Well, for the first time in over a month, we are no longer all together! Sarah and I are in Santiago in Chile, while Nikki is still in Buenos Aires. This is all to do with the type of tickets we have - Sarah and I are only allowed to fly with One World Alliance members, and unfortunately Aerolineas Argentinas is not one, so we've had to fly all the way over to Chile (and pay the departure tax!) just to fly back down to Argentina tomorrow! Nikki can go direct, so despite the fact that we'll have left BA 24 hours earlier, she'll still be in Ushuaia before us! Its quite strange being separated, so I can only imagine what we're going to be like when she's leaves us for good in May!! The last of our time in Buenos Aires was just as good as the rest. We went on the Recoleta tour which was really good - such a good way to see the city. The Evita tomb was very surprising, we really got to see and hear the other side of the story from our guide Marián who is not really a fan of hers. Recoleta cemetery is the biggest, poshest, most over the top cemetery I have ever seen, and only the elite get to be buried there. She was meant to be a woman of the working classes, so its quite a surprise to see her there. The upper classes did not like her at all, and apparently were not too chuffed with the idea of having Evita's body in the cemetery, so there's no signs or anything to illustrate where it is. Marián's comments really made us think twice, after we'd seen the museum we thought she was everybody's queen but it just goes to show you should always get both sides of the story before you come to any conclusions!!! The Boca game was good, if ridiculously noisy!! They sang and chanted and bashed their drums the whole way through the match, not just when they scored (which they did, 3 times in comparison to Gimnasia LP's nil!). We had a crazy businessman sitting next to us who knew all the words to the songs and sang them very loudly to our immense entertainment! It was a fun evening, and very easy being sheperded around by the hostel, even if it did mean we had to sit there for an hour and half before the game started!!! Yesterday we mostly just pottered around the city, going to see things we wanted to go back to. We poshed it up a bit and went to the Crowne Plaza hotel to go up to their roof top bar which apparently has the best views of the city.....didn't have anything to compare it to but they were very nice!! We could see all the way across to Uruguay....closest we're going to get! In the afternoon we went to the Plaza de Mayo (central square) to see the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, a group of middle aged and elderly ladies who are protesting about the disappearance of their children (young people who were classed as "dissidents") in Argentina's Dirty War in the late 70s and early 80s. The know that they will never get their children back, as they're almost certainly all dead, but they've been fighting ever since to get the truth about what actually happened to them. I studied them in Politics in my second year, and was really intrigued to see them as its a really moving and impressive story. We were told that they had stopped their weekly protests as they no longer have any enemies in the Government, but obviously there are some for whom old habits die hard and they don't feel able to stop. Its quite a sight to see, these little old ladies in their white headscarfs walking silently around the Plaza holding banners and pictures of their loved ones. Its a very silent and dignified protest, and really quite something to behold. Buenos Aires, and probably all of Argentina, seems to be a city of protests as we witnessed at least 2 others while we were there, including a massive one last night which was nothing like as quiet........! Yesterday evening we went to our Tango Show, and it was brilliant. Not quite what we were expecting, mainly cos there wasn't really much dancing, but it was still very entertaining! Trade descriptions would have a field day, tango show was a complete lie!! Turned out to be a rather glamourous lady who felt the need to impart little gems of wisdom like "there's nothing sadder than an opportunity to love that has been missed, and is lost forever" in between wailing her heart out about goodness knows what else!! She did have a lovely voice, and she did have two excellent dancers, who in over an hour of show, managed only 4 dances (!) so it was a very very entertaining evening, but as I said, just not quite what we were expecting!!! We had a few (!) drinks when we got back to the hostel, so a bit less sleep was had than was strictly necessary, so we weren't feeling too sparky when we had to drag ourselves out of bed to get to the airport bright and early this morning! Still, planning an early night tonight as we've got to get a taxi back to the airport at 6am tomorrow......joy! Santiago does seem really nice though, we've had a lovely afternoon (and according to Nikki, its been raining solidly ever since we left Buenos Aires so we're not missing much there!). Its been a beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in the sky which is nice. We've wandered around trying to suss out a good hostel for when we're back here properly, and trying not to look at anything so we haven't done any sightseeing without Nicola! We've found the nicest area of the city, Bellavista, and we think we've found a suitable hostel, not as nice as the one we're in for tonight, but much better location. That part of the city is gorgeous, all low rise buildings and really colourful, with pedestrianised streets, close to all the sights and lots of bars and restaurants etc....perfect for some weary travellers! So I'm off now to get an early night.....5.30 wake up call ahead.......! Caroline x