As it did after our first couple of weeks of sailing, time seems to have sped up again. The last week has flown by but I'll do my best to catch up on everything we've been doing.

I left off just before our visit to the Iguazu falls which we saw from both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides. Glad we did, it's a totally different experience - on the Brazilian side you get incredible panoramic views of the falls and are left with an impression of awesomeness in the most literal sense of the word. The Argentinian side is much more interactive (as far as it's possible to interact with thousands of tonnes of water cascading over a cliff) with trails taking you across the tops of the waterfalls and a boat trip underneath two of them. The latter was a definite highlight; as you get closer the vast amount of spray that engulfs you prevents you from actually seeing anything but the thunderous noise and the soaking you're getting makes it difficult to forget where you are. We left the boat and squelched our way to change into the dry clothes we'd cleverly brought with us and, feeling a little bit smug, we were dry in no time. Unfortunately we hadn't prepared for the downpour that followed. The temperature plummeted and the heavens opened - twice - and with nowhere to hide we took another soaking, this time coupled with driving winds and not nearly as enjoyable. Employees at the park were clearly used to this type of weather but the constant repetition of the phrase "that's why they call it the rainforest" did not go down so well with the scores of shivering, underdressed tourists - us amongst them. We left for Buenos Aires that same evening and even after a 20 hour bus journey my hair was still not totally dry.

Aside from rain and trees, another defining part of the rainforest (this time not suggested by the name) has to be bugs. I am not good with bugs and particularly not with spiders, I can only imagine what it's like to go trekking in the Amazon proper. Mental notes taken for consideration when we get up north...

Between Brazil and Argentina, we also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Itaipu dam, apparently the biggest hydroelectric plant in the world by output, providing something like 90% of Paraguay's power and 20% of Brazil's. It's massive and Gerard was in his element seeing renewable energy in action! The tour also took us very briefly onto Paraguayan soil since the site traverses the border (though officially the land is binational) so we can add another country to our list of places visited - albeit for 10 mins.

The bus ride to Buenos Aires was amazing, we were given whiskey, wine and champers, a hot meal, blankets and pillows, films... Definitely my new favourite way to travel. We also tried something new with our accommodation in Buenos Aires, booking an apartment through Airbnb. It's amazing, we found a very reasonable 1 bed flat in Palermo Soho, which is really central and has loads of cute little bars and restaurants, and it's been such a pleasure to be able to do simple things like cooking at home and washing clothes, etc. There's even a pool on the roof - backpacking in style! It's been a great base to explore from and we've been all over, mostly wandering around the different barrios on foot but also ticking off a few tourist highlights like the Recoleta cemetery and a tango show. The latter was a tough choice with the plethora of shows available - we ended up at Piazzola Tango which was in a beautiful old building with brilliant dancers and not too many people, definitely a good call. Gerard also found us a great Spanish school so we've had a few lessons there - it's very satisfying to be able to start communicating a bit, even if only about very basic things, particularly after being so lost with the language in Brazil.

Speaking of Brazil, I mentioned in the previous post about the abundance of meat there. It turns out Brazil has nothing on Argentina, there's practically beef growing on trees here. I've decided to take an "if you can't beat them, join them" approach so over the last week we've hit a few churrascerias/parillas - basically giant all you can eat barbecues where you just take what you want until you're stuffed, typically in fluorescent-lit, plastic tabled, huge open plan rooms. Surprisingly good! One in Puerto Madero even included a drink in the price and our order of wine and a beer resulted in a bottle of very drinkable red and a jug of beer - no complaints there. Gerard continues to try and educate me on the strategy of not filling up on the peripheral foods to enable maximum meat consumption but unfortunately I get equally excited about rice, beans and salad as i do about steak - possibly more so - so it's an art I'm yet to master. I think Gerard probably balances things out for our table in any case.

Aside from the fun stuff, we've also had to spend a bit of time on planning since our next destination is Patagonia and we hear it can get very busy there over Christmas. At last the flights are booked though so we leave for Ushuaia on Tuesday. Hopefully this will be the last place we have to plan in advance with Rio now behind us and Machu Picchu booked up already - much more fun to decide the day before where you fancy going and just go. Funny how quickly we've become accustomed to having that kind of flexibility.