Do you know how long it's been since I have had a piece of red meat? Or a BBQ?

Too long. That's how long.

Red meat in Peru is awful. Sorry Peru, but it is. Seeing how it's sold doesn't help; on slabs, unrefrigerated, with flies crawling all over it. Enough to make you avoid at all costs.

But this is Argentina …. a whole other story …..

We jump on an overnight bus from Santiago in Chile, to the well-known Argentina wine region of Mendoza. After the worst bus ride of my South American life crossing this border, we decide that meat drops down the list of important things and a spa treatment is bumped up to number 1 priority. In desperate need of a massage after trekking through the Amazon; the freezing salt flats; and that god-awful bus ride lastnight, we discover there is a Hyatt in Mendoza. Problem solved!

Our afternoon is spent in the complimentary sauna, vapor room and jacuzzi as we await our 90-minute Swedish massage. Life is back to good ….and we haven't even gotten to the steak!

The next day is a national public holiday in Argentina but we manage to get on a wine tour. We spend the day swanning about like Patsy and Edwina in the vineyards. At times we have to remind ourselves where we are. "That's because you're drinking too much" I hear you say. Possibly; but more so because you can sit at a winery window and be looking out across the Marlborough landscape; or the Hawkes Bay; or Central Otago. Feels like home in moments. Not the other side of the world.

After a day of wandering through oak smelling basements, sipping Malbec, downing more than a couple of bubbles and eating fantastic food, if felt only right to head out for dinner. The little city is alive with celebrations. It's so cool here in South America how much the community comes together on public holidays. In my time here I've seen Christmas, Easter and national days filled with events in the town centres. Everyone comes out to celebrate as a wider community. There's dancing, live bands, street performers and hundreds of craft and food stalls. Holidays are lively, a time of celebration and getting together. A fantastic end to a rather fruitful day (pun intended).

Early the next morning we arrive in Buenos Aires. What a beautiful city. We fall in love with it immediately.

I'm naming this place the 'statue capital' of South America. Now, when I say statue I don't just mean some lame famous guy's head. I mean gigantic and complex pieces of art. Beautiful. Powerful. Striking and imposing.

The taxis are easy to negotiate, drivers speak a little bit of English and there are meters so no need to negotiate the cost. The traffic flows freely, the airport is very close to the centre and the plentiful green spaces (complete with statues) make you feel like you're not in a city of over 17 million people!

We're staying in the suburb of Recoleta, for 2 reasons; some locals we met on the wine tour yesterday recommended the area as safe, and secondly because we wanted to visit the Recoleta Cemetery. Turns out, we are staying directly across the road from it. The imposing brick walls that circle the cemetery greet us as we walk out our apartment door every day. The grandest of mausoleums poke out over the top of the walls, like a competition vying for status. The elite and upper class of Buenos Aires certainly want you to know they are there. No high brick walls are going to conceal them.

Choosing to visit the cemetery during the week so we can take a tour, today we wander around and discover our new home for the next few days. The green spaces are fantastic and plentiful. There are Japanese gardens, botanical gardens, rose gardens full of art, museums, art galleries and statue after statue. There are people cycling, running, rollerblading (yes, that's still a thing here) and those just romantically wandering, enjoying the sunny winters day. There are boot camps and work-out session in the park where men and women of all ages are having a blast, exercising with salsa moves and 'reggaeton' music.

We come across the statue of Eva Peron. Its impressive and we realise we don't know much about her story, other than her name and the musical Evita. Given that she is one of the most famous residents of Recoleta Cemetery, we commit to googling her tonight. Meanwhile for now, we photograph the state and Emma sings "don't cry for me Argentina". It was pretty impressive.

The next day, we hit the Sunday markets in San Telmo. These markets attract thousands of visitors every weekend and are huge. Situated in the centre of Buenos Aires, the stalls line both sides of a very long cobbled street. Selling everything from food, leather goods, music, antiques, jewellery and local handcrafts. The stalls are interspersed by Tango dancers and street performers, further energising the area on a sleepy Sunday morning.

We stop off at a restaurant along the way, mainly because a jovial old man steps in our path, puts his hand out and introduces himself as the owner of the place where we can get the best BBQ in Argentina. After asking where we are from, the game is afoot …. NZ has pretty good steak so it's a big call to impress us mate. He's up for it though. The smell is the first thing that hits me. We're not game enough yet to go for the full multi meat and offal sizzling platter that is common here in Argentina. Lets just try steak first and see how the stomach reacts.

Its heaven. If you want to learn to appreciate something more, do without it for 6 months. The taste was divine.

A few days later in La Boca, after our tour guide recommends a great Argentinian BBQ place, we try the full platter. It sounded like a good idea but let's just say the kidneys and intestines subtly went to the cat sitting by my legs under the table. The blood pudding remained untouched - I couldn't even volunteer that to the cat in good conscious. The rest of the actual meat was devoured and tasted so good.

