Hello all, we though it was about time we did an update, it's been quite a while so we be a bit brief in parts!

BUENOS AIRES

After Rosario we headed to Buenos Aires (BA) where we were to do our 3 weeks teaching. Here's a summary of the things we got up to:

School

School wasn't entirely what we expected as it turned out the kids were quite rich and so we essentially were helping the rich get richer... not quite the idealistic volunteering experience we had anticipated however it was still a good experience, and beneficial for us at least! We taught a range of ages from senior school to little kids. We got thrust into taking charge of our own lessons on the first day which was a massive shock as we were pretty underqualified. We took a few of our own planned lessons after that which was cool, all the teachers were really nice and it was really fun helping the little children out. It was also a really good chance to get to know the culture a bit better, like the whole kissing everyone on the cheek thing- it was very odd to have students saying hi and bye by kissing you on the cheek!

Touristy Stuff

• San Telmo- a big antiques market selling old jewellery, lace, photos, and most other things you can imagaine! It was really nice and if we didn't have to carry everything we bought around for the next 2 months we definitely would have made more purchases! There were also tango dancers performing everywhere which was cool and lots food and drink stalls.
• Palermo- We went to the Evita museum which was good because after seeing her grave and statue we were starting to wonder why she was so special! Other than that Palermo is best known for it's restaurants and bars of which we visted many! The best restaurant (for Kerry anyway) was La Cabrera which is well know for it's massive steaks. The queue is so long they provide champagne and snacks for people waiting outside. We went on our first night in BA with Kylie (Kerry's sister) and Laura which was a good if not rather expensive way to start our tour of the city. Another highlight was Plaza Soreno which was a square surrounded by nice bars.
• Recoletta- we visited Recoletta Cemetary, not a typical graveyard, instead filled with tombs, and houses Evita's grave. It was really impressive, not at all what we pictured when we heard about it! Recoletta also hosts this big flower sculpture that opens in the morning and closes and night which was cool to see.
• La Boca- known it's football team, Boca Juniors, and colourful houses, there was lots of tango (and randomly flamenco dancing) on the street, a great place to get coffee and people watch! We also had an interesting experience getting into a Boca game (something that we'd been looking forward to since Rio)- we went to get tickets from a scalper outside the stadium but, with 4 other British tourists, ended up paying a guy to get us passed the barrier and police and then push us through the turnstiles two at a time! Rather interesting. The game was really good, no where near at rowdy as we thought until the end when the police blocked the only exit for our section, and people got annoyed and resulted in the police whacking some poor bloke with his baton. Not a great sight, altho probably to be expected.
• Tigre- is meant to be really nice, an hour out of BA, set on a river with a market (meant to be fruit but we didnt see any) but the weather was awful resulting in it being a bit of a disappointment.
• San Antonia de Areco- 2 hours out of the city, an old gaucho town- it was a really nice change to the city. We just went to a parillia (bbq of all sorts of meat) and generally had a look around. There was also a really cool bar that looked like it was straight out of a cowboy film.
• Puerto Madeiro- a port. Pretty and expensive.
• Casa Rosada- govt building that is pink, hence the name. On our second visit we went in and went on a (free!) tour hosted by the guards in their funny outfits. Set in Plaza de Mayo where from a week before Fawklands rememberence day they had banners up declaring that the islands would always be theirs... we kept our voices quite low around there!
• Tango- we went to a tango club and watched locals dance, and there were two professional tango dancers who were amazing to watch.

Nights out

BA is known for it's nightlife and we can definitely can see why! We went to some very cool clubs, many of which were free though the hostel (hurrah). One was something staight out the Bronx with breakdancers and very gangsta looking people! we both obv felt very much at home here hahaha. The only problem with the clubs is the large number of annoying pervy guys that you constantly have to fight off, very irritating, and the smoking and glass all over the floor! Other than that tho, we had some awweeoommee nights out!

MENDOZA

Known for it's wine (much of which we had already sampled) it's set by the Andes and was a nice place to go and relax after such a long time in the city. On our first day we went to climb up a mountain with apparently gorgeous views of the Andes and Chile but abandonned the mission when told that there were men with guns shooting... at least this is what we gathered from the Spanish speaking cyclist who then escorted us back down!

We went wine tasting to two different vineyards, one a big more industrial one and the other a quaint little family run one where we purchased a couple of bottles and really enjoyed them! We also went to an olive oil factory which was surprising interesting and we got to eat bread covered in oil haha. In the evening we had a BBQ (or asado in Spanish) hosted by our hostel which was really fun- there was plenty of meat and wine going round and even some bday cake. The hostel was such a nice change to the rather disappointing hostel we were stuck in in BA, everyone was really friendly and helpful.

The following day we went white water rafting which was really good fun. The water was freezing but we had great views of the mountains and surrounding areas going down the river.

The following day, and night was spent on a bus (20 hours!). This was relatively horrendous- apparantly it is accepted in the north to spit on the floor of the bus. Nice.

SALTA

We are currently in Salta, Northern Argentina where we haven't really achieved much! We have however had time to plan the next 3 weeks which are looking pretty hectic. Tonight we are getting the bus to the border with Bolivia where we then get off and walk 300 metres in order to cross (you can't just get a bus across... very odd). Then we will get another bus to Tupiza (where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid perished) where I (Kerry) hope to horseride again and Sarah will bike. After we hope to plan our tour around the salt flats which we are both extremely excited about.

That's about it for now... knowing us we'll update you in about a month haha.

Bye! xxx