Hello Folks!

Sorry for the lack of contact! We have been staying a hundred miles in the middle of nowhere! So here is up what we have been up to in the country!....

MONDAY 15TH JUNE
We said a sad goodbye to our lovely hostel in Corrientes, and jumped on a local bus to the bus station. As usual, this was rammed, and our personal space was diminished further by our massive rucksacks! May as well have just sat on someones knee! Anyway, we managed to find a bus service to Mercedes that was leaving soon, giving us just enough time to grab some lunch before setting off on our three hour journey!

As we were waiting to board the bus, the conductor guy came up and spoke to us in Spanish, asking if we drank matte (tea). In Argentina, everyone walks round with these little ceramic cups, which they fill with a type of green tea leaves, then top it up with a flask of hot water, then drink through a metal straw thing! We thought it was some sort of bong at first! As we are willing to try anything, we agreed to sample the conductors tea!

We got on the bus, and shortly after the bus pulled away from the station, we were summoned to sit up front with the conductor (Walter) and the driver (Jorge). Have to say we felt quite special, sitting up front in the “cockpit” while everyone else slummed it upstairs! The tea was good, strange and very bitter! So Walter added some sugar to the water for us! Niether spoke much English, and when they asked us what we did, B tried to explain the concept of the word “Lawyer”, but they had no clue! So to exemplify, Beth used the TV programme, Ally McBeal, which they hadn’t heard of, and then Jim Carrey in “Liar Liar”. This then lead them to believe that Beth was some sort of English television star who had been in a film with Jim Carrey! They got very excited and even started asking for autographs! After a text with some internet translations from Beths dad, and a rather detailed picture of a courtroom, We think they finally understood! We spent most of the time bluetoothing videos and pictures! There was an odd moment when we had to get our chargers out of our rucksacks, even though no one actually needed to charge their phone! They also gave us a red ribbon bracelet each, which are very common in the area, and are a symbol of thanks to the local hero, Gauchito Gil, a sort of Robin Hood saint figure!

We arrived at Mercedes, and waited outside the Hostelling International office, where we were eventually greeted by Graziella, a lovely Argentinean woman who spoke very good English, smoked a lot, and wore a very old trouser suit with cigarette burns! She went through our transport and accommodation options for Carlos Pellegrini, the small town out in the middle of the marsh lands, and told us she would be back at our hostel at 7pm. Just as we were about to leave, a French guy came in and started speaking to Graziella in Spanish. He then decided to invite himself and his friend to sleep on the floor of our hostel! Niether us nor Graziella thought this was a good idea, so instead they were persuaded to pitch their tent at the back of the hostel, and we all set off walking to the hostel together.

All the Hostelling International hostels have been really nice, but this one was a little disappointing! Not that well renovated, and the wooden floor actually had holes in it in certain places! Plus we were originally shown to a dorm that had other people in it! (Not what we are used to!) The two were English, but both suffering from some sort of water poisoning, so we dumped our bags and headed straight out!

Found the Worlds lousiest internet café (where we are now!) tried to skype the menfolk back home – with no success and T ended up with chewing gum all over her leggings from the desk! Nice!

Headed back to the hostel, where Graziella had managed to get a good deal on the better of the two options for our accommodation for Carlos Pellegrini, which we opted for! It was then revealed that this was fully booked, so had to settle for the second option – cheaper but less swanky! We were then told that we had been moved rooms (into our own dorm!!) as the hostel did not want us getting ill!

The French guys, Samuel and Sebastian, then invited us to sit and have a beer with them, and some crackers! They told us about how they had been staying with an Argentinean family for a few days, they literally just went up to them and said “Hello we are French. We want to practice speaking Spanish. Can we stay with you?” – Crazy! We were then joined by the poorly English couple, and another Argentinean couple and we all sat swapping travelling stories and getting tips for Pellegrini!

Like us, the French guys had not eaten, so we went to a restaurant - one of two in the town -for dinner! Had some nice wine (again from Mendoza) and a lovely meal. After we had all finished eating, we were all very sleepy, so went back to the hostel to get some sleep! (Not made easy by the chirping crickets!)

