Hello everyone..

Again, sorry for our lack of updating you all but we have been super busy (and maybe a little bit lazy).

Iguazu

Our day at Iguazu Falls was really amazing! We started the day off at sparows fart to avoid the serious heat (and we had a bus to catch in the evening). We went on a guided drive in 4x4s through the forests surrounding the falls and landed up at the waters edge where we got onto to a speed boat which took us up the river right to the main waterfalls. We were told we would get a little bit wet whilst doing this so put our valuables away in waterproof bags, little did we know, by a "a little bit wet"did they mean we would actually be going straight into and through the waterfalls, leaving us completeñy drenched (Indias shorts were still drying two days later!) - it was such a serreal but awesome experience! We were both pretty blown away buy how massive and beautiful the falls are.

We then got onto yet another 16 hour bus journey to Buenos Aires through Uruguay.

Buenos Aires

We checked into our hostel, smelly and sweaty and bumped into about 12 people we had previously met in Brazil - some were people we had got on incredibly well with and others maybe not the people you want to bump into as the last time you saw them, there were serious beer goggles involved! The first night we were in BA, the guy who gave us a lift from Paraty to Florianopolis invited us to a house party which he ensured us was going to be good. We were a little bit hesitant about how good this party was going to be but we went along anyway. Good is an understatement! The party was in an amazing penthouse in Palermo (the posh area of BA), there was a lot of free alcohol, a DJ and lots of beautiful people (boys you would have been in heaven!!). We funnily enough landed up going out with the girls from the party and had a great night. Day 2, with severe hangovers and lack of sleep, we caved in and had our first and only Maccy Ds of the trip and then went back to sleep. That night we experienced the famous Argentinian steak and red wine which absolutely lived up to all its expectations.

The following night we met up with the Aussie boys and some English friends at an Irish bar and then we headed to an awesome club where every single backpacker in Buenos Aires seemed to be. Seeing as the clubs dont even open until 2/3am, we were very rarely got home before sunrise. Ash did however make it home in time for breakfast, its becoming a skill of ours.

The next day we decided to do touristy stuff with the Aussie boys and get on one of those hop on hop off buses that every city has! However, for the previous few days including that one it pelted it down with rain, serious thunder and lightening too! We went to see the Boca stadium and all the famous houses surrounding it which are painted in the most wonderful colours! We also watched a cheeky session of Tango which was brilliant!

That evening our hostel had a party which was great fun and then we all went to a club where India lasted 5 minutes before she was sent home, and Ash spent the night dancing away with the locals. She was then woken up by a taxi driver in the early morning to get out of his cab and into the hostel! Then as she headed to bed she found India asleep in her bed as after many attempts to climb the ladder to the top bunk she decided it was easier to sleep in Ashs bottom bunk. Ash then spent the remainder of the night on the bathroom floor hugging the toilet.

On our last day in BA we didnt manage to do much as you can expect from the above, but we did go to the Cemetry at Recoleta and see all the famous graves including Evitas. We then caught our bus to Mendoza which was a blessing with 18 hours to sleep!

On a whole the easist way to sum up Buenos Aires is simply - morally and financially dangerous!!!

Mendoza

After a crazy few days in BA, we were both looking forward to a little bit of chill time - Not really sure why we thought this would be possible, as Mendoza is one of the most well known areas in Argentina for its wine! We stayed in a small but lovely hostel with a really good mix of people. We had been told that while in Mendoza we had to do a wine tasting tour of the surrounding vineyards....on bicycles! So, on the the Friday, we planned to meet up with Will and Dolmio (2 English guys that we had met in Brazil and then bumped into in BA) at midday at Mr Hugo´s bike rental - some may say Mr Hugo is a living legend (among the backpackers in Argentina anyway). Due to the lack of phones between the 4 of us, we didnt know if the boys had received our facebook message so we thought we,d wait a few minutes incase they were running late...3 free glasses of red wine later, the boys arrived and we hopped onto our bikes with our maps and followed the appointed leader of the day that was India - not such a good idea as within the first 10 minutes we were lost! We visited lots of wineries, a beer garden, a liquer and jam place so I am sure you can imagine the state we were in at about 5pm when we decided it was probably a good idea to have some lunch (and more wine). We headed back to the hostel around 8pm and we were peer pressured into drinking more and then going out. The two of us met 4 local guys in a cocktail bar, 1 of which spoke English, needless to say Ash´s spanish consists of about 3 words (hello, please, thank you) and Inds a bit more knowledagble, so the communication was a little bit limited. However, as the cocktails flowed, Ash´s Spanglish got better and Inds was fluent by the end of the night. The boys were lovely and bought us drinks all night and took us to a club in town.

