After the nightmare of Hostel Sweet Hostel in Puerto Iguasu, arriving here in Corrientes seemed like we walked right out of hell and into heaven!
Taxi driver dropped us off outside, it didn’t really look much like a hostel from outside, an old building with grand doors. After the trouble Tiff had booking the room in Spanish we weren’t sure if there would be a reservation, but all was well and the receptionist who spoke good English was there to greet us, she showed us round, the rooms have high ceilings and dark oak floors, cutely decorated, it is just amazing (pictures don’t do it justice), it also has a cute little courtyard and balcony area! Our room smelt like Vanilla (Not damp) and it was just the two of us in a 6 bed dorm! Bliss!!!

We dumped our stuff and decided to head out for some dinner as not eaten all day, she gave us a simple map and highlighted a few good places, we have realised its just the small things at hostels that make a difference…..we were much happier and were grinning from ear to ear!

Found a small café and had massive burgers for dinner (yes piling on the pounds) it was lovely, and they were playing P.S I love you on the TV which made both of us sad and dreamy eyed about Gerard Butler! Anyway got back to the hostel, where we attempted to upload the photos and do the blog, as this computer is ancient we lost patience with it so gave up and went to bed. (Nice big comfy non smelly beds)

Saturday 12th June

First full day in Corrientes, got up early had breakfast which to our dismay didn’t involve cake, but hey ho! Took some washing to the laundrette to wash any last trace of damp off us! Then headed to a bar to watch the first Argentina match, found a bar called Bar Fanatico, which is where all the fans (would you believe) go. Tables had been reserved so we sat down ready to watch the lead up to the game, it wasn´t too busy at first but a few more people came in, the atmosphere was much less barbaric than at home but we put our English stamp on it by ordering two large bottles of Beer (Quilmes) at half ten lol! The match was good and locals starting chanting and blowing horns etc so the atmosphere got better, Argentina won so everyone was happy including us who have decided to support both Argentina and England.

We left in search of a different bar and some lunch, but for some odd reason on a Saturday everything closes then reopens (maybe for the football?), so everything was shut when we were wandering around, so we just went back to Fanatico´s where we tried Mileanesa a local dish which is Steak in batter, very odd, but nice enough. The bar emptied out but we wanted to stay to watch England at half 3, so ordered more beers and waited. It was only halfway through the game we realised the staff were going home and the bar man bless him was keeping the bar open so we could watch the game. We were slightly embarrassed by Englands performance and glad that no one else was really around to laugh at us! Lol! Hopefully they will do better next time! We left the bar slightly tipsy but more tired than anything else, so decided to go back to the hostel and chill.

We went out about nine and walked along the river front, until we came to an Italian restaurant, which actually had a tree growing inside of it! Very impressive! Lol! Had a nice pasta meal and attempted to order some wine that wasn’t too dry but ended up having to explain this to four different people before getting a bottle of very sweet wine, only plus side is that is was from Mendoza (which we will be visiting later!). Slightly tipsy we were messing around, when Beth decided she was going to try to put rude English words into the conversation when talking to Argentinean people, so she tried it out on the waitress by asking, “Excuse me can we have the gooch?” and doing the action of the bill, of course we found this highly amusing when she said yes, she didn’t understand obviously as she bought over the bill and didn’t get out her gooch, Thank God!

Walking home we decided to go in the Casino to have a gamble of the 5 cent machines, after walking into this parallel universe and not having a clue what to do, we gave up on the slot machines and went to the roulette tables to observe and get some practice in for Vegas. We were none the wiser as the croupier spoke in Spanish, but decided to spend $10 (1 pound 80) and have a bet, we did not win anything, hopefully better luck next time! Also T got shouted at for taking a photo! Oops!

Walked around for a bit in search of any booming bar for a cocktail, walked for ages and there were a few people milling around the streets so Corrientes itself isn’t dead, but when we got to a bar suggested by the lady at the hotel, there were about 5 people in it, it was dark and playing chill out music, so not very happening at all. We ordered a cocktail and thought we´d wait a while to see if anyone came in (as people have said Argentinians go out later),by this point its 1am and no one was around, also Beth felt like she was going to faint for some odd reason so we decided to head back to our humble abode.

Sunday 13th June

Decided to stay and extra night as the hostel is lovely and weren’t ready for another major bus journey, so woke up late and had a very lazy morning and just could not be bothered to move, good job really as everywhere is usually quiet on a Sunday anyway. When we eventually motivated ourselves to get ready, Tiff realised she couldn’t find her Ipod, after searching everywhere she still couldn’t find it, a very sad moment indeed as she has had it since she was 19! She dealt with it ok as not much could be done really, just really gutted and puzzled as to where she could have lost it.

Anyway went out for some lunch and had to have our cake fix as we were getting withdrawal symptoms. Went to a street market which was undercover and like Aladdin`s cave, pretty much selling lots of tat so we didn’t buy anything. As we thought, everywhere was shut around the town so we went to the Supermarket for stuff for dinner and decided to go back to the hostel and work out our next travel move.

After fighting with this ancient computer, we decided our next stop is Mercedes a short bus away where we will try to arrange getting to Colonial Carlos Pelligrini where we are planning on staying on a ranch and riding horses like cowgirls! YEEEEEhaaaaa! That’s if we are not eaten alive by Crocodiles!

Tonight’s plans are pretty low key, cooking dinner, washing our hair and enjoying a good old game of Chess! Haha! We are still in good need of a party but hopefully we will save all our energies for the wine tours and Buenos Aires!

Hope all is good at home! And miss everyone like mad! We have passed halfway now so I`m sure it will fly by, just trying to make the most out of everything!

Miss you and Love you all

T&B