Okay, hopefully this will be the first entry of many, but due to the fact that Southern Argentina and Chile dont have broadband yet, and taking into consideration that when I tried to upload the '1st blog' a few days ago, after about an hour of typing the computer decided to stop working when I tried to post, I think this may be a slightly harder process than previously thought. But here we go.....

Buenos Aires 9th of March to the 13th of March

We arrived in Buenos Aires on the morning of the 9th of March. It was a long flight at 15hours but the views as we flew over Sao Paulo (where we landed to refuel), the vast interior of Uruguay, the River Plate Delta and Buenos Aires were all spectacular.

The airport is about an hours bus ride from the city centre. When we arrived at our hostel we found out that Boca Juniors (the biggest club in Argentina and Buenos Aires) were playing at home that afternoon.

An hour later we were standing with the die hard boca firm behind the goal. As it was a local derby the seated and much more sophisticated enclosure had already sold out, so our choice was standing or not seeing the match. When we made it out of the stadium I was very pleased with our choice. The pre match build up starts about 3 hours before the match and is relentless. Drums, singing and an atmosphere that was like nothing I had ever experienced. As the away fans filed into the tier above us with police escort things got a little more heated. After exchanging chants for about an hour the away fans thought it may be sensible to try and through pieces of concrete through the chickenwire fences onto the home fans below. After the first couple of blocks smashed on the floor, the police not seeming overtly bothered we decided to move from the line of fire, which was probably quite sensible. The start of match meant the end of missiles being thrown into our stand. The players (both teams) seemed to receive no such respite and were bombarded throughout the game.

The match itself was almost as eventful as the chanting. The away team took the lead with an early goal. Just before halftime Boca had a man sent off (and we thought the abuse English referees got was {'abuse'). In the second half Boca equalised and it stayed 1 all. The explosion of noise when the players came out of the tunnell and when Boca scored the equaliser was worth the admission fee itself. We had to continue standing for about 1hour after the match as they let the away fans leave under police escort. But we escaped unharmed and though our legs were aching from about 6 hours of standing, we were definitely pleased we went!

The next day we set out on an unguided walking tour. A map and a 'rough guide'. We walked through the Barrios (districts) of San Telmo, Puerto Madero, Recoletta and centro. San Telmo was lined with cobbled streets, a decadent yet fading architecture which suggested past grandeur and tango dancers performing in open air squares. Its shops were mainly populated by artisans selling there work and antique shops. We stopped off in a square for a couple of drinks and watched some tango, managing to slip away before the guy came round with his hat asking for money. We wandered into Puerto Madero. Puerto Madero used to be an unused port until in 2000 the government decided to put it to better used. I reckon someone came to london and had a look at urban regeneration around the docklands becuase it was almost identical. Huge high rise flats are being built, which are some of the most expensive in he city and the former warehouses and area around the docks are packed with expensive bars, restaurants and offices . We continued walking coming across various monuments before returning to puerto madero for dinner.

On the 11th we went on an early morning bike tour of the city which was pretty fun. Though we think our tour guide was either drunk or unable to ride a stabiliser free bike. After nearly falling off negotiating a speed bump we had our doubts. Later that evening we had a group meeting for our overland trip. The meeting turned into dinner, dinner turned into drinks and then drinks turned into a night club.

We woke up quite late the next morning and had to check out of our hostel and into the hotel for the trip. We staggeringly managed this feat by 12. Then our first real challenged. Withdrawing money and chaning it into US dollars. 4 hours later we were ready to go out for the day. Apparently to change US dollars at a bank you need to be 21 (we found this out after trying for different banks, the 4th one said they could do it and after checking our passports and counting out the money for about 30minutes they seemingly changed their minds and finally directed us to a money bureau where we finally got the dollars we needed for the trip). We had an early start at 5am the next morning as we attempted to leave Buenos Aires before the rush hour and being our epic week long 3,500 km journey south to the end of the world, Ushuaia.