That's it, we are back on the blog. After an extended break due either to a) a lack of love from michandrich blog lovers worldwide as directed by a paltry number of views of our photos, and/ or b) a bout of laziness, we feel we have punished you enough.

We'll bet you are mad keen for an update as to our adventures and the places we have been, so, since we left Brazil our itinerary was as follows:

Uruguay: 1 week or so
Buenos Aires: about 5 weeks (BA includes two weeks studying Spanish and trips to Iguazu falls and Colonia, Uruguay whilst Rich's brother Andy and Mich's friends Suzanne and Krystle visited).
Patagonia in Argentina and then Chile, starting in Bariloche, Esquel, Chile on the Carretera Austral, El Calafate, Torres del Paine, Punta Arenas and then Ushuaia: 4 weeks

This blog takes us through to the bus journey out of BA, the next covers Patagonia.

We were only in Uruguay for about a week, and we split our time between two destinations, first Montevideo and then Colonia. Montevideo was OK, it's a small capital city which is slightly run down in places - in particular the old town which is so well located as a strip of land between water. If the old colonial buildings were not knackered out shells, it really could be beautiful. There were a few things we liked though, an old building built by some wealthy French merchants which had been kept as it was, and a Gaucho Museum (a gaucho is a cowboy) which had a couple of rooms of horse related memorabilia, silver spurs etc, and another couple of rooms dedicated to the love of mate… the local bitter green tea that is a national obsession. People walk around with these awkward and totally impractical little goblets and a thermos flask of hot water and drink them everywhere (on buses, in the street, at work and even at the beach). Very strange, we tried mate later on in BA, see the photos. Unfortunately, there was no museum (that we found) dedicated to the sinking of the Graf Spee, which seems to be the number 1 Montevideo factoid; the story of a German warship that was scuttled outside Montevideo in 1939 after the battle of the River Plate.

There were very few restaurants that didn't major on oily pizza and generally little to keep us interested except for the beach - so we spent a couple of pleasant afternoons there before moving on to Colonia. "Tranquil" pretty much sums up Colonia. It is an old Portuguese settlement that later became Spanish, the Portuguese influence remained in many little old buildings with wooden beams, it's so calm and safe that noone seems to lock anything or close their front doors. The old town is very attractive and we spoiled ourselves with a gorgeous guest house with a garden and a pool run by an English couple. We hired a moped and traveled around the few sights there are to see that aren't the old town, this included a huge bull ring that was completed only 2 years before Uruguay banned the sport, and we took ourselves again to the beach. We also lucked into a mini-Carnival in Colonia, with samba dancing and drumming…they were preparing for an appearance in Rio so this eased some (small bit) of our pain at not actually being able to experience the Rio carnival proper.

There is a ferry that takes only 1 hour between BA and Colonia, which makes it a regular weekend stopover for Portenos (BA locals). We took the ferry the other way to arrive in BA and immediately found a hostel in the San Telmo district. Our grand plan for BA was to stop moving for a while, unpack the bags and settle in to local life, socialise with the same people more than once or twice, eat loads of steak and drink lots of Malbec… it took us a few days to get sorted but we managed to organise a great little flat in Recoleta district (complete with two huge balconies for asado's - the Argentine name for the bbq - and enough beds to accommodate our visiting friends). We sorted out two weeks of Spanish lessons at Elebaires, a local school. Our friends Krystle, Suzanne and Rich's brother Andy visited for two weeks, which we sandwiched in the middle of our two weeks of Spanish classes.

During our first week of school we studied 9 am to 1pm, and proper loafed in the afternoon (enjoyed our flat, watched movies, ate well but didn't move too far or too fast). We went out for a few evenings BA style (leave late, drink late, sleep late) including a memorable night at the Konex centre in Palermo with some friends from our course.

We saved most of our sightseeing for when our friends arrived, and loved visiting the beautiful and distinctly different districts of BA. Leisurely Recoleta with its wide tree lined streets, uber posh cemetery (where Eva Peron is buried, although in a remarkably modest plot compared to some of the others) and large green areas. Fun Palermo, with lots of bars and restaurants, specifically around Plaza Serrano, and pleasant housing (when not flooded). Edgy La Boca, a working class neighbourhood and home of the Boca Juniors at La Bombonera, with very colourful tin walled buildings, lots of tango, classic Argentinian bars etc. The dynamic Centro district, with good shopping on Florida, some great pizza restaurants, milonga's (Tango dance bars), historic buildings including the Casa Rosada which oozes with recent Argentine history. Cool, calm San Telmo had some great steak and Malbec restaurants (1886, Des Nivel). And lastly, for us, rich Puerto Madero, the port district with new bars and restaurants on the docks.

It is a great literary City - classic novels are sold at kiosks by the side of the tube - and we squeezed in a good amount of culture. Some memorable art galleries, specifically the modern artwork in Recoleta's cultural centre and an Andy Warhol exhibition in Palermo. Football of course, as in Brazil, is a way of life, and visiting the home of Boca Juniors (although we couldn't see a game unfortunately) was an experience. Diego Maradona only actually played for them for a season before going to Europe, but he is roundly and generally worshipped as a God. In a number of conversations with Argentines about football, we haven't had any sense they thought that overweight, drug addled cheat was anything but the reincarnation of the messiah. We also went to several shows, including the Cranberries, with Andrew who is a big fan, Coldplay, Acrobatic Tango (pretty self explanatory, very impressive) and normal tango.

The visit of K, S and A was fantastic, it was great to hang out with people from home. We visited Iguacu falls which was sublime (photos say it all) as well as Colonia again for a (very wet) day trip. Alas, there trip was all too short, and they flew back leaving us to another week of our Spanish classes.

In the rest of our stay we had loads of asados on our balcony with old and new friends, did our homework like diligent students (ish) and had some memorable nights out… We don't really get why Portenos go out soooo late, food is normally about midnight, clubs don't open until two, close at 6 and the bars stop serving about 5 in the am. We, not being used to this system, tried to adapt and did some solid late night sessions, but struggled to contain our inner Brit (let's just say that Portenos don't actually drink the whole time they are out)…

The last night in BA we danced Tango at milonga, not particularly well we don't suppose, but passably… it was really good fun and we had a great night with Dario and Gisela who we had met in Iguacu. Oversleeping after this night out cost Richard a perfectly good pair of shoes as he slept in the day we were leaving for Bariloche with one shoe in the repair shop.

We loved BA, and will certainly go back, but we were ready to move on again after 5 weeks, in part to get some exercise - we ate and drank so well, mostly meat and malbec but also the empanadas (which were amazing and so cheap) and pizzas, that we wanted to start on the Patagonia leg of our trip and continue our studying in Barlioche…