Iguazu Falls.

 Close to three kilometres wide and almost 300 separate waterfalls, we had made it, with only the slight hiccup of all the ATM’s in the town being out of money and in turn us being left with no cash for entrance, this saw us put our visits in reverse, so with the clear blue skies it was over the border to Brazil.  Although my grandmother wasn’t impressed with my weekly photo of “just some waterfalls” It was beautiful, the sprawling falls, the clean park, everything but those terrifying little animals, the coati, an ant eater faced oversized possum like creature that attacked anything that resembles food and those foolish enough to try and eat around them. The Brazilian side of the falls is the more visually pleasing side and gives some amazing panoramic views, it also allows you to walk a platform under ‘The Devils Throat’ which is the most impressive of all the falls and devides Brazil and Argentina. 

 The next day, in not such beautiful weather, It was back over to Argentina to experience Iguazu for a second time, with two thirds of the falls belonging to this side it is a bit more adventurous, you are a lot closer to the action with paths through the forest, animals popping up from everywhere and sections where we were actually alone in silence without a single other tourist, something that would be impossible to achieve on the Brazillian side. 

 
Whist there we decided why not experience the falls directly, so we boarded the boat, tucked our clothes in, and held on for dear life. It was soon very apparent that no amount of tightening our drawstrings was going to help us, we were soaked through, every layer, and the sheer force of the falls so intense all we could do is cradle our heads and scream a little. I can’t say it was enjoyable, but it was definitely something for the experience list.   

   Iguazu falls is one amazing natural site, and after we had a money mishap everyone we spoke to said it would be better to see the Brazilian side before the Argentinian, and I would have to agree especially if you catch some suburb sunshine as we did. 

Buenos Aires.

 

Mimicking a European city the Argentine capital put me at ease from the start, and being home to my favourite guy Papa Frankie made this city complete for me. Arriving in Buenos Aires a little trip to the cambio was in order. Basically the Argentinian economy is shot and their money is pretty useless, the fact their largest bank note is the equivalent to six dollars gives you this impression from the get go. For the visiting tourists this is good news- welcome the blue market, where if you are in possession of US dollars or Euros you can change them on the street at a significantly higher rate than what the banks give you. Once we made it to the appropriate street everyone was wanting our dollars. Knowing the going rate for the blue market we simply went to the first person who was willing to give it to us, and we were thrilled we did, on one swift move we were in the back of a tiny flower stand swapping cash behind a curtain, definitely adding to the experience, and making it feel a whole lot sneakier. 

Buenos Aires is huge with over 15 million people, but in no way gives the feeling of its size as it is divided into multiple neighbourhoods. During our stay we tried to visit a few, starting with Recoleta, which contains what is strangely enough one of the city’s main tourist attraction the Cemetario de la Recoleta. This cemetery almost like a mini city holds the crypts of Argentinas elite, built up and decorated with marble and gold it is huge and even offers a map to assist with your visit, definitely reflecting the neighbourhood it is housed in.  

 Palermo was next, said to be the hipster neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, we wandered the funky streets surrounded by bars and cafes but We were there for one main reason, La Cabrara! This fancy restaurant houses what is believed to be one of the best steaks in Argentina and they do a pre Argentina dinner time seating, where they offer 40 percent off. Once again my dislike for steak didn’t work in my favour and my options were limited to salad. According to Ruth the steak was superb and my salad wasn’t too bad either. La Boca the colourful working class district of BA was our last visit, Full of coloured buildings and tango in the streets, this neighbourhood was great to spend some time wandering in, but definitely too overpriced for us to eat.
 Before we knew it, our time in this wonderful city was over, one filled with so many different areas you could spend countless weeks there, said to be the Paris of Latin America and we definitely felt that European influence like no where else here. 

Mendoza.

Reaching Argentina it was a given that we would visit the biggest wine region it has and arriving from Santiago it was a nice surprise to be welcomed by the wide tree lined streets and parks of Mendoza. 

After spending a few days eating our way around the city, and drinking copious amounts of red at our hostel, it was wine tour day. Coming from a wine region a day at the wineries wasn’t something out of the ordinary for me, so we chose to do our own self guided tour, by bike!  We met some great people at the hostel and the six of us set off, we reached the Maipú region and hired our bikes. It took precisely five blocks to realise, my fitness levels were not up to it, and another five for one of us to pop a tyre, a clear insight into how our day would unfold.  

 We made it to our first winery Viña el Cerno where we were sold on the idea of doing away with the tastings and hitting a few bottles instead. We got lucky, the previous few days had given us freezing winds, but the sun was out and it was quiet warm, the perfect wine weather if you will. After a few wines in the sun it was onto Tempas Alba for lunch, where we had been told the steak was spot on. It goes that Argentina has the best steak, I however do not like steak, I know, I know- I keep hearing it, who doesn’t like steak? Even the vegetarians staying with us ate the steak- and loved every bite. So I did it, well to an extent, in that I had a tiny bite, and… I still hate a steak, best in the world or not the blue cheese on top couldn’t mask that meaty flavour. The rest of the crew did give it a ten out of ten though. 

After a few more bottle tastings it was back on the bike and onto our third and final winery Mevi. The perfect spot to end our day, we perched ourselves on the balcony to catch the last of the day’s warmth and a pretty delightful sunset over the Andes.  

Before we knew it we were riding back, feeling much fitter than the ride there, the six of us were blissfully riding single file along the road, then it happened- what we knew was coming all day, the fall. The car was pulling out, unsure of if it would stop or not Ruth stopped, or attempted to, slid and as I turned she just slide into that huge ditch. A cut head and cars stopping everywhere, then we were in someone’s house, people rushing to wipe her face, appearing from everywhere. It was bound to happen, and I had all my money on it being Ruth, and by the looks of things it was certainly not the first time that family had witnessed drunk foreigners falling off bikes. 

Finally we made it back to return the bikes just a little late and make our way back to the city to cheers our day with a few more bottles of red and some football.