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After 3 weeks of isolation on the farm, we were excited to be heading to the city of Rosario in Argentina. This is an attractive city perched on the Paraná River and is famed for its restaurants and nightlife…unfortunately for us, we chose badly and had some of the worst food of our trip here… James managed to eat 3 burgers in 1 day on a quest to find a decent one! Having failed we turned to shopping as we were itching to spend some of the money we'd saved on the farm, but it was all in earnest…an abundance of C&A's and discount stores made us pack up and move swiftly on to Buenos Aires, our favourite city in South America.
We arrived in the city on Friday and our friends Fede and Jime took us on a weekend road trip to the coast, to a small town called Miramar. As it is winter in Argentina the place was freezing, definitely not sunbathing weather but fine enough to fire up a BBQ in the woods…it kept us entertained and warm, along with numerous bottles of Argentina's finest red. For two days we relaxed on the coast, drinking coffee, walking along the deserted beaches and scoffing meat and wine.
We spent our final week in South America shopping for at least thirty hours, eating and drinking for about the same and sightseeing for about two hours! The secret to knowing a city well as a tourist is to have friends to show you around. Fede and Jime are the perfect tour guides and kept us entertained at fine restaurants, bars and tango clubs, as well as taking us to some of the local hotspots off the gringo trail. We returned the favour and took them to 'La Cabrera' the most touristy restaurant in Argentina, where we had to wait 1 ½ hours for a table and were surrounded by rowdy drunk Americans…oh the life of a traveller!
Finally the time came to leave. It was quite an emotional departure at the airport as this was the end of our 8 month Latin American adventure, or so we thought. Thanks to Aerolineas Argentinas, the world's most dysfunctional airline, we were delayed for 3 days for our flight to New Zealand. This gave us ample time to shop, shop again and a little bit more, reflect on our journey so far and dream of the next stop.
On reflection, we've loved Latin America, the ever-changing landscapes, the friendly people, the chaos and the calm. It's been a yo-yo journey…from zero degrees in Patagonia, Argentina, to 40 degrees on the Caribbean in Colombia, from emotional highs to the very lows (in Bolivia) and from making some wonderful new friends to missing all those at home.
We've seen some of the most amazing natural and man-made sights in the world; Palenque Ruins (Mexico); Tikal Ruins (Guatemala); Christ the Redeemer (Brazil); Iguazu Falls (Brazil/Argentina), Perito Moreno Glacier (Argentina); Parque de los Glaciares (Argentina), Machu Picchu (Peru); Lake Titicaca (Peru/Bolivia); Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia); Atacama Desert (Chile) and Tayrona National Park (Colombia) to name a few of our favourites.
Experiencing a different culture is always a challenge, a big surprise and for us and a great enjoyment. We're sad that this part of our trip is over but we're left with amazing memories, experiences and friends for a lifetime and we're certain to return again in the future.
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