Buenos Aires, Argentina

We got 5 days in the city, which was just about enough even though I really love this place. We stayed in the Milhouse hostel which is a great spot for meeting people and generally good craic. We managed to fit in most of the touristy stuff, we went to a Boca match on Sunday stakehouse on tuesday, trip to Tigre on Wednesday kind of quaint old place (was grand but wouldnt go mad).

10 of us (5 Irish, 4 English, 1 Dutch) went to the Cafe Tortini to watch a live Tango show, which was pretty entertaining, the musicians were class. Other than that, the people of BA made a great impression and I have expanded my spanish vocabulary by about 10 words.

Today we got a boat from BA to Colonial in Uruguay, boat was grand but there wasnt anything to do there so we only spent about 4 hours there which was more than enough, but we did get an extra stamp on the passport so it was all worthwhile !!

Leaving for the airport in 5 hours, flying to Quito via Lima, so that will make 4 countries in the previous 20 hours. Goodluck

R

Puerto Iguazu to Argentina

Wow saw some crazy waterfalls today!!seriously amazing!!will have pics and hopefully videos up soon!did a fair trek around the waterfalls, arrived at the area early to beat the heat and the other tourists so even got to see some monkeys before they were frightened away! got a speed boat which actually drove into 2 waterfalls a few times - we knew we'd get wet but we had no idea exactly how wet!!seriously soaking!thank god the camera was waterproof!!after the trek headed back to puerto iguazu and got a 17 hour bus to buenos aires - Orla freaked as she couldnt find the valium tabs but actually fell asleep before the bus departed and only woke when we arrived!!!(no need to valium after the trek!), hostel in BA is great, free internet (hence the up to date blog) and were heading out tonight to meet with a random argentinian bloke called Brian that Ro's friends mum arranged - really looking forward to a night out with real locals! hello to all!xxx (clearly Orla wrote this blog what with the trillion exclamation marks!!!!)xxx

Foz to Puerto Iguazu

There is not a whole lot to do in Foz, so we eneded up going to the Zoo, which was small but free so well worth it. We bought Lana a pet Aligator, which is in the post !!

This moring we went to the Brazilian side of the falls which were amazing (see photos) even if they were touristville (Disneyland Brazil). We then crossed over to Argentina where we´ll spend the next week, were staying in a nice lady called Lola´s house.

Tomorrow morning were gonna walk along the Argentinan side of the falls and then a 17hrs bus to Buenos Aires (BA forever more) where we´ll spend a week. We should say we just had lovely lunch with a litre of beer to wash it down for 19 pesos (bout 4e)

Foz de Iguacu (Iguazu Falls)

Orla and I left Rio yesterday morning at 11 and after enjoying every comfort our lovely hotel could offer it was time to blend in with the backpackers, a 23hr bus journey from east to west Brazil saw to that. It was even delayed by 2 hours so we managed to spend more than entire day on it. Despite sounding afwul it wasn't actually that bad, we were sitting beside a lovely Aussie couple (who also love the castle), were actually meeting them for dinner later.

Foz is grand, but we wont really have to much opportunity to see it as we're leaving for the falls early tomorrow and then straight to Argentina.

We have our passports with us so we might hop over to Paraguay for a "kodak moment" its about 15 minutes walk, Argentina is about 20!! Photos will be up in due course.

Hope all is well.

Rio

Arrived in Rio Saturday but alas we were bagless!!poor orla was stuck in her "beautiful" travelling ensemble - which comprised of plastic pink shoes, pink trousers which looked like pajamas and a moderately respectable black top. If you wish to view this wonderful collaberation please look at all photos dated for first 3 days !!!!

Anyway in Rio, our hotel is both classy and comfortable, Orla as you can imagine blended in seemlessly with the classical furniture and art nevo decorations. As for Rio - its a great city (and somewhat safer than we expected), day one we went to the Copacabana which is nice but generally like any beach youd find along the costa del sol - so without Barry Manolo id say the beach wouldnt be the tourist trap it is!!next we got a cable car to the sugar loaf where the view was amazing (see pics) and we flukily arrived for sunset so it was great!!









Next morning we panned by the pool in the hope that our bags would arrive but alas it was not to be so we headed off on a tour of the Maracana (massive football stadium for the girls, like myself who would not have known this!!) - i do fear ro is bringing me on a sports tour of the world!!!Pre-maracana our tour guide brought us to an exclusive movable bar!!haha - this consisted of a man with a cart full of ice and beer who we had to follow every time the police got near!!!gas as all the irish were sticking closely to the beers!!met up with some culchies they were great craic even if it was easier to understand the brazilians (with no english). The 7 of us managed to get very drunk and engage in a drunken sing song on the bus back, as most of you have heard me sing the best way to describe the ordeal for the other passengers is to say that I wasn't the worst !!

Now we best be off, we have to organise a 23 hr bus journey to Igassu falls and go see Jesus.

Hope everyone is well

PS: Thanks to Ro and Nead for help with the baggage locatingxxx

Before we go

Despite 4 years of Comp Si, I have never had my own website before not to mention that I have never previously ventured into the world of blogging either !! But now seems like a good time to change that and it all seems very user friendly I reckon you could even though this without wasting 4 years learning about finite state automata (I promise this is the last time I will mention such things). Anyway I think I have everying in place so gonna spent the next 30-40 miutes trying to shove everything into my bag.