Greetings from Buenos Aires!

Horse riding in Mendoza was loads of fun! The horses were very pretty and there was over 50 at the ranch that we did the ride from. Emma was very good even though she had never done it before and the guide wasn't a massive amount of help and kept trying to convince Anna that it was much better to gallop than trot, she wasnt convinced but did it for about 10 seconds anyway (still not convinced!). Also Emmas horse did the longest wee in the history of wees - highly amusing =). Met some lovely people in our hostel and enjoyed just chilling out and watching films that evening. The next day was spent cycling round the massive park in Mendoza and enjoying some really really amzing ice cream (dulce de leche of course!), then hopping on a night bus to Barriloche!

Found an amazing hostel and wondered around the town square which is full of St Bernard dogs and puppys!!!!!!!! CUTE! It also has a fantastic view over the lake with a backdrop of stunning mountains, this along with all the chocolate shops meant we could tell we were going to like Bariloche =). We had nice walk down the beach and treated ourselves to yet some more dulce de leche... Met some more lovely people at the hostel and enjoyed more of Argentinas vino!

After being recommended by a fair few people we caught a bus to Catedral and did a hike up the Frey. It took around four hours and was one of our favorite walks so far, it felt magical walking through the woods with all the tiny leaves falling around us. Up at the top we reached the lodge and the frozen lake and found people skating across the ice! We had a short walk and then warmed ourselves up infront of the fire with a hot chocolate. As we had decided to spend the night at the lodge we stayed firmly infront of the fire untill dinner was served and enjoyed an amazing vege lasagne, impressive and much appreciated at the top of a mountain! Unfortunately we woke up to horrific weather - lots of snow, wind and ice! brrrrrr!! However we ventured out and slid our way back down to the cover of the woods and safely arrived at the bottom very wet and looking forward to a warm shower at the hostel. The next day we were still full of energy so walked up Cerro Campinaro to the most unbelievable 360 degree view of the seven lakes of Bariloche! (Words can't describe how amazing the view was so we shall put up pictures soon!) Following looking at the lakes we then rented some bikes and enjoyed an afternoon cycling around them with our friend Natasha from the hostel. This did tire us out and the next day we caught a bus to El Bolson and had a little wonder around the town and ate amazing cake. El Bolson was pretty quiet so the following day we visited Lago Puelo, enjoyed some shopping at the famous artisan market and got a bus back up to Barriloche in time for Annas birthday the next day - woop! Anna woke up to lots of chocolates and balloons courtesy of Emma! YAY! Birthday cards were opened and then we headed out to find a yummy birthday breakfast! We spent the day chilling out, shopping, enjoying the amazing views, eating more chocolate and finding some yummy birthday cake in a pretty little cafe. That night we celebrated in style and ventured out (with the balloons of course) to Bariloches finest club - Dusk! Feeling much more sensible now one of us was twenty-two we woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed and caught a 20 hour bus to Buenos Aires...

BUENOS AIRES!!! Where to start? Its huuuuge. After asking at reception at our hostel what would be best to do on a Sunday afternoon we were directed to the market in San Telmo, which was again huge. They close off an enitre road and fill it with everything you can imagine, including lots of vintage items and loads of nice jewllery, its very hard to resist! After a submarino (glass of hot milk and a bar of chocolate put together = yum!) We spent the evening meeting some lovely people in the hostel but unfortunately had to tell them we were leaving the next day as it was slightly above our budget. The next morning we enjoyed our free breakfast and walked around the corner to hostel number 2. We met two girls and headed with them to La Boca- a bit of a run down district but home to the famous La Boca Juniors FC and the really cool street Caminito where your surrounded by amazing art and tango dancers. We then went on a free walking cultural tour with Rebekka, it was really interesting and our guide Sol taught us all about the culture of Porteneos (local Buenos Aireans). After this we went to a really yummy local restaurant and sampled some traditional Argentinian dishes. mmmm.The next day we wondered through Recoleta and visited the famous cemetary, it was really spooky. We visited the plaza naciones unidas which contains a giant metal rose which is open during the day and closed at night, it was quite spectacular! We then enjoyed viewing some Argentinian art in the museo de bellas artes - it was really good but a very random combination of contemporary and fine art. Next was time to make all your meat lovers very jelous, a meal at a fantastic local steak house - La Cabrera! Emma enjoyed a big fat steak and Anna had some lovely pasta: it was all very yummy. After we woke up from our food coma we decided to go on the other free tour the company run and learnt all about the history of Buenos Aires. We also had the pleasure of walking though a protest about the Faulklands (Malvinas as they are known here) and tried very hard not to be too obviously English! eeek! However it turns out they have 25 protests a week about all sorts of stuff here and apparently don't tend to know what they are protesting about, so probably didn´t need to worry too much! The rest of the day was spent realxing our legs after the previous few days excursions. We decided we didn´t like our hostel so the next morning we moved to hostel number 3, much much nicer. We hoped for a leisurely day but got lost and so ended up walking yet some more, oopsies! However we were very excited for that evening as we had brought tickets to see the philharmonic orchestra at the recently renovated Teatro Colon - it was wonderful! Emma was made especially jelous by the 10 year old who played piano, she was incredible. The theatre was so beautiful and well worth the mere 25 pesos we paid for our tickets. We headed for some post theatre drinks in San Telmo (yes dahhrling!) and found a really cool jazz bar with happy hour. We were happy! Today we took a ride on the oldest metro in the southern hemisphere - it has original wood panelling in the cars which was really authentic, however we did get some strange looks from the locals (who ride it everyday) when we whipped out the camera for a few pics! In keeping with the times we headed to Cafe Tortino for submarino and churros. Its one of the oldest cafes in Buenos Aires dating from 1858 and today still looks as it did then - beautiful! We wondered around some more vintage shops in San Telmo and are now at the hostel getting ready for a free pizza night at the Ritz (another hostel not the hotel...).

Over the next few days we plan to do some Tango, take a trip to Uraguay and ready ourselves for our week of volunteering and meditating at the ecoyoga park. oh yes, ooohhhhmmmmm.

Can't believe we're over half way, missing you all lots!

Love Anna and Em x