TUESDAY 16TH JUNE
Breakfast was not so good. Little slices of toasted mini French bread and jam and lukewarm coffee! Walked up the road to post some postcards. As we were travelling that day, and with Beths travel sickness, went to find something substantial to eat before our bus, but couldn’t find anything so had to settle with crackers and cake! We went back to the hostel to wait for our bus to Pellegrini.

The “bus” was a very dirty, battered minibus, with a desert of dust inside and a fully cracked windscreen. The old little driver (who we nicknamed Reg – our fav minibus driver at home!) clambered on top of the bus with our rucksacks to strap them to the roof! We rammed in with the French guys, the Argentinean couple and numerous locals who, as always, seemed to be travelling with a collection of junk, from bags of bread to a bike tyre.
The bus took just over three hours, along a straight dirt track about 85 miles in the middle of nowhere! We drove through Esteros del Ibera, a big nature reserve, saw lots of birds, Capybaras (the strange guinea pig things we saw in Cordoba in Brazil) and even a couple of crocodiles!

Finally arrived at Pellegrini. The town is eight blocks by eight blocks, each block having only one building, usually a farm, ranch or maybe a lodging house. The roads were all dirt tracks and there was kids, dogs and even the occasional horse or donkey wandering around! We dropped the French and Argentineans at the campsite, before being dropped off out our “hotel”. Although it was the cheaper option, it was still perfectly pleasant.

We did not have long to take all this in however, as no sooner had we had dropped off our bags, but our horses arrived for our two hour horse trek. Now, no offence to our lovely men back home, but our guide Bruno, was very dreamy! The pictures, ladies, do not do him justice! And not many men can pull off a beret!

Between us we have very little riding experience, so with much awkwardness and a good shove from Bruno, we saddled up! Beth was riding a brown horse called Pedro and Tiff a cute little white thing called Palermo who was so slow that T had to give him a little whip every now and again.

We soon got the hang of it, and started to enjoy ourselves, the area was so tranquil, and the views (and no, not just Bruno!) were amazing! However, after a while it became slightly uncomfortable, before becoming rather painful! Bruised bums and strained groins! Rode back to our hostel just as the sun was setting.

As we hadn’t eaten much all day we were absolutely starving at this point, so we dragged our saddle beaten bodies off to find something to eat. It was very quiet and very dark, and nothing looked open! As advised by Graziella, we knocked on the door of what appeared to be a restaurant and was ushered inside. It was sort of like eating in somebody’s house, no menu and when we asked for wine, the lady sent her son to the shop to buy a bottle! We had steak (naturally) with salad, bread and Spanish omelette, washed down with a bottle of red wine! Was really good!

After this we bought another bottle wine and sat down to drink it outside our room and play a few games of cards. As we were sat outside, two lads from Pellegrini came over to say hello, Leonardo spoke no English, and despite studying it, Jorge couldn’t either really, still it gave us chance to improve our Spanish and still managed to communcicate quite well and arranged to meet up the next night and show us where is good to go!

WEDNESDAY 17TH JUNE
We woke up, aching from the ride and the two bottles of red wine. Again very small breakfast, and again as we were sat outside, a jeep pulled up and a lad who looked about 17 got out and asked if we were ready to take our boat trip! (we had arranged all this with Graziella beforehand!). He took us to the campsite (in his 4x4 again with broken windshield!) where we got into a little motorboat, to take us out on the massive lake. At first it felt like a regular boat trip, until he cut the engine and let us drift to edge, about 2ft away from two rather large crocodiles! Was amazing, but a little scary! They were very still, almost to the point where they could be statues and once we realized that they weren’t likely to eat us, we felt a bit more confident to get close and take some pictures!

We drifted round the edge of the lake, seeing lots of crocodiles including some really rather sweet baby ones! And a massive family of them, just chilling on this little island thing! We also saw lots of Capybaras. These are the largest rodent on earth and are really very sweet, especially when they swim in the lake! Saw lots of birds and butterflies too! Was really good fun and was great to see animals we had never seen before, and in their natural habitat!

Our boat guide dropped us back at our lodging, but not before stopping to look at a donkey, which was having a great time rolling around in the dirt in the middle of the road. He came over to say hello, actually trying to stick his head in the car window as Beth was taking a photo!

Wandered round the “town” and managed to find a little place to have some lunch, empanadas, salad and potatoes before heading back to the hostel for our third and final activity. On the way we bumped into the French guys, who asked if they could use our shower as theirs had live wires hanging from it, and said they would join us later.

