Hostel- America Del Sur 718 Chacabuco, San Telmo

Sorry there's been nothing for ages but to be honest we've been doing
little of note but trying to keep our heads down since swine flu took
over BA. Loads of restaurants and public buildings are closed and it's
not really advisable to get the bus or tube. We've mostly been hanging
out with Nic and on Saturday we did go for an outing with her
boyfriend to a very quiet Malba museum to see some modern art. There
were some lovely pieces but I thought the most beautiful lay outside-
a huge metal lotus flower that opens in the sunlight and closed at
night. It is right next to the highway and every time we pass it I
fall more in love with it.

Am finding it hard to sit down as I write this... We are extremely
sore from a sports filled day.Monday was horrendous thunder and
lightening and we went to Nic's boyfriends flat and did very little.
So yesterday we felt we needed to get out of town and see the Delta River
in the Tigre region. Most people get the train and then take a
pleasure boat ride but being slightly mad we opted for a 25km cycle
ride and then kayak!

Our guide was a hilarious ex gaucho Avid Merrion lookalike called
Xavier and it was excellent because although we had booked to be part
of a group it was just the three of us (me, Charles and Nic.)
We set off cycling just as it started to rain so we got a good
soaking. After 20 minutes and some Buddhist chanting from Nic,
however, the sun came through and we cycled along like ducklings
through the very rich neighbourhoods of north Buenos Aires surrounded
by beautiful houses. We stopped for Mate which is a very bitter tea
drunk in a cup with a straw and rituals attached to it. In the current
climate it was perhaps unwise to share the straw as ritual dictates
but it would have been very offensive not to do so.

To take our minds off our gradually numbing behinds Xavier told us a
little more of the sad history that Argentina has suffered. We had
seen the mothers who hold a permenant vigil for their sons that had
been lost under military rule but he told us about the estimated 5000
people that were killed in gas chambers and regular "death flights"
where hundreds were just pushed out of the doors of planes. It makes
you realise how little history you actually know and learning us such
a fantastic part of our trip.

It wasn't all doom and gloom though- we had quite a comical moment
when we were asking what we would see in the delta river and he named
a few things- trees, horses, then he said something else we didn't
understand so we played a small game of charades...monkeys? budgies?
cockateels? Mosquitoes? Hang on he says and looks it up in his
dictionary.. "Crocodiles" he announces and it all goes a bit quiet!
We didn't see any crocs though.. After we were very tired of cycling
we arrived at the boat club to collect the 2 person kayaks.
Nic cleverly went with the guide who does proffessional competitions
so spent the day mostly sunbathing. We, however spent the day going
mostly from one bank of the river to the other as we couldn't keep it
in a straight line!

The Delta river is very polluted and a bit brown and smelly but either side there are houses with little piers and it is very tranquil and beautiful- especially after the grime of Buenos Aires. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant at the side of the river...."it is closed because of swine flu¨ Xavier announced ¨but we are friends so he will cook for us¨ we wentinto the huge empty complex and were asked ¨chicken or pasta?¨ Nic and I opted for pasta and were presented wth a huge plate of green spaghetti. Just green spaghetti- no sauce or anything with it. Charles was feeling pleased with himself for opting for chicken until he nearly ate 3 flies in his lettuce...!

We got back into our Kayaks feeling a little queasy and started the zig zag back...as you can imagine we were in quite a lot of pain by then but we only crashed once on the way back so we´d definately improved! The hairiest bits are the huge catamarans passing on the main stretch by the port0 we nearly wemt straight through the middle underneath one!

We´d just forgotten how sore our bums were because our arms ached and we pulled the canoes out of the water and jumped back on our bikes and cycle to the train station to come back to Buenos Aires finding it hard to sit down on the saddle! It was a great trip to do though and really lovely to get out of the city. We were rewarded for our efforts with a fantastic barbecue (or Asado) from Nic´s boyfriend with loads of beautiful steaks and yummy food. We had a lovely evening and got back late, tired and sore but contented with full bellies!

Now we´re off to Ushuaia at the end of the coutry- the southernmost city in the world where it will be snowing and freezing but hopefully stunningly beautiful...