Upon arrival we were greeted by a friendly Argentinan man who showed us to our quite expensive room. Unfortunately the hostel was packed and only had private rooms left. As we were tired from the 13 hour bus journey we didn´t want to mess around and Tony was eager to dump the bags and go in search of steak. We hunted around Salta, again trying to find a cashpoint that worked. Once we completed the misson Tony found his restaurant and ordered the biggest steak we had ever seen. It was unreal and only cost 6 quid!!!!!!!!!!! As BBQ is Argentina´s national dish the meat is subsidised by the government. Tony´s dream come true as the beer is just as cheap!!! In fact a litre of beer is cheaper than a chocolate bar!!!
When we got back to the hostel we saw Rolf (the German man on our salt lake excursion)!!! He completely took us by surprise and we were so glad to see him again. We spent the evening drinking in the hostel with him.
The next day we went to the bus station to get our tickets for Iguaza for the next day. Rolf come with us so he could translate for us and make sure we got the right ticket. The bus would take 24hrs!!!! After purchasing our tickets we got a cable car up to the top of the mountain and looked down on Salta. It was a brillant view. On top of the mountain there were mini man made waterfalls and a gym. Tony started showing off but then got too hot!!! The rest of the day consisted of walking around the town and in the park.
That evening was the best!! We paid 5 pounds to have a BBQ in the hostel. It was all the steak you could eat and all the wine you could drink. To put it into perpective, they were still bringing out the wine when we went to bed at 03:00!!!
At the BBQ we met a couple called Blair and Amanda. Blair was from Canada and Amanda was from Australia (they met on a plane 11 years ago - classic). They were at the BBQ with their young son Patrick who was only five years old. He asked Emily to dance with him. She had drunk far too much wine and got rather dizzy when Patrick wanted her to spin him around in circle but he was mega cute. He could also speak Spanish and put us to shame!!!
The next day Tony had a sore head because he drunk far too much wine! We went out for something to eat and then got on our bus for Iguaza. Our bus journey was the worse as we had a devil child screaming the whole time. Tony was most unimpressed. The child looked over at Tony and smiled. In return Tony gave the child the worse look ever, the child got the message and quickly looked in the other direction.
Once we arrived in Iguaza we realised we had screwed up!!! We were meant to arrive and have the evening relaxing and do the Iguaza waterfalls for the whole of the following day and then fly to Buenos Aires the next day. However Emily checked the date and realised we had booked our plane ticket for Buenos Aires the next day so we only had the afternoon to do the Iguaza waterfalls. In desperation we quickly got the hostel to book us a cab and went to the park.
The Iguaza falls were out of this world!! It was absolutely amazing!! Luckily we had time to do both the upper and lower trails allowing us to see the waterfalls from both angles. There were 250 waterfalls all flowing at the same time. As it was so hot there were constant rainbows. The photos speak for themselves!!
Upon our return and after speaking with two Americans we realised we had been robbed with the taxi. The hostel had charged us 160 pesos for a return trip to the falls when the bus outside went for 5 pesos each way. Tony did not hesitate in telling the hostel that they were rip off merchants. Their excuse was that it was a private taxi!! Anyway that was a lesson learnt!!
The next day we got our flight to Buenos Aires which was all very straight forward and we arrived in our hostel in Buenos Aires which was really nice. We had a general look around the city and Tony attempted to cook but it all went wrong!! We brought Pasta and Tomato based sauce. Tony made some garlic bread but there was no toaster so he put the garlic bread with cheese in the mircowave so that the cheese would melt. While doing this he couldn´t find a tin opener. In a panic that they was no tin opener he forgot all about the bread. As you can guess he ruined the garlic bread so we ended up eating plan pasta for dinner. Yum! He was fuming!!!! It was during this that we met Ped. Ped was from London and was able to give us advice about travelling around Asia. This is a part of the trip that neither of us had thought about yet!!
The next day we looked around the town and then went to do a city tour. It was a good tour, we saw lots of monuments and we saw the government building where Evita stood to talk to the people. We learnt all about Evita (Girl power). We also learnt about the military government that existed before the current government. We went to the main square and saw people protesting about it. Apparently during their time in power 30,000 people went missing! It was those who did not agree with the military government. We went to the main square and saw the mothers and grandmothers holding photos of their missing family members protesting for justice. Nobody has ever been to trial over it.
During the tour we went to the football stadium (La Boca) and we saw where the Tango takes place. We walked through this part of the town and looked up at the Maradonna figures. Maradonna is now really fat and manages the current Argentinan football team. We also saw models of Evita and other famous figures.
In Buenos Aires we also checked out the cathedral, the Obliek and we went to the cementry to see Evita Petrons grave. It wasn´t exactly a grave as we know it. There are buildings (sometimes bigger than houses if the family have a lot of money) with coffins inside. Some of the architecture was amazing. There were statues of angels on top of some. Some had several statues on top/around them. We looked at other peoples graves. Some of them were really errie as they were see-through and you could see all the coffins inside!! We left after as it freaked Emily out and reminded her of the film ´Lost Boys´.