As we sat outside, our third guide, David (who looked about 15) turned up to take us on our hike. We walked back to the entrance of the town and over the slightly rickety bridge. We were quite tired at this point and it was very hot, so were quite glad when we were led to an air-conditioned room in the visitor centre to watch a film on the area and the local ecosystem. Was actually quite interesting! After this David took us into the woods, to spot a black howler monkey, but unfortunately the blighters were hiding, so no monkeys! We also walked through the marshlands, where we spotted some baby marsh deer. Was quite lovely walking around, and although he spoke no English, David clearly was quite a wildlife expert! He walked us back to the hotel where we said goodbye.

The next few hours were spent showering and relaxing, and chatting to the French who turned up to take their showers. We were also joined by Julianne, who was from Germany and who spoke German, English, French, Spanish and even a bit of Italian! The crazy donkey turned up, and to show his appreciation for chasing away a barking dog that would not leave him alone, came over to join us on the patio. B tried to feed him an orange but he seemed more interested in the beer! Shortly after seven Leonardo and Jorge turned up, and although looked a little surprised it wasn’t just us, seemed more than happy for the others to join us. We decided that we would cook at Jorges house, so he set off home while the rest of us went to buy meat!

Jorges house was a lovely little hotel by the campsite, and we sat outside by the barbecue where Jorge and Fernando started a little fire and prepped the meat. Following another trip to the shop, Samuel returned with a variety of wine and we all sat about drinking and talking in the four different languages, mainly complaining about the unbelievable number of mosquitos! Despite wearing four different types of bug repellant, we were all still eaten alive, especially on the legs, but generally everywhere! Including on Tiffs eye!

We were absolutely starving (and a little tipsy) by the time dinner was ready, but it was definitely worth it! The chorizo was very tasty and T described the steak as the best she had ever had! Lots of bread and salad to go with it! After dinner we were joined by a couple of dogs, including Jorges dog, who for some reason was named God! We also learned that the Donkeys name was Dokky! They really are massive animal lovers here!

B ran out of ciggerettes so Leonardo walked her to the shop, but most were closed or had ran out, still was an ideal way to practice her non-existence Spanish, even if all her prepositions were in German! And when all else fails you just talk about football, Manchester and Carlos Tevez!

Meanwhile, back at the barbecue everyone continued drinking including something called Venat Blanco, some very strong liquor with coke. Samuel quite clearly had too much of this and began making up his own little Spanish song, accompanied by a dance! By the time B and Leonardo returned, everyone was in very good spirits! Samuel continued to dance (and drink) and the rest of us just laughed!

We then realized that it was one in the morning, and we had to be up at three for the only bus out of town! So we all headed back. (Samuel still singing. And dancing. And drinking) As it was the day before Argentina’s second World Cup game, Leonardo and Jorge were obviously feeling very patriotic as they pinched the flag from the visitor centre for us all to pose with! Being very sweet and polite, they did climb up to put it back!

Samuel (still singing) decided that it would be a good idea to carry T. This is despite the fact that T clearly did not want to be carried. And in fact told him as much, this lead to her sort of being dragged along by Samuel, nearly spraining her ankle and breaking her Haviania in the process! Not so amusing! We arrived back at where we were staying and said goodnight to Julieann. After telling Samuel to shut up we finally got him calm enough to say goodbye and exchange Facebook details with everyone. We finally got in bed just before 2am!

THURSDAY 18TH JUNE (TODAY)
So an hour after putting our heads down, the alarm went off, we then fell back to sleep, giving us 20mins to pack and get dressed.

Luckily the bus was a little late, so we didn’t miss it. Now, I wish we had taken a picture of this bus. It was the bus of death. The seats were broken, so some people were nearly horizontal, there was a rattling metal pole which was ready to decapitate the person sat underneath it, it stank, and the windows were so dirty you couldn’t see out of them (Oh and cracked windshield of course!). What was worse it was rammed full of people and their stuff so we couldn’t even sit together! Very scary and not much fun!

We arrived back in Mercedes just before kick off of the Argentina game. We dumped our stuff at the hostel and went to buy some bread for breakfast. We now have to kill time until 4pm when we get on our next night bus for 12 hours! Yey!
Sure we will survive to write again!

Lots of love

B&T