The bus ride and ferry over were great, Uruguay had lush countyside and the ferry gave good views of the Buenos Aires skyline as we arrived.

We headed to the hostel in a taxi... The locals said Boca wasn't the safest place to be as backpackers. On arrival, thank god, we were pleased! The hostel was in a good central location, was clean, had plenty of loos, a well equipped kitchen and it had ping pong balls! We decided seen as we were in Argentina we had to try steak, so we hit he local supermarket. We cooked up a feast, steak, corn on the cob, fries and fresh salsa. Probably the first decent meal we had in a week or two! Brazil and Uruguay were just too expensive.

The next day we planned to do the Free Buenos Aires tour in the morning. We headed to the Congressional Square to meet our guide, Gastol. The morning tour took in the central street in BA, showing us the political buildings, the beautiful architecture and the lesser known attractions, like the coffee shops famous with the locals and the original underground stations. It was great to have someone to show us around the city and get a real understanding of the countries founding history. On Gastols reccommendation we headed to Al Pasos for lunch to get a beast of a steak sandwich with all the trimmings, fries and a coke. It was damn good! We then headed to the prestige shopping centre to have a browse, unfortunately that was all we could do... the price tags were slightly above our budgets! We headed home via the most famous coffee shop in Buenos Aires for a beverage Cafe Tortonis. Was rather fancy! As we headed home a storm was a brewing! We waited patiently for it to arrive and when it did we went out in our boxers to play, we even managed to get/drag Carly out to play in it even though her hair would go curly! And we also showered.... Might as well kill two birds with one stone! Was an awesome end to a great day =)

Next day we wanted to do the evening tour of the city, taking in a different sights and info. In the morning we tent shopping as we had planned to start camping as we head into Patagonia, and keep them for when we get to the states. After a look around with a few names and prices we headed to the tour. Again, Gastol was our guide. Again, he did a great job! This time we took in the sights of Retiro and Recoleta. Completely different tour from the morning, giving a more recent history of the country and their relations and showing the European influences in the city, including the architecture and ice cream! We got lots of little tips from him as we left, we headed for pizza and empinadas on his advice... Tasty and cheap... And we got crayons to draw on the table, woop!

The next day we started where the tour had finished, the Cemetary in Recoleta, the burial ground of Evita. The Cemetary was incredible... The tombs were huge. Some spectacular and well kept and others crumbling, was strange to see this contrast all in one place. We strolled for the rest of the afternoon, with a bit of ice cream of course! We took in the Arts Museum Gardens and the port of Retiro, the richest part of town. Was nice weather and the views were cracking. On route we picked up our tickets to Puerto Madryn (our next stop) and Daves second pair of Ray Bans... The first pair lasted 4 days! We went home via a coffee house for a toastie, coffee and OJ, all for £2! We like Argentina! The evening ended with some ping pong. Probably about 3 hours worth, was becoming a bit of an addiction for Alex and Dan!

The next day we had booked into The Argentine Experience. It was GREAT! We started by donning aprons and customisable chefs hats, and an iced Mate, the drink of Argentina (it's basically tea through a straw!). We then moved onto making empinadas and drinking a selection of Argentine reds. After perfecting the art of empinada folding we began the Creative Empinada competition... Carly's entry, a Maltese cross and a wind turbine. Daves, a copy of the table in front of him (lots o wine!). Picketts, a dragon/lizard and Alex's, a giraffe waving a British flag. Everyone else submitted thief entries and as we ate the empinadas we made earlier the judges made their decision, a victory to the British! They liked the giraffe and it won Alex an Argentina keying! We finished the afternoon with a hot Mate, you fill your cup with Mate, covering it in 85 degree water, then drinking I through a straw with a filter. Everyone drinks it here, you can almost always see someone carrying one around them with them! With these we had Alfojores; sweet treats, made of biscuits, Dulche du Leche, dried coconut and chocolate. It was awesome, and we got to learn how to make loads of cool and traditional bits - well worth the money of you are ever in BA! That evening we had a tango lesson at the hostel, which was great! The language barrier posed some problems, but we broke through it to be able to manage a few steps within the 45 minutes we had with the tutor!

The final day, Dave, Alex and Carly headed to Boca to view the Stadium (in WAY better condition than the one in Urugauy) and the neighbourhood of coloured houses! It was great, with a circus like atmosphere! Was a good way to end our AMAZING time in Buenos Aires!