Puerto Iguacu

They were right!

We honestly thought nothing could beat the Brazil side of the falls but the Argentina side somehow does, its unreal, spectacular, powerful, stunning, insane! Its a wow moment that you really have to see to believe.

Getting to Puerto Iguacu was very easy - it took us less than 1 hour to get from the Brazilian side, sort out immigration and get to the Argentinean side. Saying that, it then took us nearly another hour to find our accommodation which turned out to be only 3 minutes from where the bus actually dropped us off (cheers for the awful directions booking.com!)

Anyway we headed straight to the falls after checking in, 20 minutes later we were there and got straight onto a rickety train which took us to Devil`s Throat which is the main part of the falls. As mentioned above its just breathtaking and nothing we can say will do it justice. If you are ever in this part of the world its an absolute must! The best thing about the Argentina side is there are also a couple of walking trails you can do, so after posing for photos and just taking in the stunning scenery we headed to do the upper trail walk, (we didn't have enough time to also do the lower trail). The upper trail is basically walking on bridges over the waterfalls, again truly amazing experience and views. We were considering doing a boat ride up to the falls but had ran out of time. We were pretty much the last people to leave tha park along with a English couple (Dean and Rachel) from London who we had met on the bus to the falls and spent the afternoon with them.

We headed back to our hostel where a group of Irish people we had briefly met before the falls were cooking up a huge bbq. We decided to leave them to it and check out a restaurant recommended by our Lonely Planet book (boy has that book come in handy!) so we headed out with Dean and Rachel,. After stuffing ourselves with pizza and 4 bottles of wine we headed back to the hostel to have some drinks with the Irish (of course they were still up drinking). After more booze and a table tennis marathon (Hickey won!) we went to bed ready for a 20 hour bus journey the following day to Buenos Aires!

So far the falls have been are favorite part of the trip, lets see if it can be beaten.

Buenos Aires

20 hours sounds long but we are so used to this by now that in fact it was a pretty nice journey! The buses in Argentina are very comfortable - the seats tip right back, loads of leg room and they even feed you on board!

We arrived in BA about 11am and jumped on the tube to the nearest stop to our hostel - the subway is excellent and really easy to navigate plus the journey cost less than a quid, London sort it out! One thing that was strange about the tube was people selling socks, they would walk up and down the train putting socks on peoples lap and then collecting them back if they didnt want to buy them! Sock selling was not just restricted to the tube though - we saw it everywhere even when we were eating food in restaurants..very strange!

We checked into our hostel, called 1385, which was in a really old school building with 6 floors and a rickety old lift. It was another great choice by Hickey! After a quick very needed shower we headed out to explore the streets of BA.

Take a bit of Barcelona, a bit of New York, a bit of Rome, a bit of Split, a bit of all the awesome places in Europe and you pretty much have Buenos Aires. Walking around the place is the way to do it, the place is buzzing, the colonial buildings are stunning, the people are awesome, the food and wine and beer is up there with the best - its another must do place in South America!! There is always something to catch your attention - people juggling traffic cones, footballs etc in front of the cars while they are stopped at traffic lights, the builders whistling and applauding women as they walk past, dog walkers with about 10 dogs on leads, protests etc ' it´s all going on!!

Everyday we walked around for hours and everyday was completely different. The first day we went to Cementeraio de la Recoleta (where Evita is buried) its full of incredible tombs and monuments which must have take ages to build. Whilst Lorry was marveling at some of the designs Hickey was more interested in finding someone who died on his birthday! To keep him occupied we also played a game of hide and seek which sounded like a good idea but this cemetery is massive, so we only played one game! Was lots of fun though!

The next day we headed to Florida street, this is where the black (or blue dollar as its called here) market is - basically in Argentina its impossible for the locals to get hold of US dollars so there is a big demand for them, hence creating a massive black market were locals will trade Argentinean Pesos for US dollars paying a rate much higher than the banks offer! We did not know this before coming to Argentina so have missed out on making our money go a lot further...standard. Anyhoo Florida street is nuts, nearly everyone on the street is exchanging money, shouts of cambio cambio (meaning exchange) can constantly be heard, its a very long street and we were actually glad to get to the end of it! After the madness of Florida street we went to a park and had some food in the sun listening to some tunes that were being played by a little party that was going on...we didnt gatecrash!

