Argentina and Uruguay.
After a 6 hour delay with the flight due to this damned ash cloud, we touched down in the early hours of the morning in Buenos Aires. We had a day of exploring the area near our hostel before heading to Cordoba, Argtentina´s 2nd largest city as we had been lucky enough to get tickets to go and see Argentina vs Costa Rica in the Estadio Mario Kempes. 11 hour bus journey which involved sleeping for 9 of the hours (I stayed awake on the way back and noticed that I didnt miss much on the way there) and then a day to see Cordoba before the game on the Monday night. Cordoba is nice, the centre is small and there is plenty to see and even more to do in the surrounding countryside. Its worth a visit especially if you got tickets to see Argentina play in there home country. We were lucky to meet Ezequiel from Buenos Aires who was also going to the game as he was able to help us get there and also taught us a couple of songs that we could join in on. He had also taken us to a Parilla house (its BBQ´d meat) for lunch and we had a fantastic meal followed by Argentinian ice cream. The game was amazing, they won 3-0 but it was incredible seeing Messi, Kun Aguero and Higuain all play on the same pitch. Also the atmosphere was great, I thought it would have been better, singing the whole game but apparently you need to go to a club match for that. Our week in Buenos Aires was fantastic though. Its such a beautiful city with some of the most incredible architecture and monuments I have ever seen. Everything is certainly done on a grand, grand scale. There is loads to see and the city never stops, you can still go out for dinner at 2am and nobody goes clubbing till well into the early hours of the morning. We visited Recoleta and the Cemetary for the rich and famous which is like nothing you can imagine. Mausoleums as big as my house have been erected to house the deceased members of the wealthy and their families, it is unbelievable and you really need to see it to belive it. We also visited La Boca, the first settlement in BA where you can find the colourful street of Caminito and its tango dancers and of course La Bombonera, home to Boca Juniors. The museum inside is excellent with some great memorabillia and the tour, even in Spanish is worth it, you get to pretend your in a crowd avalanche and climb the wire fences!! As well as sight seeing, we watched and got tango lessons which was great fun, went round the Sunday markets which are huge and rammed full of people, even saw a couple of Johnny Depp´s there. We played football in the park and made it to the final although our goalie (Mike needless to say) literally threw the ball in the net on the Golden Goal, also went to a live drums show called La Bomba Tiempo which is on every Monday night and I would definitely recommend it. And then theres the food...well they say Argentine beef is the best in the world and they certainly arent wrong. We must have had either steak or Parilla 5 times and every time it was amazing. Such big portions and so cheap too but the flavour is just immense. Best steak house we found, Siga La Vaca (follow the cow) in Puerto Madera...$79 all you can eat meat and buffet bar with bottle of wine or pitcher of beer and the meats are gorgeous.

Over the river into Uruguay and to little Colonia del Sacramento and all its history. There are buildings there older than Australia!! and some cars as well. Its a pretty neat place, full of tourists though and it gets 100times worse in the summer months. There is meant to be a good party scene in the summer as well though we had a pretty good time watching Uruguay win in the Copa America semi final, there was a party in the streets for that!! Along the coast to Montevideo for two days before flying to Rio. Its a cool place, small enough to walk around but with enough going on. We ventured to the Estadio Centenario which is of course the sight of the very first World Cup, won by Uruguay...that was pretty cool, for me anyway. Also witnessed one of the smoothest karaoke comperes around last night, that man sure knew how to work a crowd.

What a great start to our south American adventure. I will be recommending Buenos Aires to everybody I meet from now on, its a really great city with really nice people as well. If the rest of the travels as good as this then I will have no complaints and I have a feeling that its going to get even better.