Feliz Navidad a todos! and below is a little present to you all…

The next day the weather broke and was much cooler, although unfortunately quite rainy. Spent the day wandering around the city only to discover that most of the museums were actually shut for renovation but we did manage to visit some impressive churches and get a look at some of the city’s nice old architecture. In the evening we made our way to the more bohemian end of town for a nice relaxing cup of mate, my first, and very tasty too (although the huge dose of caffeine made me feel a bit funny) and then had a wander round the weekend arts and crafts fair which was all very nice. That evening Kirstie and I decided we’d do something cultural and go and watch Last Tango in Paris at the cine-theatre, Ellie opted out fearing it would all be in Spanish – fortunately for us it was in French and was a really great film! In search of some more culture we then headed out with everyone from the hostel for a dub-step night in an old warehouse nightclub which was great fun. Unfortunetly that meant the next day was almost a complete write off as Argentine nightlife only starts after midnight and doesn’t finish till 6 or 7! Luckily it was a Sunday and it was raining again so we didn’t miss out on much!

Feeling much better the next day we set off into the Sierra (mountain ranges) that stretches out from Cordoba to the South. First stop was the village of Villa General Belgrano, via a scenic drive through the mountains and lakes. The village looks like something from the German Alps, probably because it was founded by Germans who’d been sunk off the coast of Uruguay during WW2. Had an explore of the quaint little main street with its chalet style shops and restaurants then set up camp in a nice peaceful location on the edge of town. After a siesta, and once the weather had cooled a bit, we did a bit more exploring along the riverside walk and up in the top of the town which gave some beautiful views to the mountains eitherside. Sampled some traditional German hot dogs and beer for dinner and watched the world go by, befriended a lot of stray dogs and noticed that nearly every woman in the town was pregnant!!

Woke up the next morning to A LOT of complaining from the girls about camping – too cold, too uncomfortable, too many ants, too many goats in the toilets etc, etc – so we left the campsite pretty quickly and headed off to Los Reartes instead upon the recommendation of the nice campsite owner. Turned up to find a tiny old village with some very friendly, if a little eccentric people (think League of Gentleman…) beside a stunning riverside setting. Had a nice picnic and a siesta and just about managed to have a swim in the two inch deep river – at least it cooled us off as the weather has switched back from cool and rainy to exceedingly hot again, even up in the mountains. After a very relaxing day by the river we headed back to Cordoba past some more beautiful mountain scenery and some more rivers and lakes. Back to the same friendly hostel (Palenque) for a chilled night with our hostel friends and plenty of travel story swapping.

Our last day in Cordoba turned out to be insanely hot again but this time we decided to brave the heat and see all the things we hadn’t yet seen, starting with the Rememberance Museum in the main square, an old prison dating from the military dictatorship of the 70′s where political prisoners were kept, tortured and killed. This has now been turned into a touching display of pictures, artefacts and memorials to the missing, all housed in the old cells. An interesting display as we hadn’t really encountered anything to do with the dictatorship despite it being quite recent, unfortunately it was all in Spanish which meant we didn’t understand everything, but certainly enough (with the help of the history section of our guidebooks) to get the picture. After a brief visit of the cathedral I left the girls to eat ice cream and people watch in the main square while I headed off in search of the park and some more nice buildings. The buildings were worth the trip, some of the old architecture here is really impressive, but the park was a bit of a let down, the highlight being the giant Christmas tree with giant Christmas present in the middle of the roundabout – until I stumbled across some people carrying banners and banging drums, a fairly common occurence in Argentina! I followed them and discovered hundreds more people with banners and drums having a massive fiesta outside the national courts – and lots more pictures from the memorial museum. It was only later that I discovered that they were celebrating the outcome of the trial of the ex-military dictator, Jorge Videla, who had just been sentenced to life (for the second time) for his war-crimes back in the 70′s. The fiesta was quite amazing, everyone was dancing, singing, waving flags and banging drums as loud as they possibly could – clearly a very passionate outpouring of sentiment – shame I didn’t understand any of the chants they were singing, but I still felt very lucky to witness such an amazing event. All that was left for us to do was pack up our bags, say our adioses and head off on yet another overnight bus towards Mendoza.

