Don´t cry for me Argentina!

So after seeing all that Uruguay had to offer, which to be fair, was not a lot, we jumped on the short ferry ride across the La Plata river to Argentina. The ferry ride made me feel a little seasick, I don´t know why but I feel more seasick on a huge ferry than a tiny little dingy of a boat!

As soon as we neared Buenos Aires the skies seemed to clear and you could tell that Argentina was going to be a vast improvement on Uruguay. The skyline was a really impressive first sight, and the more I saw of Buenos Aires the more I fell in love with it. It is hugely European influenced, and infact it did not feel like you were in South America, more like Europe, not just because of the architecture and the people but also because it was absolutely freezing! South America is suffering from an incredibly cold winter also this year, which is bad news for us as we move further south.

One thing the Argentinian´s did very well was pasta, it was absolutely delicious, and not hugely expensive, the dishes were big enough to share, which meant we could share a few dishes between us, and there were lots of veggie options too. Something I was a little apprehensive about being in the land of steak!

A night out had to happen as we were in the capital of Argentina. In Buenos Aires nobody goes out until at least midnight and nobody goes to clubs until 2am, so we were prepared for a late one. Unfortunately we played ring of fire when having pre-drinks so I only lasted until about 3.30am, I peaked far too soon, and frankly cannot remember very much from the night, apart from losing my room key and being sick in somebody elses bathroom! I totally blame the cheap vodka which was called Peter´s, it was entirely Peter´s fault!

The next morning was extremely rough, getting out of bed was a massive struggle, but there was much to see in the massive city, so struggle out of bed is what I did. We went to the La Boca district, which is near the mouth of the river, and where many of the first people to arrive settled. It is very vibrant, all the little houses are painted in different colours, and there was tango shows going on all over the street. There was also a fake Diego Maradona to have a picture taken with, who from the back perhaps could have pulled it off, but infact looked nothing like him at all. We had a quick look around the Boca Juniors stadium which was pretty massive, and saw the surrounding areas which were a bit of a dive and explained why we were told not to stay in this district past 4pm.

We were lucky to be in Buenos Aires on a Thursday, as this is the day that the mothers of may protest every week between 3.30 and 4pm around an obelisk in the Plaza de Mayo. They have protested every week for 30 years to ask for justice for the missing generation of Argentinian youths, who were taken from their families and either killed or sent to live with the very people who had killed their parents. The story is truly awful, and seeing these little old women and other people marching was heartbreaking, their faces etched with tragedy and loss. It is truly inspiring that they continue in their quest for justice and the truth.

The central plaza and surrounding areas are beautiful, all the buildings are gorgeous, in particular the pink house with its famous Evita balcony, and the Cabildo. There are just so many amazing buildings dotted all over the city.

A trip to Buenos Aires would not be complete without a visit to the world famous Cafe Tortoni, you have to queue for a table outside, but it did not take too long to get in, the inside was lavish and decadent, it has been visited by the likes of Hilary Clinton and Susan Sarandon, and now I can add my name to the list!

I did visit a steak house in the night and was mightly suprised to find that there were vegetarian options, and it was a bloody good omelette they made aswell. It is nowhere near as hard being a veggie in South America as I thought it would be!

I visited many more sights in Buenos Aires, inluding the famous cemetary where Evita was laid to rest. It´s incredible, so different to anything we have back home. These huge mausoleums where you can look in the window and see the coffins. I imagine you´d have to pretty wealthy to get a spot here, judging by how decadent some of the mausoleums were. I also went to the Obelisk which is the famous spot where Boca fans celebrate their team winning, and where Diego Maradona said he would run round naked if Argentina won the world cup, thank god they didn´t! Other pretty districts were San Telmo with its cobbled streets lined with antique and vintage stores and Palermo Soho which is where we went clubbing, and also had a cute market and little shops all around.

We were supposed to leave Buenos Aires for Bariloche a day before we actually did, but there was a bus strike-standard South America-and so the departure got pushed back until the next day.

It was a good day for a 24 hour bus journey because it was torrentially raining so there wasn´t much else we could do anyway. The bus journey was not awful. It went quite quickly, and we even had 3 meals included, the highest quality fare of course! I watched Taken on the bus, which was the biggest load of rubbish I have ever seen, Liam Neeson spouting the cheesiest lines ever, and wiping the floor in the most brutal fashion with every enemy he came across, it was just ridiculous. I managed to sleep a bit but it was so bloody cold on board despite my incredible amount of layers that it was difficult to get comfortable.

Finally we got to Bariloche at mid morning and after checking into a really cute hostel called Periko´s we set out to explore the town. Bariloche is the gate to Patagonia, so you can imagine it was pretty cold, in fact it was downright freezing!

We went to the Cerro campinari which is apparently in National Geographics top 10 scenic views in the world! When we got there, there was an enourmous 2 group, at least 2 bus loads of people, cueing for the ski lift which meant we had to wait in the rain, and got absolutely drenched, we finally got the ski lift up the top and unfortunately what we found was not quite top 10 scenic view in the world worthy. It was really overcast and the clouds were really low hanging which ruined the view slightly, it was still beautiful, but not as postcard picture perfect as it could have been. It was absolutely freezing at the top too as it was so open and their was no cover or shelter. After having a quick look around we made our way back down and headed for the town. It is a really cute town, very swiss influenced, like a little alpine retreat, unfortunately due to the bus strike we didn´t really have enough time to explore it more fully, or taste any of its famous chocolate.

What we did have time for though was a hike. We did the tronador hike, which was an all day outing, but only about 4 hours total of pretty mild hiking. It snowed the entire day and we trekked all through the beautiful scenery. We trekked firstly to a pretty cool waterfall, which was impressive though obviously had nothing on Iguazu! After this we stopped and had lunch in a ridiculous restaurant, which took forever to get anything, I only ordered a hot chocolate and it took nearly an hour to come, crazy! We then did another trek to the black glacier, this was a really fun trek as we got to sledge down some parts as well, and we made snow angels along the way. Unfortunately we could not see much of the black glacier as once again it was pretty overcast and the low lying cloud concealed much of it, but the views generally were pretty spectacular. The drive back was beautiful, and we went down to see the lake that Bariloche is built upon, and its stunning surroundings.

Tomorrow I am moving into Chile to Puerto Varas, which I have been told is one of the rainiest places in South America so the odds aren´t good for a dry day there, hopefully it will be a little warmer than here, but I am not holding out much hope. Onto a new South American country and a new stamp for the passport.