Mucho Agua!

As we sped towards Iguazu Falls in a powerboat all we could hear from behind us was the guide shouting "mucho agua, muchu agua".
Our day began with a 4x4 trip through the jungle where we saw Tucans and dozens of brightly coloured butterflies. Next, our powerboat took us along the Rio Iguazu through rapids until we were confronted by the sight of the falls in all their glory. The Devil's Throat was hardly visible through all the spray being thrown up by the sheer force of the falling water. The boat paused for for photos before speeding off towards and under a number of falls - thoroughly soaking all of us.
Afterwards we took several walks around the falls to see the different views before ending up looking over Devil's Throat (and getting drenched again!)
So glad that we could share this real highlight of the trip with Shona, David, Harriet and Ben.

Facts about Iguazu Falls (thanks to http://en.wikipedia.org)

"The waterfall system consists of about 270 falls along 2.7 kilometres (1.67 miles) of the Iguazu River. Some of the individual falls are up to 82 metres (269 feet) in height, though the majority are about 64 metres (210 feet). The Garganta del Diablo or Devil's Throat (Garganta do Diabo in Portuguese), a U-shaped 150-metre-wide and 700-metre-long (490 by 2300 feet) cliff, is the most impressive of all, and marks the border between Argentina and Brazil"


Speeding along the Rio Iguazu


We catch our first glimpse of the falls


Our first "shower"


All of us looking rather wet!


Spectacular.


Devils Throat and a rainbow arcing out from the spray.


Rebecca and Ben - wet again!

Jungle Lodge, Puerto Iguazu - Argentina

Our accomodation in Iguazu was another excellent choice by Shona. We have a huge lodge to ourselves surrounded by thick jungle and lots of noisy bugs! Can't wait to see the falls...

Christmas, Uruguay style!

South Americans celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th December and we had tickets for the gala dinner in the ballroom at the Sheraton. The buffet meal was both enormous and delicious and the music fun - with an 80's vibe. We shared a table with a really fun Argentinian couple whose nephew is the Crystal Palace goalkeeper!


Everybody dolled up for dinner


Our table for dinner, with friends Maria-Ines and Julio


The girls groove to the music on the dancefloor


The brits are the last ones standing (or dancing!) at 3am

Merry Christmas to you all

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. We miss you all and hope that you have a great christmas and new year. Thanks to everyone who has commented on the blog, we hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have creating it. More adventures to come...

A spot of luxury in Colonia, Uruguay

Returning to Buenos Aires (on time and all luggage intact!) we took the ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Colonia in Uruguay.
We were staying for Christmas at the Sheraton Colonia, a lovely hotel with great facilities which we all made great use of. The luxury was very welcome after canvas, dorms and snorers! On our first evening we were treated to a wonderful sunset before dinner.


Looking across the river


It's a hard life!


Rebecca and Harriet


Rebecca, Ben and Harriet enjoy the pool

Punta Delphin and Punta Tombo

Our next trip from Puerto Madryn took us further down the coast to Punta Delphin where we saw many Commersons dolphins racing around our boat, Afterwards we travelled to Punta Tombo where we saw the largest penguin colony in the world outside of Antarctica. For as far as the eye could see there were penguins and their babies. The parents both take care of the young, taking it in turns to stay at the nest or waddle off to the ocean in search of food. We were able to wander with care all around the colony.

Valdes Peninsula - Patagonia, Argentina

From Buenos Aires we travelled on a overnight bus (the others took a flight and were delayed again for hours AND the airline lost their bags!) to Puerto Madryn. On a trip to the Valdes Peninsula we were lucky enough to see two mother and infant whales as the whale season is at it's end with them swimming south to Antarctica. It was amazing to see them only a few metres from the boat. We also got to see penguins, armadillos, guanacos, grey foxes, elephant seals, rheas, patagonian hares and sea lions.



Ben and a Magellanic penguin



An armadillo



A whale swims close to our boat



Seals dive into the water



The excitment is too much for some of us!

Buenos Aires with Shona, David, Harriet and Ben

The 6 of us enjoying brunch at Cafe Tortoni

After a journey of delays and cancelled flights, we met up with Shona, David, Harriet and Ben in Buenos Aires. We spent a couple of days seeing the city and sights. We had a great steak dinner at La Brigada in San Telmo and a excellent brunch at Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in the city (and one of the funniest waiters we have ever met!)

Seven Lakes ( The road to hell!)

