Night Town/Location - Where we slept 14/08/2012 Bogota - Hostel Masaya 15/08/2012 Bogota - Hostel Masaya 16/08/2012 Bogota - Hostel Masaya 17/08/2012 Bogota - Hostel Masaya 18/08/2012 Salento - Plantation House 19/08/2012 Salento - Plantation House 20/08/2012 Salento - Plantation House 21/08/2012 Santa Rosa de Cabal - Coffee Town Hostel 22/08/2012 Santa Rosa de Cabal - Coffee Town Hostel 23/08/2012 Santa Rosa de Cabal - Coffee Town Hostel 2...

Time for the beach and some sunshine, we hope. Villa Gesell here we come. The Atlantic coast near BA is lined with beach resorts, from low key to loud and glitzy. We'd chosen Villa Gesell because until relatively recently it was known as a quiet eco retreat, a little aside from the high rise resorts elsewhere. We figured it sounded like a good balance. However, we were discussing it with the day group guide at the estancia and he laughed. He'd been to Villa Ges...

We managed to squeeze in another new country!! Hello Uruguay. Colonia is a beautifully preserved colonial town around an hour from BA by fast ferry. Sadly standard class tickets had sold out and we had to make do with First. Champagne, wahey! First things first on arrival, we had lunch in a lovely little restaurant on a picturesque square. Financial point of interest (!) - the restaurant accepted USD and Argentinian Pesos as well as Uruguayan Pesos (of which w...

Christmas Day!
After a deserved lie in we met the family in the dockside Puerto Madero area. Think London Docklands and Canary Wharf.
First we visited the Presidente Sarmiento, a museum ship originally built as a training ship for the Argentine Navy in the 1890s. A beautiful old sailing ship, it has been restored (or well maintained!) and despite everything being in Spanish is very interesting to visit. A hungover Rose declined to come aboard :)
 After a...

Christmas Eve, and the temperature is over 30 degrees. Something isn't right!
 Fabrice and I spent the day exploring a couple of new areas of town whilst the family did their own thing, in particular sorting out delivery of dinner from a local restaurant to the hotel. 
First of all we went to the artistic San Telmo area. This is BA's oldest neighbourhood and is characterised by cobblestone streets and colonial mansions. Its renovation is patchy, with beauti...