the morning!!) The place was packed and we had to queue for well over an hour but this was made sweeter by the free champagne and fresh chorizo on offer while we waited. Ali and I shared a rump steak which came with around 15 side dishes of salsas, beans, mashed potatoes, sauces, capers etc. I´m literally salivating as I write this, it was bar far and away the biggest and best steak I have ever seen let alone eaten (also the latest - we paid the bill at 2am!). it was over 2 inches thick and tasted out of this world, there are literally no ways to describe it. If you are ever in Buenos Aires, please go there, and please bring me back a doggy bag!!

On Friday we went to La Boca which is a small area where Boca Juniors FC have their stadium and a small street named Caminito is a huge tourist draw. All the houses are multi coloured, originally from when the left over paint from the ships would be used on the houses. there are live tango shows in the street but its way too touristy for my liking, people grabbing you trying to get you to eat in their place, this was the worst place in BA for me. Compounded by the fact we went to eat in a cheap restaurant and the owner tried to rip us off so I told him I would only pay what was originally asked and he went mental, picked up a huge butchers knife (from the barbecue) and started waving it at me screaming "you´re in argentina now"!!! needless to say i payed the difference and we left promptly. what is it with me and knives?? I seem to attract them like the magnetic strips you get in kitchens!!! haha.

Friday afternoon was our Australian friend Alexs last day so we went to the park, had a few drinks in the sun and played keep ups with some awful penances for the loser. we headed back to the hostel for more drinks and a hawaiin themed party.

Over the weekend we went to Recoleta cemetary which was absolutely amazing, some of the crypts were worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, built from solid marble with carvings and statues. Over 82,000 people are currently in this cemetary, the most famous of which is Eva Peron, whose family crypt´s location is given away by the amount of tourists around it. We went to the local market in Recoleta and also and antiques market which stretched for about 3 miles in San Telmo.

From BA we took an overnight bus to Mendoza, a prominent feature in Argentinas wine scene, we only stayed for two days (and a few glasses of red) as we are heading to Santiago, Chile.

Pictures to follow

Love

Ali and Phil xx