The seven lakes is a 160km circuit which winds through mountains and as the name suggests, pass seven lakes!.Stephen and I decided it would be fun(!) to complete the circuit by bike. For some reason we had decided that this was a common thing for people to do. To put this in persepective,we saw one other bike in 3 days! However, ignorance is bliss as they say but can also prove painful, particularly in the thigh area! The journey began smoothly. We actually were treated like celebrities, with people asking us where we were going and where we were from ( I think some people thought we had cycled from England and we didn't bother to correct them!) We had planned to get in at least 3 hours cycling once we had left the ferry, to get to our first campsite. Why have plans? The ferry stopped at an island for 3 hours, where we had to get off and join a massive tour for a walk through a forest. Stephen and I managed to avoid the crowds and planned what to do next, which amounted to not much!

On arriving at the national park, we got off the ferry to be met with thousands of steps. Bearing in mind we were both carrying saddlebags, tent, sleeping bags and Stephen had all his camera gear. We battled through the park, downhill biking took on a new extreme with saddlebags! We were met with gates which didn't open and tree stumps that were hidden. Arriving in the tiny town of Angostura, we cut our losses and set up camp there, buying all our food for the next two days in case there wasn't anywhere open ( which there wasn't!) Here we were talked AT by a man called Jim, who I don't think had met a human being for years.

Next day started well (despite being accosted by Jim as we tried to sneak out of the campsite) and we did 11km in half an hour; then we hit the dirt track. Started off ok until dust and stone became sand! Cars sped past us arrogantly and kicked up dirt as they passed, covering us both from head to foot. Next the flies started; the sun was beating down and these huge black flies persisted on trying to bite us and get inside our helmets. Picture Stephen and I trying to plough through dirt and waving our arms about whilst trying to steady our bikes due to the weight! We completed 55 km of dirt track and arrived at our final camp. Yes, there were many tears that day...

Final day we were so excited that we got up at 530am! and headed for our destination, San Martin de los Andes. Bliss as we cycled along smooth roads, even the mountain climbs were becoming tolerable. Until we were met with a ...BULL. On seeing it I refused to go on and to save my dignity, I will not explain in detail how much I refused. Needless to say Stephen convinced me we would be OK and if not, we could jump off our bikes and run! (My dad asked me why we couldn't simply peddle quicker?) We peddled calmly ( well,stephen did!) and passed the bull. Its gaze followed us all the way. It was enormous, its width encompassing half the other side of the road and its horns were the same height as a tree-yes I exaggerate but that is what happens to your senses when you are scared...


After the bull it was plain sailing and we were downhill to San Martin for 4 kms! We returned the bikes( no questions asked by bike shop man, you would have throught we had just biked to the shop and back! ) and took a bus back to our starting point. The irony being the bus took the exact same route and did it with ease.

What of the seven lakes? We saw four because some of them were off the route and those few kms could have finished us both off! This is possibly the longest entry yet and if you managed to get to the end, you are probably now feeling the same pain we did...Now you can enjoy the photos. Please note that the bull was taken from a great distance!


On the ferry


Angostura...how happy we look.


Just before the dirt track...perhaps Chile would have been an easier destination?


Finally...a lake!




Another lake...



Free camp and Stephen is in bed by 7pm.


This we like...



And this we don't...


Need I say more ...the madness had set in at this point.



THE BULL, please no comments on how small it looks!



Arrived at last!

Biking around Bariloche, Argentina

We arranged to meet our friends Naomi and Tim from Birmingham who are going back home to Australia. It was really good to see them again and we decided to rent mounatin bikes to explore the beautiful scenery around Bariloche. Unfortunately Tim has been feeling poorly so it was just the 3 of us riding.

El Bolson, Argentina

From El Chalten to El Bolson we had a mammouth 2 day journey along Route 40. Each day we had 12 hours in the bus which was dusty and hot - a total nightmare. The overnight stop in a one street town called Perito Moreno was certainly interesting. We stayed in the "Hotel Belgrano" (not an encouraging name for us brits) which was one of only two hotels in town and it reminded us of the soviet style "Hotel Moscow" we had stayed in St. Petersburg - sterile and basic to say the least!
Arrival in El Bolson (the hippie capital of Argentina apparently) was a relief. Our hostel was lovely, alongside a river and we managed to get a small cabin in amongst the garden.
We only spent a couple of days in El Bolson, where we visited the artists market and had the best ice cream ever!