Once we got over the fact that we have a Game of Thrones celebrity on our Recoleta Cemetery tour with us; the tour guide blows our minds with her passion and information about this crazy site. As I mentioned the cemetery sits in the heart of the city surrounded by high brick prison like walls, but in the 1800's it was farm land in the middle of nowhere. The land was owned by a group of Monks called 'The Order of Recoletos' and when they were disbanded, a section was taken by the government to use as a cemetery. It covers 14 acres and has just under 4,700 vaults. Originally it was available to anyone to bury their dead but as disease and crime spread in the city itself, the wealthy relocated out of the central city to this rural area. Soon the cemetery became only for the elite and wealthy of Buenos Aires. Large fences were erected. Fanciful and impressive tombs started to appear. Prices for plots skyrocketed and the wealthy of Buenos Aires lapped it up.

Some of the tombs have fallen into a state of disrepair. Ceilings caved in, doors broken off, beautiful handcrafted stained glass smashed to tiny pieces and of course, coffins that had deteriorated over time and exposure to the elements were lying in plain sight for all to see. The guide explained to us that many families do not pay the annual maintenance fee but as the rightful owners of the land, the government cannot step in and confiscate (although it may come to that as time moves on, especially as it is such a tourist attraction). The main reason families don't pay is because the descendants are now so vast and widespread that they cannot agree on a fair way to manage the tomb, so no one takes care of it.

The stories of some of the inhabitants was fascinating. From a young woman killed in an avalanche while on holiday with her new husband. Her father so devastated, he memorialised her at her happiest time; in her wedding dress with her faithful dog by her side. To a married couple where the wife had a shopping addiction. To fix it once and for all, her husband put a proclamation out to all the business' in their area saying he would no longer be paying for any of the purchases his wife makes. You can imagine the embarrassment this caused, and she was so mad at him that they never spoke again. He died first and upon her passing she made sure her statue was as far away as possible from him on the plot AND facing in the opposite direction. Classic.

Of course, there are famous graves of many Argentine presidents, scholars, artists, nobel prize winners, the founder of the Argentine Navy and Napoleon's granddaughter. But none so well-known and famous as Eva Peron. Her story is inspiring and yet tragic.

She grew up in poverty as an unclaimed child, when her father left them, returning to his first family (apparently a common occurrence back then). She ran off to Buenos Aires in her late teens to pursue a career in acting. She made her mark and, as a successful actress, she met Juan Peron at a charity function for the victims of an earthquake. They married and as the first lady she was very approachable to the common people, battling for workers' rights and woman's suffrage movements. She died at the age of 33 of uterine cancer. Its after her death that the story gets really interesting though ….. she wanted her body to be accessible to all the people, so she had arranged for it to be embalmed and she lay in state, on display for 2 years. As political unrest took over the country, her body was removed from display and taken by the new government who wanted to erase all memory of Peronism. In fact, they made it illegal not only to have photos of the them but also to speak about Juan and Eva.

Eva's whereabouts was a mystery for 16 years. After storing her in someone's office for a number of years eventually they took her body to Italy, afraid for its safety if it remained in Argentina. They buried her in a crypt there under a false name for 12 years. Eventually governments in Argentina changed again and Peron was re-elected for the 3rd time, after being exiled for many years. Peron and the people of Buenos Aires now wanted Eva's body back. A radical group dug up the body of a key member of the revolution party that had overthrown Peron's government years before. They held him for ransom; if they did not return Eva's body, this guy's body would never be seen again. Within days Eva Peron was returned to Buenos Aires.

Juan passed away a year after getting into office and his 3rd wife became the president. She helped Eva's relatives to bury her in the Duarte family tomb at Recoleta. Even today, there is talk of moving Eva again to be next to Juan in another cemetery, however her family say she has been through enough and Recoleta will be her final resting place. RIP Evita.

You've probably all seen the colourful pictures of wooden houses in Buenos Aires. This region of the city is called La Boca and it's one of the poorest areas but the richest when it comes to history and culture. The life and blood of Buenos Aires started here. Immigrants arrived and settled here. Tango started here. Its rich in history. A poor young immigrant boy who had a penchant for art, helped turn the place into the arts capital of Buenos Aires and it's now one of the most photographed and visited places in the city. The colours are vibrant and there are tango dancers in every restaurant.

We decide, since we are so close, to pop over via ferry to Uruguay. Sadly, the weather put a dampener on our ability to really experience the country. Maybe it was the grey, windy, rainy days but the country seemed a little unremarkable. Nothing awful about it but nothing spectacular either. We visited the small historic town of Colonia and the capital of Montevideo. Maybe we were just too in love with Buenos Aires to find this country impressive. It's a hard act to follow to be fair.

After a couple of days, we ferry back to Buenos Aires and jump straight into a 17-hour bus ride to Puerto Iguazu. This place will be our base for the next couple of days as we explore Iguazu Falls and cthen ross into Brazil. But more about that next time.

BTW 1 …. For all you GoT fans, the celebrity we did our cemetery tour with was Daenerys slave girl, Missandei. Just as beautiful and stunning in real life.

BTW 2 …. The guys in Argentina were slightly better. They stare, just like the Bolivians and Peruvians do, but when you catch them in the act they will wink, smile or blow you a kiss. So, on the creepiness scale they were slightly better …. I think??