Next day was tango day! Firstly we went to Palmero and met up with Dean and Rach. Palmero is the trendy area of BA and we absolutely loved it, if only we had loads of money to spend! The shops are really quirky, there is really cool graffiti along the streets and countless numbers of really cool bars and nightclubs, we could live there!

There was also a massive concert going on, loads of girls screaming to a Argentinean boyband, 1D beware! Again we headed to a park to get away from the madness and had some food and some beers in preparation for our tango experience later that night.

I know we have said this a lot but this was one of the best things we have ever done! The tango lesson itself was amazing, very funny, especially when Hickey started doing the complete opposite to what he was supposed to be doing! Lorry got picked out by the tutor and was used to demonstrate how it should be done, we then paired up and did the equivalent of speed dating, we danced with a few people each before being taught some more moves. Again Hickey fluffed it and instead of kicking his right leg out kicked out his left leg, right into Lorry shins! However by the end of the lesson he had nailed it and was wanting more lessons. Strictly here we come!

After the lesson we were given certificates and taken upstairs to be seated for our 3 course meal which came with unlimited drinks! We actually lost count of the amount of wine we had. Hickey and Dean stuck to Red and Lorry and Rach to white, the food was great and then we had the show which was absolutely amazing! An old guy narrated (in Spanish) and sang throughout the show and the dancing was out of this world, another must do ticked off the list! Lorry ended up being part of the show as was dragged up stage for one of the dances! She´s still got it!

We smuggled a couple bottles of wine back onto the bus after and got chatting to some English girls from London who were staying down the road from us, the plan was to go clubbing with them, so we got back to our hostel, got changed, walked to the club and there was a queue. Normally no problem but after countless bottles of wine we couldn't be bothered to queue so the 4 of us just went to a quiet restaurant and had a beer before going to bed! Damn we are getting old.

Next day as you can imagine we were hungover, however after skype-ing a few people we got up and headed to the famous San Telmo Sunday market. Its one mahossive street with stalls and live music everywhere, we spent a good couple of hours trying the local food and soaking in the atmosphere and we made a couple of purchases. We then headed to Boca as we knew Boca Juniors were playing at home that evening. The place was buzzing and literally every single person was wearing a Boca football top. To say there fans are fanatic is a understatement, hoards of buses were coming down the streets beeping their horns, with people hanging out banging on the sides singing at the top of their voices, it was awesome to witness. We tried to walk to the stadium but were only allowed to a certain point. We were tempted to get tickets to the game but they were nearly 100 quid each! (because we are English, much cheaper for locals!) We headed back had some pasta at a local restaurant and had a quiet night....for once, ready for our next stop, Uruguay!

Colonia del Sacremento

We didnt realise how close Uruguay was so after only 1 hour on the boat from BA we arrived in Colonia del Sacremento, a former smugglers port. The place is tiny and really quaint with cobbled streets lined with lovely cafes. The first day we just walked around, went to the top of the lighthouse and generally chilled out. We tried the local dish of Chiveto, which is steak with bacon, cheese and egg on top, we are going to come back sooo fat! The food hit us for 6 and with Lorry not feeling too well we caught up with some well needed sleep. The second day Lorry stayed in bed still suffering from a cold and Hickey explored a bit more of the old town and took a walk to the beach, in the afternoon we both went to the beach to plan the rest of our trip (time is running out fast!) on our way back from the beach we bumped into Rachel and Dean... AGAIN! We planned to meet them for a soft drink later that night.

The soft drink did not happen, in fact Hickey bought bottle of red wine to have with dinner and then the we had a few beers with Dean and Rachel in a awesome little bar called El Drugstore. They had old cars at the front completely stripped out with table and chairs inside...super cool. We got walked back to our hostel by one of the local dogs who just seem to follow us everywhere!