As you can expect we also went out at night in Buenos Aires. We went out with Ped. We went in the bars and then to a club which Tony hated because it meant he had to dance!! Emily had a brillant time!! The next day we were so tired so we just sat in the park. Tony fed the birds and Emily slept. As Emily was nodding off a man come up to us with a pack of cards (trying to get some cash out of us). The best thing about being foreign is you can just tell them you don´t understand. So he starts jibbering in Spanish and he doesn´t look poor at all!!!! Clearly we are not in the mood to give out free money. Several times we told him we didn´t understand (in Spanish of course) and he took the smallest coin he could find out of his pocket and showed it to us. We still kept repeating that we didn´t understand so the man opened his mouth and pointing to it suggesting he was hungry. Therefore Tony offered him half a cracker that he had been currently feeding the birds with. A couple behind us burst out laughing so after that the man gave Tony a dirty look and moved on. That teaches him!!!
The next day we had to check out. We sat in the hostel with an American girl we had met. She was giving us advice on the cheapest way to get around New Zealand. We looked into renting a car and it was the cheapest option. Therefore we spent half the day planning and organising New Zealand. Emily managed to book the bus down to Wellington and the ferry across to Picton where we collect our car. That´s organisation for you!! Next we went to a botanical garden and had dinner. Then it was coach time.
We arrived in Puerto Madryn after a really rubbish journey (we sat near the smelly toliet) which was two hours late. We really thought we had passed our stop at one stage. Luckily we had booked a brillant hostel. It was run by a husband and wife who had the most beautiful baby daughter. She was only one and a half years old. Lucky for us the hostel had a BBQ on that night. This was exactly the same as the one in Salta. All you can eat steak and all you can drink wine for 5 quid.
The following day we went Right Whale watching. We were told that we were a bit out of season so expect not to see anything. Apparently all the whales were making their way to Antartica. The coach took us to the resort and we were given our life jackets. We boarded the boat and went to find the Whales. It was less than twenty minutes in when we saw a mother and baby. The guide explained that the mother is waiting for the baby to be strong enough to make the swim. They were clearly in a playful mood. The mother had her fins in the air cuddling her baby and they swam so close to our boat and then underneath it. They were massive!!!!!!!!!!
Next we went to see the sea lions and elephant seals on the beach. We were watching the seals when we saw four killer whales near the shore. The guide was so shocked because they are completely out of season. Then we watched as one came to shore and ate a sea lion!! The guide run back to the coach to grab her camera as this was so unusual. The killer whales were much smaller than the right whales. On the tour we also saw peguins and amardillos. Tony had a field day with all this wildlife.
We left Puerto Madryn the next day and travelled to El Calafate. We travelled with Sam who we had met from the BBQ at our hostel. She was from the UK and has a job on the Falkland Islands. It was an awful journey (none of them are fun). We arrived in El Calafate and walked to our hostel. Unfortunately while we were travelling they sent Emily an email saying they were fully booked. So we had to walk to the other end of town to stay somewhere else. We managed to book two excursions though. The Perito Glaciers and the Torres de Paine in Chile.
On our first day we went to the Perito Glaciers. You can see from the photos that they just don´t look real. That was brillant. They were huge and large chunks of ice kept crashing down every 15 mins or so. The sound was immerse!! It can be the smallest bit of ice but because of the acoustics it sounds like loads have just fallen off!! We took a boat to get closer to it. However we couldn´t get to close in case we got knocked out by ice!!! It was on the boat that we saw a massive piece of the glacier fall! Its so quick thats its hard to catch on camera. Especially on ours which seems to get slower by the day. In the evening we went to book a bus to Chile and it was a nightmare. We were in the station for three hours! They wouldn´t go to Chile so we ended up having to get three buses to go to Bariloche which is in the north of Argentina and once we are there we are going to have to try and get a bus into Chile. There are no guarantees. So we realised that we might not make it to Pucon for Christmas.
The next day we got a bus to Torres de Paine (national park). It was a hell of a long journey for one day and the border crossing were a nightmare. They took such a long time. Luckily there was a little puppy to play with while we were waiting. The park was good but in hindsight it wasn´t worth the trouble. It was good to see the twin pecks made of granite and there was no denying that it was a gorgeous park. The journey was just so long. We had to leave at 05:30 and we got back to the hostel at midnight.
We spent the following day in bed!! This was because our first coach of of three was at 03:00!! Tony thought it would be a good idea to get drunk so he brought three bottles of wine! Wine is so cheap here so we could afford it. We both got drunk and ended up going to bed at 1:00 and setting the alarm for 02:20 so we could make our way down to the bus station. Tony woke up at 03:00 and realised we were both so drunk we had slept through the alarm!!! In disbelief Tony didn´t move. Emily grabbed her back back ready to run and hope the bus was late but Tony still wasn´t moving!! After Emily grabbed him he realised how shit this situation was and we ran with our backpacks to the bus station. We missed the bus!!! We ended up having to pay 300 pesos (120 pounds) to get a cab to the place where we would pick up our next coach. This was fours hours away - an expensive mistake!!
We made it to Bariloche after the long journey and we are now guaranteed to get into Chile by Christmas!!
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