In the evening we went out for some more culture – a little bit stranger than normal – at the planetarium. At first glance it seemend closed, but luckily I found a side entrance so we got to go and look through a telescope at the moon, which was amazing. Then we got chatting to the guy, who as it turned out wanted to practise his English, who decided to show us Jupiter and 3 of its moons and the orion nebula too which was really amazing, as well as answering lots of our questions about the solar system – to the point where he looked like he might explode from the effort of talking so much English, as hard as I was trying to practise my Spanish!

The next day we decided that we’d seen the highlights of Rosario’s culture so we headed for the beach on an island in the river about 10 minutes away, via a picinc in a park by the riverfront. Who’d have thought that a city so far from the sea could have such a beautiful beach so close by and apparently there are plenty more in the vicinity. Spent the day mainly avoiding the really strong sun under the trees – although Kirstie managed some nice sunburn patches! Even managed a swim in the not-too-polluted river to cool off and made friends with yet another friendly Rosarino who wanted to practise her English. Another great day in another great city, like a mini-version of Buenos Aires but with more accessible beaches and even friendlier people! Off to Cordoba on an overnight bus tonight which should be fun, only 6 hours this time….

The next day we were up early (well we would’ve been had our alarm not failed) to try and see the whole park in one day. Started off on the lower circuit which gives panoramic views across the falls, we could hear the water from the path for a while before we could actual see it, before we finally got a glimpse of the falls. The pictures can’t really do it justice, it is immense. Stopped off at a few smaller side waterfalls (still much bigger than the average waterfall) and took some nice slow shutter shots, although it was really far to bright to try that. Eventually we made our way round to an amazing panoramic view of the big waterfall, or series of waterfalls which really are incredible. We watched the tour boats driving in and out of the spray, it doesn’t look like they go very close in but we were assured by the girls that it feels like you’re right in the middle of it because of all the spray! We skipped the boat trip to save on time and money (and because we’d driven under a waterfall in Milford Sound anyway) and carried on to get a soaking ourselves from a platform under a huge waterfall.

Met the girls and the Americans for lunch, by which point the weather had changed to stormy so I was now wet and a bit cold, not something particularly common in the tropics! After our pinic we carried on to the upper level of the falls, first stop the amazing Garganta de Diabla, the one in all the pictures! Despite getting completely soaked again this was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done, standing at the edge of the huge horseshoe waterfall which is so powerfull that it creates so much spray you can’t actually see most of it, but you can certainly hear it anyway. Even more amazing was the little birds that seemed to live in the cliffs around the waterfall and were diving into the spray clouds like something out of Avatar! Now thoroughly soaked and even more cold we headed back across the walkways over the river and back on to the little train to the top of the waterfalls we had stood under earlier for some more amazing panoramic views and some close-ups of the bigger waterfalls (excluding Garganta de Diabla which is incredibly big). The falls don’t actually seem that high but the width and the sheer amount of water that pours over them (probably helped by all the rain) is incredible to watch – in fact we decided that it probably wouldn’t be the drop that killed you if you jumped off, but the power of the water sucking you under, so if you did it in full scuba gear you would probably survive….

After that amazing experience we headed back to the hostel for a nice home-cooked meal (as we realised eating out all the time was soon going to become incredibly expensive) and a nice relaxing evening. The next day we had planned to go to the Brazilian side to get some more panoramic views but this was rained off (and apparently the Argentine side is much better anyway) so we’ll have to find another way to get the Brazilian stamp in the passport – Rio for carnival possibly… An absolutely incredible experience in any case! Said our goodbyes to the Liz and Charlotte and headed off on a 20 hour bus back down to Rosario with Kirstie for the next leg of our trip.