Montevideo

The best thing about Uruguay is that its a small country so our bus to Montevideo was only 2 hours which meant we arrived before Midday. The plan was to spend 1 night but we soon realised there was quite a bit we wanted to do. We stayed in the Old Town again full of really old buildings and cobbled streets, it didn't have the charm of Colonia but was still a really cool place. We walked around for ages, Lorry was still feeling ill so we decided to treat ourselves and went for a slap up meal. It turned out to be one of the nicest meals ever! Lovely cozy restaurant called Dueto, owned by a couple of locals, the food was Michelin Star quality and the wine was up there with the best! Lorry didn't drink as was STILL feeling ill. We had a early one as we planned to check out the stadium and beaches in the morning.

The first ever stadium to host the World Cup Final was our first port of call, we walked around the outside and then into the Museum in the building inside. The guy at the front desk told us to pay on the way out, so we walked around the Museum and it was brilliant, they had football memorabilia from back in the day, including trophies, footballs, actual shirts worn in some of the World Cups etc. We saw the replica of Jules Rimet and then went out into the stadium. After a few photos we went to leave and pay however the guy at the front desk said not to worry and to thank Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst as they had donated stuff to the museum! He wished us looked for Euro 2016 and we wished him luck for Copa America 2015!!

We then headed to the beaches, this is where we noticed that Montevideo is literally like a English seaside town from the 70´s! The walk along the beach front is really nice and we honestly thought we were back in England, we even walked past a old seaside theme park!

The weather was starting to turn so instead of continuing along the Atlantic coast to the beaches in Uruguay after Montevideo we deiced to head back to Argentina and to the wine region of Mendoza.

Mendoza

5am alarm goes off, taxi, boat, taxi, bus, taxi and 27 hours later we arrived in Mendoza! We were a little jaded and luckily our hostel had our room ready for us, they also mentioned about a wine tour that was happening that day and as the Lonley Planet says it would be a crime not to do a winery tour in Mendoza, so we thought sleeping is cheating and booked up to the tour.

The tour included 2 boutique wineries and a Olive Oil tour. At the first winery, a modern winery, we got to taste a few reds and a white. One of the Red Malbec wines was voted 3rd best in the World and boy it tasted good. We had a few top ups and bought the bottle of white as the other winery specialised in Red Wines. Next up we had some food in the Olive Oil tour which was well needed after a few wines and then straight on to the second winery. This was another boutique winery and their wine was not available anywhere apart from direct from the winery. We had 4 different reds. The lady running the tour was on her last tour of the day so was a little tipsy! The reds werent as good as the first winery so we decided not to buy anything.

When we got back to the hostel we cracked open the bottle of white, 10 minutes later the hostel announced that from 7pm - 8pm there was free wine!! We took full advantage of this and by 8pm were pretty tipsy. Hours later and 2 more bottles we took ourselves to bed after playing some drinking games with people from the hostel, we had totally forgot to have dinner that night!

Next day = write off, nothing to report except we went to the bus station to book a bus to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile however that night we realised we had booked the bus to San Pedro de Jujuy, which is in Argentina!! We tried to change it but the woman didn't speak any English so we thought lets just stick to what we have and see what happens! .....

San Pedro de Jujuy

It was a mistake! 17 hour journey, only white people on the bus, was given 1 biscuit in for the entire trip and it was absolutely pouring down with rain when we arrived in San Pedro. It got worst!

We had no cash but nowhere in the town would take card and the cash machines would not accept our cards! We were starving, soaking wet when finally we found 1 cash machine that accepted our card so went to a restaurant ordered a pizza and beers and life was good again. San Pedro itself is actually a nice little town, we had some stares as they probably aren't used to seeing travelers, a lot of people said hi, especially to Lorry! At least we can say we went somewhere off the beaten track!

Next morning we headed to the bus station not knowing if we would be going to Chile, Bolivia or staying in Argentina, in the end we booked a cheap 2 hour bus to Salta in Argentina as we had heard it is a lovely place.

Salta

Soon as we got to Salta we booked our coach for the following morning to the correct San Pedro - San Pedro de Atacama, we then found a hostel, dumped our bags and climbed up the 1033 steps to get some awesome views overlooking Salta. We had a 7am start the next morning so soaked up the atmosphere in the centre of Salta, had a 3 course meal and of course some red wine. 3 days after trying to leave Argentina we finally left the next morning!!