Our journey from Iguazu to Buenos Aires was an interesting one. We arrived at the local intercity bus station on the Brazilian side of Iguazu to find that we had missed the last bus of the day by about 5minutes. This meant we would either have to stay there another night to leave the next morning or make our way across the border to the intercity bus station on the Argentinian side of the city to catch one of the many buses that night. We decided on the latter without realising that this meant crossing the border on a local bus where noone spoke a word of english... When we reached the Brazilian border the lady sitting next to us somehow gestured to us that we needed to go get our passports stamped together so we both had to leave our backpacks on the local bus, run into the border building and get stamped, all the while praying to G-d that a) the bus wouldnt leave without us or b) our bags wouldnt leave with someone else!! Luckily the queue to get stamped wasnt too long but even so, we had our eye on the bus the whole time and jeff was ready to run after it if it did drive off. All went well and we managed to get onto a luxurious (but more expensive) overnight bus to Ba which included large spacious seats, blankets, pillows, meals and ENGLISH movies! Unfortunately for Jeff it was a romantic comedy...

We arrived in Buenos Aires to some pretty miserable weather so we decided to take the day to clean up, unwind and chill. Our hostel was a perfect place for that - beautiful hot shower, comfy beds and not too many people. On our first full day we went on a free tour around the city. We had a fantastic young guide who showed us around the central area of BA. He told us about Argentina's fight for independence from Spain 200years ago, about the dirty war about 30 years ago and the Madres to Plaza de Mayo (a group of mothers whose children dissapeared during the war, who - to this day - have marched around the plaza outside the president's building every Thursday to keep their children's memories alive). We saw the congress buildings, the 'widest' avenue in the world, the European influence on the city's architecture, the country's most recognised monument, the obelisk of Buenos Aires and the Casa Rosada - the Pink house/Govournment house.

We went into Cafe Tortoni, one of the most popular cafes in Buenos Aires for Cafe. There is a very strong coffee culture in the city and very specific ways to drink it. Jeff drank the equivalent of a super strong cappucino and a double espresso. Rome ordered a Submarino - a glass of hot milk with a chocolate bar shaped like a submarine which you dunk the milk until it melts into hot choc - Yummy! We spent the afternoon roaming around the pedestrian shopping street, Flroida Avenue and ended the day with a traditional all-you-can eat Rodizio meal at a restaurant that was recommended to us by a couple we had met along the way. As much salad, meat, chicken and accompaniments as you can fit into yout stomach. We drank wine and ate until we were sore but it was worth it!!!

On Thursday we went into a part of the city called La Bocca with an English couple (Tom and Nikky) we met at the hostel. The place is famous for its many coloured houses and buildings as well as its soccer team, Bocca Juniors. We milled around the quaint streets and watched the performers outside each little restaurant dancing tango. We sat at one of them and ate traditional Argentian pies called Empanadas and drank beer. We then went back to the Plaza de Mayo to see the weekly march of the Madres de plaza de Mayo. A women read out names while the mothers in their handkerchief hats and their supporters walked around the plaza holding pictures of loved ones who dissapeared. We spent the eveing at the hostel drinking lots of beer and red wine with the people we met at the hostel - the nglish couple we went to laz bocca with (Tom and nikky), friends fo theirs from Belgium (Thomas and Charlote), a fantastic South African couple who had just finished their amazing trip and were nice enough to write down loads of tips for us (Melinda and Demitri), a guy from Holland (Jeffrey) and a young German guy (also Tom).

We took a day on Friday to assess our plans for the next few days which entailed sitting on the internet for hours and diving into the lonely plant. We finally decided to head with Jeff, our friend from Holland and his sister Ramona to Puerto Madryn on the Sunday.After doing another 2 hour free tour around the area Recoleta, we celebrated our decision with a dinner for the 4 of us at a little restaurant in San Telmo Square. We were treated to live Argentinian music and live tango dancers to accomapny our wine and meals.

Because the bicentential year of the country's indepedence we were lucky enough to take a tour of the govounment house. This is the building were Evita Peron famously preached down to her supporters and where to this day, the president does her daily work. We even got to see her office - unfortunately she wasnt there so it was really just a big ornate room with a desk...

Jeff cooked up a storm on our last night in BA - Spaghetti Bolognaise. Jeff and Ramona joined us again with wine and beer and we were serenaded by a brilliant young group of Argentian musicians for most of the night. A perfect and fitting ending to a city whose culture revolves around good food, good wine and good music and dance!