03 - Tango, Uruguay and Dog'tanian

Ben I apologise, it has been nearly a week since my last post, poor even by your standards.......

Well the last 6-7 days....where do I start! I guess where I left off would be best. After the Asado I took a day to chill out and met some new guys who had arrived at our hostel after escaping from 'Milhouse Hostel' (the place I had booked next) We chilled out in the day and played ping pong a lot and then we were serenaded by an Argentinian band who were staying at our hostel, their singing was nothing short of amazing! When I say we were serenaded, what I really mean is the girls were serenaded and they took particular enjoyment from learning how to say I love you in English! They didnt speak a word of English and our Spanish was nothing short of limited, however we had a great time with them all evening. Somehow we ended up heading to a Drum and Bass club at 1-2 in the morning via Mc Donalds which was also playing some choice tunes!

I spent the next two days with these guys, Lauren and Lucy from Oz and Peter from London. We headed to Palermo the next day and walked around 'Cat Gardens' and the shops and markets there.

Amy (Easterbrook) was arriving that evening and I made a bit of a mess of meeting her at the airport by not actually being there, however she made it in one piece and we checked into Milhouse Hostel.......The jury is still out on that one but we spent the next 4 days there, it is huge and very english drinking orientated however you can escape all that if you know how! All i will say was it didnt feel like you were in a foreign country one bit!!

The next morning Amy and Grace arrived and again I made a bit of a mess of that one!! Hoever we found them in a cafe up the street at about 11 and went for a walk and some food. It was a Sunday and combined with being world cup final day the city was very dead!! We headed over to my old hostel to watch the game and I ended up getting roped into going for a tango experience that evening with a few of the others while the girls chilled out in the evening and caught up on their sleep!

The tango was a laugh, with a few hilarious americans, a lot of brazillians and a couple of clumsy english men (me and peter) and some giggly aussie girls. Peter named himself Pedro Tango and was called that all night by the instructor! At the end we saw a tango show and had a 3 course dinner, all in all a very good experience for about 35 pounds!

The next day we headed to La Boca, which has all the colourful houses you see in brochures.....it was good, we got a tube to more or less totally the wrong place and stubbled around some fairlyn remote areas of the city until we found it, got some great photos which I will upload of here.

The next day we chilled out and sorted out what we were going to do the next day and afterwards. After much debate we booked it all as one trip which seemed like a lot but was amazing value in my view, expecially after some of the costs I had in the past in Australia!

That night we said our goodbyes to Lauren and Lucy (Pete had left) over the most amazing softest steak the world has seen!

Part of the trip was a day return to Uruguay and the whole day I had this clip in my head

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLVJm7QW3dA

It was a nice little colonial town with loads of dogs and cobbled streets. We made friends with two dogs, Dog'tanian and Cheryl, who followed us all day, stayed outside shops when we went in and chased off any other dogs and cars (yes cars not cats) that went near us! I was particularly fond of Cheryl and she of me, she followed me to the bank on my own and when the others went off she stayed with me, I started training her and she is nearly able to sit and come when asked........sadly although she followed me all the way to the ferry port I had to say goodbye......who'd have thought I'd have found love in such a far flung place!

So! I am nearly up to date, we spent the best part of the last 24 hours on a bus from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu. The bus was phenomenal! Huge fully reclining soft seats, equivalent to what I can only guess First class is like with Virgin! We had great food some loveley wine (whisky and champagne which I missed out on-zzzzzzzzzz) and a greta brekafast. I had 8-9 hours sleep slightly disrupted by a little girl who was crying, however Owly came to the rescue and an hour of cuddling with him and she was much happier!

So we have now arrived been to see the border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay and we are due to be up at the crack of dawn to see the falls properly!!

As per usual no photos yet but patience is a virtue!!

Mum Dad: you can tidy my room if you like I would really appreciate that, but please dont go overboard, im sure being unemployed when I return will give me plenty of time to do a proper job of it, the clothes on the floor are all clean in piles! I miss you all, are Ben and Rachel back and how was the campervan! I also left the gadget of the year (iPhone) in Buenos but luckily the girls are going back in two days and it is safe with the Hostel staff!

Thats about all folks!

Ps. Mike I saw some nice cat chicas here in 'Cat Gardens' that I know you would like, and none of the boys were bigger than you, so if you fancy a change of scenery, I will give you some details of friends here you can stay with!!

J