Vina

After a 9 hour bus ride through the Andes and an interesting situation with Ash´s passport and the Chile border, we arrived in Vina Del Mar and headed to our hostel "Kalagen Hostel" with some English friends we had made on the bus. This was the first hostel we have been to with a homey feel and we highly recommend it to everyone! Owned by the fabulous Christian and with DUVETS- we had a great stay!

Our first evening we just chilled and went out for dinner- both had the most amazing burgers with cheese, ham, bacon, avocado, tomatoes etc- Indias went all down her jeans rather than into her stomach! The next day we caught the local buses which are tiny, hot and sweaty to a place called Renaca. This is were all the Chilean locals go for summer holidays! We had lunch and then went to the beach to finish our books and top our rapidly fading tan! The beach was empty and the waves rough so it was fairly non eventful! That eveing Ash had a feast and beer boogey with Christian and his friends to see in her birthday- Chilean style!

On Tuesday it was Ash's birthday so we went with Christian and his friends north for about an hour to a chilled fishing village, had a very boozey lunch with lots of Pisco Sours and far too much food! We then went down to the beach and went for a swim- possibly the coldest water we have ever tried. The Pacific is NOT a warm ocean!

That evening we had a birthday party for Ash at the hostel and headed to a club in Valpariso- neither of us remember much more of that night except getting the best hotdogs ever on the way home! The following day with our duvets we spent most the day on the sofas watching movies with everyone, felt like we were back at uni! That evening with our fellow English friends we made an absolute feast of a dinner with all sorts of salads etc! Our dear friend Nacho who works at the hostel is a ninja on the BBQ so we bought 3kg of fillet for him to cook, it was frieking incredible!

The next day we packed up and headed to Santiago!

Santiago

After Vina, we got on a bus and headed to Santiago. The 2 hour trip was super quick considering our previous bus trip were no less than 18 hours, and we spent the whole journey asleep! On arrival we went to meet family friends of India who we are staying with until we leave for Oz. They live in a beautiful house just outside the city (apparently Santiago isnt much of a residential city, just business`s!). Early Friday monring we drove three hours out to their farm just south of the city. A beauiful pace in the middle of nowehere which was surrounded by the Andes and Pine Forrests! The farm is full of Alpacas, Cows, Horses, Pigs, Sheep and Deer! Alapacas are our new favourite animal, they are hilarious! On Saturday after lunch we went for a ride- Ash braved it with her hayfever and was on Ivan, India was riding Rasputin! We rode for 4.5 hours through the farm and forests then up into the hills! They horses were very lazy and stopped at every opportunity to eat blackberrys etc! We saw our first Volcano too! Once we got of the horses and for the next 24 hours we were as stiff as anything, and found it very difficult to sit down anywhere! We left the farm early Sunday morning and returned to Santiago for lunch with some friends of our hosts- tasted our first Empanadas, YUMMY! Sunday evening we experienced our first earthquake, a 7. something but only lasted 10secs, SO weird but a little exciting! Although we have been drinking fabulous wine every evening here, we definatly needed a few days of detox, good nigths sleep and home made filling food!! Off to Oz on tomorrow, dreading the 24 hour trip! Also only realised about midday today that our flight is actually tomorrow not on Wednesday which we thought it was! Couldve been very interesting- note taken to be more organised!