Don't cry for me (us) Argentina..............

Nearly a week has passed since the last post so this one's going to be a bit of a double whammy. A lot of things have happened so I'll do my best to fill you in.

The 'hidden gem' of a restaraunt at La Boca turned out to be a bit of a damp squib as it was closed on that evening. We couldn't get an answer on the phone atleast so assumed so. Instead we headed to a recommended Parillia from the guide book and I predictably opted for another massive big steak. Very nice it was too.

I'll give you a bit more on the cycling we did too before new year. The first hour or so was very pleasant as we cycled around the park to the north of the city with other cyclists and runners but it all turned into a bit of a nightmare as we returned to the city streets. The pollution in the roads from all the traffic was horrible and together with mad drivers and the very bad condition of the roads and pavements we decided to return the bikes pronto. This was not going to be fun 'seeing the sights'. We phoned the company and organised to drop the bikes off 2 hours early with both of us feeling filthy and sweaty. Nevertheless, we both had a good time.

Did we mention the sushi here? So good and so cheap. So for dinner that night we bought a huge takeaway sushi dish for the grand sum of around 10 pounds. See photo for evidence. Doesn't it look nice?The following day we turned out to be one of the most frustrating of the whole trip so far. As we'd both bought and recieved some very nice stuff over the trip so far we decided to send a package home, what we thought would be a simple and straighforward task. After being sent away from numerous post depots for wanting to send too large a package we finally arrived at the correct place only to be met with the most annoying, incompetent and rude person we've come across. This woman was unbelievable. We'll have to leave the full story for another day unfortunately or I'll never leave this computer.

After finally sending the package on its way we thought that a visit to the Japanese gardens and lunch in the restaraunt would be nice. The Japanese gardens were very nice to see but the restaraunt was closed. No worries we thought, we'll head down to the museums and have lunch there. After 20 mins walk in the heat it aso turned out the be closed. Everything closed on a Tuesday!! So, we found some lunch eventually and had a nice walk around. There is a very impressive sculpture outside the Museum in the shape of a flower which was gleaming silver in the sunshine.

The frustating day continued when we went for a pre dinner drink (no beer at all in the bar!!) and also at the Almenian Restaraunt where we had dinner. We ordered our dinner and got our starters of humus, olives and the like straight away but our main course order was taking a strangely long time to surface. We asked the waiter where it was only to be answered with 'What did you order again?' Ahhhh!! He'd forgotten our order!! We couldn't have thought of a better way to finish the day. It was very fitting. Ah well, it all could have been much worse I'm sure so 'C'est la vie!'.

Jon and Tanya arrived the next day which we'd been very much looking forward too but we did get worried that they might not make it because of the weather in the UK. Turns out they only had a measly 4 hours delay and so arrived in Buenos Aires ready to rumble! We had the obligatory drinks to catch up and headed for another obligatory steak to welcome them and say farewell to us as we were leaving for Santiago the next day. I again came to realise how lucky it is to have Kat speaking fluent Spanish so all I can do is wish them the best of luck and for them to have a great time.

We headed to the bus station the next day after handing over the keys to the flat slightly worse for wear yet strangely looking forward to spending 20hours (turned out to be 22!) on a bus.

The seats were so comfortable! More like those business class seats on a plane that I always jealously walk past. We settled in for the journey, the whole bus joining into a game of bingo would you believe it. And then a hot dinner! What a strange experience. Sitting in a huge seat in a bus having a hot dinner of some kind of ham pie with mash potatoes with a plastic tumbler of red wine. And best of all the food wasn't bad at all!! Nothing much more to say of the journey itself, the hours past by and before we knew it we were staring at the start of the Andes. The first peak looked impressive but as they drew closer and closer and we went higher and higher ther grew and grew and grew. It was absolutely a fantastic sight. We passed over the top through the immagration at a dizzying height of 3000m or so. Double the height of some Alpine resorts!! The snow was still visible and the air felt thin. I now cannot wait to get my walking boots on and do a bit of trekking.

So now we're in Santiago. We were slightly sad to be leaving Buenos Aires. We'd had an absoultely fantastic time there yet we were ready for a new adventure. A new country and a new city and the differences between Chile and Argentina are already obvious.

We're staying at Kat's Aunt and Uncles amazing new house that is being built. When it's finished this place is going to be like something straight out of Grand Designs.

We've booked our flights down south and will post again of our happenings in Santiago before long. So long for now!!