Paris of the South

We had to fly the ridiculous route of Rio - Santiago - Buenos Aires for some reason, which is like flying London - Prague - Madrid but it was hassle free and we reminisced about arriving in South America 5 months ago, as we started in Santiago last September.

So, Buenos Aires where they dance Tango on the streets, dinner starts at midnight and clubs "get going" after 3AM.

We`ll be in Buenos Aires twice more so we had a relaxing couple of days in San Telmo district, the city centre and an afternoon looking around Boca (pics 1,3 & 5), the poor district of BA that is also home to Madonna`s former team Boca Juniors. He is everywhere, as you`d expect, here`s me with my 80`s style hairdo (that´s me in the white T-shirt).

I`m sure Bec took photo no.2 deliberately to highlight Argentina`s upturn since the 2001 economic crisis; the old and the new BA with the 19th Century architecture overshadowing the HSBC office(!) The 2nd to last pic shows the view from the roof terrace in the hostel. If you look closely you can see that they serve decent beer unlike the Brazilian water we had to drink in Rio. I did not agree with Bec to bring back Skol.

Our final few weeks` itinerary is;

-Uruguay now until Saturday - we took the ferry this morning to a small town called Colonia, the process was unbelievably slick including passport control and customs, we even checked in our rucksacks like you do on a plane.
-A few more days in BA, maybe a Boca match on Sunday (went to River Plate on sunday - fanatical support)
-Visit Mendoza, Argentina`s main wine region
-Bariloche in the heart of the Argentinian lake district
-Back to BA for more Tango, steak, wine and footie
-Home 24th March
-Work 26th March!!!

PS Before Ste starts another haircut debate I am going to a hairdressers right now...