Nov 2005

The guide book states this is a dangerous place so we made a hotel booking before geting here for Copacobana beach. A nice place, although not a patch on BA and rediculosuly expensive. Our hotel was basically a B&B with two single beds. For the same price we paid for this we could have stayed in a two room suit in the Ritz in La Paz Bolivia!

First day we did a tour of the city centre, OK, but like I said not as good as BA, but the evening was good, we drank Caprinias on beach bars all along Copacobana. I made one of the bar tenders show me how to do it and the next night went to the supermarket to get all the ingredients and made them for Rach and I. It was so amazingly cheap that we were already completely drunk before leaving the hotel. When I get back to the UK anybody who comes round our house will be treated to a dan made Caprinia (I´m bloody good at it according to my tastbuds)

The next couple of days were to be spent on the beach, but it was raining! Raining on Copacobana beach can you believe it, in fact it was overcast so we couldn{t even do the viewpoints and Christ the redeemer!. We did however go to the district of Santa Teresa by tram and see some of the boring sights like the cathedral etc.
Made a decison to leave and come back when the weather gets better

Went to the Argentinian town right in the North near Iguazu falls. Top layed back place where we saw jungle and again for the first time in weeks.

Stayed in a hostel which I though had a swimming pool, but turned out they were still building it. Had dinner of beer and empanadas (which are argentinian fast food until Macdonalds and BK moved down here and in my opinion much better than everything except a big mac), my favourite way to spend a Saturday night. That afternoon we wnet to the point where the 3 countries of Paraguay, Brasil and Argentinia meet. Nothing there except tourist sellers?

Next day went to the Brasilian side of Iguazu falls which involved a border crossing on a bus to the town of Iguacu, on the other side of the border and a bus to the falls. Absolutely amazing, the worlds biggest falls, although not the highest and the photos don´t do it justice. It isn´t like the states, they have built walkways right out so you can walk under the falls and get sprayed on, top. We also took a trip up to Itapu Dam, which is one of the seven modern wonders of the world and the biggest hydroelectric dam in the world, even bigger that the chinese one will be. The geek in me had a good screen saver pictur of me by the dam.

Next day we went to the Argentinian side of the falls. This is much bigger than the Brasilian side (although they have the biggest single fall, the Argentinians have more and lots of trails through the jungle to walk. Spent the whole day there, including a boat ride under the falls. Not like the maid of the mist in the states, here you get on a speed boat which they drive under the falls until the water fills it up and drives it backwards! They give you a dry bag to put all your stuff in and everybody strips down to bikinis and swimwear. Obviosuly this was the day rach forgot to put her bikini on, so we fashioned her a rain coat made of a black binliner she keeps in her bag for emergencies (of what I don´t know). Obviously this did absolutely nothing except make her look stupid in photographs!

Good day and off to Rio tomorrow!

Came back from down South for Rach´s dentist appointments. Went to him immediately to be told that she will need root canal and extraction of both teeth, that will be 3000 quid please - oh my god !!!!!!

Lots of emails to the insurance company followed and it looks like they will pay, but until I see the cash I am bracing myself for the worst. At least Rach will not be in pain anymore and be able to smile nicely again.

Have to say that BA is easily the best place I have visited and I love the place. The fact that the economy is still down means everything is exceeding cheap so we ate and drank loads. Luckily we met up with some friends as soon as we got back here so accompanied each other to lots of different districts.

Saw a football match (too scared to go alone so we got a tourist agency to purchess good seats for us in the season ticket holders area and drive us to and from the match). Ate parilla (which is basically loads and loads of different bits of a cow cooked and then put on a burner infront of you). If you feel brave you can play "guess the gland" with all the offal they also wack down with it, but Rach and I stuck to the big bits of meat you could guess came from which bits of the cow. We saw Tango in the street, went to the "rough part of town" (did it properly and walked there, although there were certain bits of it you don´t go at night and got the bus back) Went shopping, took busses not taxis everywhere, hung out in the park on a sunny day and got drunk on wine with friends. The list goes on, we had an amazing week, I would easily come back here to live and work (I also had a weeks worth of private Spanish lessons to get my chatting up to scratch).

However, although the town was good the dentist wasn´t. Rach went in for her first root canal to be told that she had an infection and couldn´t complete the work until antibiotics took it down 2 - 3 weeks later! Obviously this was a bit of a problem for our travelling, couldn´t stay they for a month, so we got the antibiotics and set of for Iguazu falls and Brasil

Arrived at this National Park town after an exhausting bus journey across the planes of Argentina watching all the cattle (55 million of them). We got a cheaper bu to save money, but couldn´t sleep so immediately we got there booked an expensive one to get back to BA.

Whale watching tours out on a boat were loads more expensive than the guide book said so to save money we had a Spanish speaking guide. Usually most guides only say a thing or two, but this lady spoke non stop for the whole day so Rach and I listened to her drone on for hours, then have a go at us when we wandered off into the park alone about not leaving the guide or something like that?

Went out on a tour boat to watch whales swimming around (although we were the only idiots in shorts and T-shirts so were exceeding cold after 3 hours of hunting aquatic mammals. Whilst in the park we also saw killer whales trying to snatch sealions off the beach (a sight so rare that the guide was jumping around for joy and got the minibus we were in to stop at an illegal place to watch them until a ranger came along and shouted at us). We also saw penguins, armadilos, Elephant seals, and other various wildlife I have no idea of the names.

Whilst in PM we also hired bikes to ride to the local sealion colony and watch sealions sunbathing (there were hundreds of them and alegedy you can watch them "eating/playing/fighting/ etc". We didn´t the lazy buggers, al they did was shuffle up the beach a bit more when the tide came in! It was really cold down south so we spent afternoons drinking tea and eating chocolate.

We also visited the town of Trelew and Gaiman, which were settled by the Welsh years ago. They still have Welsh tea houses where we had an all you can eat Tea and Cakes afternoon. Unlimited homemade cakes and proper Tea, I thought I was in heaven. Unfortunately I ate so much the suger buggered my system up and I spent the whole day feeling sick

On the bus we got a more expensive seat this time where there are only 3 across and even bigger. A very comfotable journey (where we were supplied with meals and wine!) into the amazing Buenos Aires.

The first problem we had was finding somewhere to stay as all the hostels in our guide book were full! As there we not many people touting at the bus station like normal I phoned a few up and in my Spanish was told even their dorms were full! Then someone turned up touting so we went with him (free taxi) and spent our first night since getting to South America in a dorm - it wasn´t good. A few years ago we liked being in dorms, now we are married and Rach seems to have the bladder of an 80 year old so we like our hotel rooms.

Won´t go into much as we are planning to be back here next week so will expand on our BA adventures then.

Phoned the British Embassy, got a dentist recommend then set off to find him. The building had no signs and when we got to the floor it looked like the private appartment of a very rich man. However they spoke English and Rach got seen by a dentist (unfortunately the main man was at a conference) who was obviously very private and very rich. He took her brace wire off, took a couple of xrays then ground some more of her teeth away to make it comfortable. He told us that it looked like the teeth were still alive and with no fractures in the root (good news?) and to go away and come back in a week to see the main dentist when hopefully the teeth may have set and he could repair them - that will be 50 quid please. Rach is in a lot less pain now and the teeth are nearly back in line (although with a chunk missing) so hopefully at the next appointment he will be able to give us some good news about getting them finally sorted.

We spent the next day finding a hostel that was available for the following week when we had to return to the dentist (oh and obviously eating some very good meals). Off to Punto Madryd to see whales now!