Feeling fully relaxed and cleansed we set off with Luis (one of Mike and Miranda’s employees) on a ten hour drive up to the Esteros del Ibera while Mike and Miranda flew their plane up. Unfortunately for Luis we were rubbish company and spent most of the time asleep or struggling to come up with coherent Spanish to start a conversation, but eventually we made it up to Rincon del Socorro in the heart of the vast nature reserve, the most beautiful and relaxing place we’ve ever been to (miles from any civilisation) and absolutely full of wildlife. Even in the grounds of the hotel there were dozens of capybaras, rheas and other birds of all types – most of the capybaras had made their home on the private airstrip which could make for an interesting landing attempt! The first night, after a lovely dinner, we went on a night time safari round the grounds of the hotel where we spotted more capybaras, foxes, armadillos, skunks, chinchillas (including an albino one) and deer. Very early start the next morning to head out on to the nearby lake, via some birdwatching stops along the road. Yet more birds awaited at the lake, in their thousands – far too many species to try and remember, especially as we were told most of the names in Spanish, but the best ones were the eagles, vultures, kingfishers, humming birds, southern screamers along with the caymans which were much more exciting for me! Got some half decent photos of the wildlife too which was nice

After a good 3 hours out on the water spotting all kinds of wildlife we headed back and left the Rincon del Socorro, which again I’d highly recommend if you can ever find it! Luis again very kindly drove us up through the dirt roads of the national park (yet again we spent most of the time asleep) to Mike and Miranda’s own reserve, Estancia Don Luis, which is nearing completion and looks like it will be very impressive when finished. We met our very own gaucho friend, Gomez, who runs the Estancia and the surrounding reserve and who took us on a guided tour to see the animals. The whole reserve is suffering from a bit of a drought so the usual very wet marshes were bone dry and made it quite easy to walk around. Gomez the expert animal spotter managed to find us some Howler monkeys in the trees near the house, yet more birds, lots of animal tracks which he identified in Spanish (and we eventually managed to work out most of them!) and plenty more caymans! Watched the sunset and chilled out in the beautiful surroundings listening to all of the birds and tried our best to talk to Gomez, who was proudly showing off his photos taken by the hidden cameras and trying to teach us the animals names in Spanish! As the housing isn’t quite finished yet we set off back into Ituzaingo, the nearest town about 40 kms away for the evening, for a lovely relaxing dinner. The next day the rains finally came and they came in style as storm after storm swept through and treated us to apocalyptic style thunder, lightning and rain. We spent most of the day trying to teach Ellie Spanish and Luis English, with varying degrees of success, whilst the town was busy getting flooded! Went out for one final meal in Ituzaingo to say thank you to Mike, Miranda and Luis for their kindness and fantastic hospitality before heading off early the next day towards Iguazu. If anyone is interested in getting involved with their trust or checking out the reserve the website is www.collett-trust.org – a very worthwhile project in a truly amazing area! (Photos can be found on my snapfish or facebook, I might get round to uploading some of the best on here eventually….)

We started off by looking around the city we’d been living in for the past month but hadn’t actually seen much of due to our spending every waking minute planning lessons or writing essays. The last evening of our course we all went out and celebrated at Anna’s flat which meant that the first day of freedom was not as productive as it could have been, although we did eventually drag ourselves to the city centre for a look around Plaza de Mayo and then on to La Boca district – once we’d found some change for the bus, which you’d think would be fairly easy, but not in Buenos Aires because there is a severe change shortage and no one wants to give theirs up so they have change for the bus!! Anyway, eventually we made it after convincing some maxi-kiosco owners to part with a few pesos worth of coins! We started off our tour of the “dangerous” neighbourhood at the famous Boca Juniors football stadium, La Bombonera, which was quite exciting for me, less so for Kirstie and Ellie! Next stop was the heart of the district (well the tourist bit anyway) with all the coloured houses, tango dancers, cafes and the usual accompaniment of people trying to sell you just about anything they can think of – there was even Maradona’s ‘twin’ who was posing for photos! Had a nice wander round in the sunshine and took lots of pictures of the colourful houses and sat down for a beer to watch some tango dancing. Finished up with a nice stroll along the waterfront before finding our bus home (again not as simple as it should have been!). No sign of any of the ‘dangerous’ neighbourhood it’s supposed to be, although i’m sure its not advisable to wander out of the main tourist areas.

