Hello all !

It's been a long 3 weeks since we last updated the site... not that nothing interesting happened, on the contrary ! we've been way too busy going out drinking argentinian wine and stuffing our faces with 3 courses meals every day, while doing the occasional museum visits in between !!

After leaving Cordoba, we headed off to Mendoza. I had particularly been looking forward to it from the start of our travels as it was an opportunity for me to meet with a part of my distant family who had emigrated 2 generations ago from Italy to Argentina (while my Italian grand-parents were emigrating to France). But I will spare you the exact family link details with the argentinian side since it's very much the mother of the cousin from the grand-father side of the great aunt type thing !!!

One thing for sure : I wasn't disappointed ! The night of our first encounter, was at the occasion of the grand-father Miguel's birthday (officially 79 years old). They welcomed us with big smiles and open arms. They were equally looking forward to meeting us as in a way it is an opportunity for them to reconnect with their family roots & history back in Europe.

We spent about 3 days with them. During that time, they made everything possible to give us the best time ever ! Starting with the grand-mother Teresa who delighted us with her cooking (traditional empanadas, marinated eggplant and tasty pasta ....mmmmmmm ! Yes mum, of course I got all the recipes !), while Miguel entertained us with stories of his gaucho years. With their daughter Adriana (and her own 2 daughters and niece : Cecilia , Flor and Marissa ) they took great pleasure in showing us Mendoza and its surroundings, and sharing with us their life and culture.

They were undoubtedly the warmest, nicest, loveliest and most enthusiastic people I've ever met.... Without any exageration. A striking example of it : the day after our first encounter, they sold their 2 seaters van to buy a 5 seaters car, in the sole purpose to be able to take us to the mountain at the week-end for a picnic... When I learned that, I simply burst out in tears from the emotion.We were gutted to be leaving them, but it feels great to have had the chance to get to know each other and to now be in contact.

Before leaving Mendoza, we of course did the compulsory wine bodegas tour. Mendoza is the key wine producing region in Argentinian, and there are hundreds of bodegas all around. We couldn't pass on the opportunity of doing a few wine tasting of the famous Malbec wine !! Check the pics :)

After Mendoza, we made our way to Buenos Aires. Parky and Jen, one thing for sure, we missed you there ! Buenos Aires is ace. All the characteristics of a capital : buoyant, never sleeps, too many things to see and do but at the same it manages to maintain an atmosphere fairly relax and very artistic...un 'je ne sais quoi' that makes it very pleasant to live in !! :) it's particulraly true in the neighborood we're staying, San Telmo. It's a bit the bohemian neighboroud : ancient building full of character, people who tango at every street corners or chill at cafe terraces. It's also famous for its big antiques market every week-end.

Our hotel is falling into pieces but it's full of charm. The owner, a tango teacher, find looking after the hotel to be a trivial thing since he must dedicate most of his time to his art ...:)

We won't detail everything we've been up to, as we spent 9 busy days walking all around, but one the highlights definitely was the Tango show we attended in a old cafe. Even Andy fell under the spell of the fast and passionate Tango dance (reckon though it had something to do with the sexy dresses the women wear...).

Another highlight was the footbal match we went to : Boca Juniors (Maradonna's legendary team) vs Racing (a Buenos aires local team). The atmosphere was electric ! Argentinian are renowned for being passionate about futbol and no doubt that it showed !! For 1.5hours the supporters sang non-stop (only stopping themselves the time to insult the opposite team), music was on continuously(there even were cheerleaders to Andy's great delight). Andy let the fever reach to him, and forgetting all about English resentment towards the Argentinian 'mano de Dios' he started shouting as loud as the supporters !

Last but not least, in Buenos Aires we started to shop frenetically... After 3 months of wearing the same few clothes that now start to fall into pieces after repeated 60 degrees washings in the local laundrette, we needed change !! In a stupid attempt at being discreet & cautious travellers, we had packed lots of black and dark blue clothes, which after 3 months started to depress us. So our shopping ended up being a colour fiesta. Bright red and bright yellow, here we come ! :)

This left a big hole in our budget.... Hole that we started digging since we arrived in Argentinian. 3 months into our travels and we forgot all about our cautious beginnings (when we still had the guilty feeling of not working anymore and the acute conscience of not getting a salary anymore). A spending habit that we will have to cut if we do not want to end our travels in 2 months...

This blog update is now turning into a novel, so to keep it short I'll rush through the last place we visited : Iguazu falls. Stunning, impressive, beautiful. Check the pics and go see it for yourselves, you won't regret it ! We first went to Iguazu falls at 9.00pm on a full moon tour. No light in the whole park, just the light of the moon which gave it a very special atmosphere : beautiful and a bit frightening with the rushing sound of the river and falls... Only draw back, we happened to be the only 2 hopeful tourists in short sleeves T-shirts while everybody else had jumpers and water-proof coat. Boy, did we get wet and cold !

Over the following 2 days we visited the park & falls from both the Argentinian side and the Brasilian side. Both are completely different (close to the falls on the Argentinian side and great panorama from the brasilian side) but equally stunning.

We're leaving Buenos Aires tomorrow, heading towards Patagonia and working our way towards the 'end of the world' by the antartic. Needless to say that we're not at all equiped for the minus 5 degrees that await us. None of our colourful T-shirts will do...

We hope you're all doing well back home and talk to you all soon.

Lots of love xxxAndy and Soph