Argentina

The Iguacu Falls
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The Iguacu Falls is on the border with Argentina and Brazil and we spent two days here, one on each side. You get much nearer the water on the Argentinean side, so this was definitely our favourite. There are about 275 falls dropping about 80- metres, with the highlight being a fall called the Devil's Throat - where about 1.8 million litres of water falls every second.

Buenos Aires
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We ended up in Buenos Aires for a week in an area called San Telmo, south of the city centre. San Telmo was a great spot - full of colourful little streets, cafes and restaurants. The area is famous for its Sunday market - although this fell on Christmas Day the market was still in full swing. The area had a real bohemian feel to it and even though we had a wander around Recoleta and Palermo we always ended up coming back to the old reliable San Telmo.

Steak for Christmas Dinner
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There was very little build up to Christmas in Argentina. At midnight, however, the fireworks started. Even the police across from our hostel got in on the act - letting their sirens go on for about 20 minutes and ignoring all the illegal fireworks exploding all around them. The Chinese shopkeeper below us forgot that there was a second level to the building when he started letting of his fireworks - we were lucky to come out of it safely as we watched from above.....On Christmas Day, we had planned a Tango Show followed by a Christmas Dinner of steak. Although we never got to a show, the Christmas Dinner more than made up for it.

Boca Juniors
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San Telmo borders an area called La Boca, which was the first port of call for many European immigrants in the last century. La Boca is now most famous for its football team - Boca Juniors. Boca is the team of most of Buenos Aires now, with plenty of the restaurants and bars having Boca memorabilia on the walls. Diego Maradona played for Boca at the beginning and the end of his career, and there are still many murals of him around the stadium where Boca plays.

Cycling in the wineries
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After Buenos Aires, we took a 15 hour journey to Mendoza, in the West of Argentina. Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina, and is one of the nine Global Network great wine capitals  of the world. Nearly all of Argentina's wine is produced here. We rented out the bikes, got a map and cycled around to different wineries where we were given tours and tasting sessions - One of our more enjoyable days so far.

Transport in Argentina
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The buses in Brazil and Argentina are great. There are three general levels of long distance bus - the semi-cama (or half-bed), the cama (bed) and the premium cama. There are only three seats per row in the cama and premium cama giving very wide seats and lots of leg room. You can also recline the seat half way back (cama) or fully back (premium cama) without disturbing the person next to you. Food and blankets are provided, and there is also a coffee machine on board as well.