The next day we decided to make the most of our last day in Buenos Aires and head out early to Recoleta Cemetery, the Argentine equivalent of Pere LaChaise in Paris and the resting place of Evita among plenty of other famous Argentinians (most of whom we know because the metro stops and roads are named after them, but have know idea what they are famous for!). The graves were amazing, like mini houses, and some of the richer people even had statues and special plaques! Spent about an hour wandering round admiring the crypts and wondering who everyone was before it started to get too hot so we made our way back through Recoleta to find a bus (we remembered our change today) down to Puerto Madero to meet Matt and Kirstie for lunch. BA’s answer to the London Docklands, Puerto Madero is a really nice harbour area which has been renovated into lots of nice cafes and bars and makes a really nice relaxing afternoon stroll along the waterfront, where there is also a bit of a breeze so its not unbearably hot. Once we’d walked the length of the waterfront we made our way into San Telmo, the hippy district, where the Sunday street markets and entertainment were in full flow. Mainly just a collection of junk and antiques which kept Ellie happy, although the Tango dancers and Brazilian drumming band were also pretty cool. After a quick look round the market we spent most of the afternoon sitting in the shade drinking beer and watching the world go by, which is a great past-time in Buenos Aires! We finished off the day with a farewell meal with all our coursemates in Palermo at a Parilla (steakhouse), where we finally got some really decent Argentinean steak! Packed up our grotty bedsit and said goodbye to Buenos Aires, quite sad as it really is a beautiful place and we’ve made some great friends, both local and gringos, so hopefully we’ll be back one day soon…. but for now, time to get back on the open road!

A few things we thought we should add about Buenos Aires: The portenos (BA locals) are very friendly (and everywhere else in Argentina), the ice cream is amazing, some of the colonial architechture is easily as good as in Paris or Barcelona or anywhere else, the people talk very fast, everybody has a dog but everybody also has a tiny flat and has to employ someone to walk their dog during the day, the dog-walkers are awesome – unemployed people who have a group of dogs to walk, sometimes up to 20 dogs! there is a LOT of dog poo on the pavements, the bus and metro system is great and very extensive and easy to use once you get your head round it (as long as you have the correct change, otherwise its a nightmare), the parillas are awesome (as they are everywhere else we’ve been so far), the nightlife is great fun – although nothing starts until after midnight at the earliest, apparently the milongas (tango dances) are great – but we haven’t made it to one yet. All in all its a great city and we’d love to go back and work there one day!

(for anyone interested in doing a CELTA course, we’d highly recommend International House www.international-house.com.ar – very professional and great fun)

Headed to the river for a new form of public transport, river ferries, to the Royal Palace and Wat Phra Kaew which both looked very impressive from the outside although we didn’t actually go in, partly because it was really expensive and partly because we’ve seen enough temples to last a life time! Instead wandered around the surrounding markets and spent the entrance fee money on a lucky Buddha head – very cool! Not content with our market visits so far we headed to chinatown, which is basically one big market. Found Sampeng Lane, which must be the worlds longest shopping street and wandered along it for hours without managing to buy anything except lunch, it seemed to be more for wholesale than retail. Made our way back to KSR for some more wandering up and down, discovered that the sellers double their already inflated prices after dark which didn’t go down at all well! Spent our last day packing before heading off on a nice convaluted trip on public transport to the airport by bus, metro, taxi and airport train and waved goodbye to Thailand – the end of an epic and amazing trip with some fantastic memories! Will have a think and post some kind of highlights page when we get back – see you all soon!

After a week we finally dragged ourselves off the beach and headed straight to another beach, this time on Ko Phangan. We picked Thong Nai Pan, far enough from the crowds of Haad Rin but close enough so we could go to the full moon party without too much effort, and the beach was amazing too! For the first couple of days we did pretty much the same as in Ko Tao, sunbathing, sleeping, eating and swimming – no snorkelling at this beach unfortunately, then it was time for Full Moon Party! Luckily there was a storm which meant we couldn’t go by boat, instead we got a nice minibus with a nutter of a driver on some terrible roads but we got there alive and set about getting into the party atmosphere. Steered well clear of the sangsom this time – only vodka buckets for me. Never seen anything quite like Full Moon before, an entire beach packed with people all getting hammered and raving away. There were about 9 or 10 different bars each with their own djs and sound system and plenty of fire juggling, fire skipping, fire slides, fire poi etc going on. Met up with Daniel, our kiwi friend, and spent the evening wandering up and down the beach going from bar to bar and fire show to fire show! Pulled myself away from the action to go and watch the football at around 2, ended up watching the game in an emergency medical clinic next to the beach with a couple of other Spurs fans which was very random, especially with all the injured people coming and going and bleeding all over the floor on the way! Not sure why the medical people let us watch it there – I doubt our cheering was helping the patients much – but very nice of them anyway! Next day was a bit of a write off as we didn’t get back to bed til gone 7, although got a great view over Ko Samui and the sunrise as we made our way back over the hills to the other side of the island. Spent the next couple of days doing much the same as before, sleeping, sunbathing, swimming etc until sadly our time on the beach had to come to an end and we had to head back to Bangkok for the final chapter of our epic trip!

