Well i have to admit i am getting very lazy at this blog. Anyone reading it anymore? Was thinking of giving it up but am on the final leg of my journey so thought I'd better keep it up for fear of regretting it later.
Met up with my cousin in BA who was delayed in Mexico flying in from the States. Her big sister had very kindly treated us both to a night in a 4 star hotel bang in the centre of BA. As my cousin missed her flight in Mexico my older cousin extended the reservation for 2 nights. No complaints from me - 2 nights in a 4 star hotel AND for free is heaven to me after almost a year of staying in rather choice accomodation!
Was great to see my cousin when she finally rocked up. Good to be with family. We spent a few days in BA checking out the main sites including the pink palace where the Perons (Evita) preached to their public. We did a little rendition of "dont cry for me argentina" in the square and even managed to take a video clip of it...Madonna eat your heart out...perhaps this is the way to earn millions?
We spent a wonderful day in BOCA ..home to the famous Boca Juniors (Argentina's most famous football team) and checked out the cute little houses painted in BOCA colours.
BA is a lovely, massive, vibrant city with the expected tourist tango performances in the street which are very entertaining but after a few days we'd both had enough of the city to so headed to the Igauzu Falls.
Well breathtaking is an understatement. They are just an amazingly wonderful spectacle that i had to pinch myself. Now I've seen loads of waterfalls on my journey and at one point (OZ) was almost "waterfalled out" but these falls are the best ive seen to date. Iguazu itself is a lovely little town and it was easy enough to get the local bus to the argentinian side of the falls where you can get quite close (and wet) to the falls. Being typical tourists we got a boat ride right into one of the main falls and got drenched. The argentinian side is far more dramatic than the Brazillian side (which we saw the day before) which is better for its panoramic views and i would strongly suggest to anyone thinking of going to check out the Brazillian side first as you will be dissapointed if you do it the other way around.
Luckily the weather was on our side and the sun was out all day which meant we dried off relatively quickly.
After a few days we pushed on and headed to Peninsula Valides. After 45 hours and 2 overnight buses we arrived in Peurto Madryn at 6am. A tour of the Peninsula was picking up others from the hostel we had just checked into at 8am so after having some breakfast we were soon on another (tour bus). Albeit shattered, we had a wonderful day, the highlight being the numerous Southern Right Whales. Seeing one breach has got to be one of the most amazing experiences of my life. They were just so magestic and wonderful. We saw heaps of other wildlife too including elephant seals and other stuff i cant remember the name of (I know - very bad of me).
We headed back home as the sun was setting and ended up meeting 2 older and rather mad argentinian women who proved great company. Weird though as one didnt speak any english at all and spoke in spanish with my cousin, while the other spoke in french to me all the while whilst my cousin and i were chatting in punjabi and english with each other...how many languages in one night? very bizarre. never thought my french would come in handy in South America!!
I could have stayed in Peurto Madryn a whole week. I loved it as its by the sea and i went for a lovely coastal stog (a cross between a stagger and a walk) with some great views out to the sea. Sadly we had to push on and flew to Ushuaia - The End of the World - Fin Del Mundo which despite being freezing and it snowing was lovely.
We did heaps of End of the World (EOTW)Stuff like take an EOTW boat ride on the Beagle Channel to what we thought was an EOTW lighthouse but which turned out to be the penultimate EOTW lighthouse (gutted). There were loads of EOTW sea lions and EOTW king cormorants. The boat took us directly onto the boarder of Chile and Argentina which is somewhere in the middle of the Beagle channel and it was kind of cool to see Argentina on our left and chile on our right.
Later we had some EOTW vino and next day felt a bit EOTW groggy ...
