Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad from sunny South America!

We are thinking of you all on this Christmas Eve and wishing that we could be celebrating with you and sharing a Christmas cocktail or two. We hope that you are all having a very happy holiday with family and friends. We've posted a little Christmas video message for all of you under the video tab if you can bear to watch it! :)

We've had some trouble accessing the internet lately, so we've just posted a few of our most recent travel blogs and photo albums: one from Mancora, Peru (Dec. 1), one from Mar del Plata (Dec. 8) and Buenos Aires, Argentina (Dec. 10) and this one from Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay (Dec. 24) if you want to check them out. We'll also be posting the last few segments of our trip for your viewing pleasure in the next few days.

Sacramento was definitely one of our highlights on the trip and by far the "cutest" town we've ever seen. You'll notice in the photos that we've labelled lots of things with the word "cute", but we couldn't help ourselves...and if you check them out, you'll see why!

We stayed in a "cute" little hotel called La Mision in the old town. We were only planning to stay two nights, but ended up staying for five. The beautiful cobblestone streets and quaint old buildings drew us in and enchanted us. It was an incredibly peaceful town, perfect for relaxing and just "being". The people were friendly and the sunsets outstanding. We rented a motorcycle for a couple of days and spent our time cruising along the beaches and having picnics in the sand. Motorcycles and scooters are cheap there too and are one of the main modes of transportation for locals and tourists.

The many outdoor cafes and shops were great to explore. Most of the food here was really great, although we did order one meal that sounded good in spanish, but when it actually appeared, we had no idea what any of it was. It looked horrible (blood sausage, heart maybe?, other weird stuff) that we mostly fed to the dogs that were lurking around!

We rented a car for a couple of days too and explored some little towns nearby. The landscape on the road to Carmelo had us convinced that we had been plopped right back smack dab in the centre of southern Alberta with it's corn fields and hay bails. It was nice to feel a touch of home so far away! We drove the car to Montevideo, and along the southern coast of Uruguay. It was a beautiful drive and we arrived for our flight out of Montevideo to Iguazu in plenty of time.

We are thinking of you all and hope you have a wonderful new year!

Keep in touch....we're slightly homesick over the holidays!

Stacy and Shelly