The next morning we set off on a sightseeing trip around Battambang with a tuk-tuk driver we met at the Smokin Pot restaurant (highly recommended should you ever find yourself in Battambang!). First stop was the bamboo railway, probably the best mode of transport ever invented!!! It consists of two sets of wheels that look like weights with a bamboo tray over the top and a little engine sat over the back wheels. The trains are still used by the locals to go between markets and along the fields, but mainly now for tourists since more roads have been built around the area. They run along the old track that the French put in place many years ago, which would probably derail a real train, but the bamboo trains fly (almost literally at times when you hit a warped bit) along them at quite a high speed as far as a tiny little market village where you stop for a drink and to meet the locals before heading back the same way. On the way back we met some traffic coming the other way which meant we had to get off our train and take it apart to let the others through – very odd! Then a bit further along some locals popped out of a bush and jumped on the back of our train for a free ride down to another bush where they promptly disappeared again! Amazing experience, if it wasn’t so expensive I would have done it again and again!!! Unfortunately the bamboo railway is going to be shut down at the end of the year as Cambodia finally gets round to building a new railway line so real trains can operate again – not half as fun as a bamboo train though.

After that excitement we headed off to a nearby temple with some resident fruit bats living in the trees then onwards through amazingly green rice paddies to one of the many huge limestone outcrops in the area. We walked up to the top to some caves which had been used by the Khmer Rouge for throwing people in to kill them during the war – it seems everywhere you go has some kind of awful Khmer Rouge history, there are still machine gun emplacements outside the temples. The hilltop is now home to several temples with some very friendly monks and some incredible views over the flat landscape below with thousands of paddy fields stretching in every direction, we watched as some huge rainstorms passed across in front of us blocking out half the landscape – luckily we didn’t get too wet. Our final stop on the way back was another nearby temple on a smaller hill with some amazing murals painted inside, and yet more friendly monks who insisted we took photos of the murals!! In between driving around we spent a lot of time talking to our tuk-tuk driver, Saro, who spoke really good English which meant we could find out lots of interesting things about Cambodia and local life – always interesting to talk to local people to learn a bit more about the culture. After a really great day we headed back into Battambang to chill out for the evening and book our cooking course at the Smokin’ Pot for the next morning.

The next morning our cooking course started with a trip to the local market with the restaurant owner to pick up all the ingredients and to explain what everything in the market was and what it was used for – very interesting as a lot of what is on offer is completely different to what you’d find in any English supermarket!! Our first dish was a fish amok curry (Ellie’s favourite), which was a kind of late breakfast – although very very delicious! Next up was a spicy beef stir fry which was equally delicious although by this time (it was about 11am) we were pretty stuffed already and we still had one more course to go! Last was a sour chicken soup which was probably my favourite of the three – by this time we really were too stuffed to move anywhere. All throughout we had really close supervision and clear instructions on what to use, how to prepare or chop up the ingredients, what order to put everything in, how to cook it etc (they even let us loose with meat cleavers – not surprising when you see the amount of tiny children wandering around with them too!). At the end we even got a cook book with some favourite Cambodian and Thai recipes so if you’re nice, maybe we’ll cook some for you all when we get back!! Spent the rest of the afternoon feeling very fat wandering around Battambang and taking in the nice atmosphere of the town (trying not to get too over-excited about the impending start of the football season!). Definitely one of our favourite places so far on our travels, a really nice laid back town with super friendly people and lots of nice sights in the vicinity (and of course the bamboo train) – a good way to sign off on Cambodia as we make our way to Thailand tomorrow…