We are free to leave Argentina

Have passaportes, so will travel to Peru...the morra..

After one week of negotiating with the British Embassy in Buenos Aires, we have finally been given 10 year passports......the pictures are shocking as we had just spent 2 days on the wine and not much sleep....Debo is on her final warning, as she lost one, got one wet and one stolen all within the last 5 years, so they think she is selling them on, we think...If for any reason this one gets stolen, lost, damaged then she is off back to the UK and has to wait 2 years before she can re-apply...SHOCKING...and that means NO Mum and Dad Williamson you cant send someone over to steal it..!!!! Lets hope we have better luck in Peru and the following 10 months. As this is our last night in Argentina, and our Spanish classes for now are finished, we are off to a posh resturant for some great food and wine....OH dear hangover tomorrow, but no school..HORRAAYY... Love The Bluesxx

San Telmo Market

Its amazing what you can pick up in a market!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to San Telmo market today and it was great. Loads of things to see and buy. Every few steps there would be a street artist or musician and it had a great atmosphere. There was also the nice smell of food, which drove us into this really nice cafe for a sandwich and some beer. We just watched the world go by for a few hours and then walked around in the sun again. Great Day. Tonight we are going to see our friend Gloria off and then head out for some dinner.

Address book

We are having problems with our address book. Could anyone who has not sent us an e-mail in the last month, could you send us a quick message and we will get your details from that. The same goes for anyone who has posted on our blog too. We cant see the blog e-mail addresses to write back to you. Ta much. The Blues

Real reason we are back in BAires...

Robert, Beth, Debo, IB and Gloria...enjoying champagne

(supplied by Robert)

Earplugs are needed if you want to sleep through the Chacabuco traffic !!

We would have posted this earlier but wanted to get everything sorted out and to tell our folks on the phone so they did not worry......(Sorry Mum and Dad Blue that you had to hear it from Al as you are on holiday). Last Tuesday when we were out for lunch in Mendoza and some bugger stole our backpack. We had been to the travel agent to look into flight to Bariloche at the Lake District and in our backpack was our flight tickets, passports, IB MP3 player, driver licence, sunglasses, but no cash.... all gone. We only took our eye off it for 10 seconds and it was gone from under our table. The owner phoned the police and they were there within minutes, one on a bike who tried to find it and 3 in a police car. As like us they knew that it was gone, they offered to take us to the police station to file a report. We approached the police car and there were 2 officers in the front and one big massive one in the back. Once IB was in there was no room for me, but this officer decided there was enough room and manoeuvred my butt in and slammed the door. I did feel slightly violated, but since they all had big guns, decided to keep my mouth shut. At the station when the door was opened we almost fell out. We filed our report, which took 2 hours and is very important, not only for insurance purposes, but for us getting out of Argentina as we do not have an entry stamp on our new passports. We get our new passports in a few days and after many hours arguing with American Airlines, they have issued us new tickets. We think it helped that we had been out the night before with friends and were stinking of booze and looked dog rough after 5 hours sleep. They were meant to charge us $200, but felt sorry for us and give it to us for free. So that is going towards our Spanish lessons. We will claim all the costs back on our insurance and are both okay, so don't worry. Today we are off to school, for 4 hours of Spanish lessons with a playtime at 12. Happy Days....Chao Chicos.x

First Argentinian NED

We meant to say that we met our first "Argentinian Ned" on the bus from Mendoza to Buenos Aires. He came on the bus with his skip cap on the top of his head, trendy gear and a hash logo pendant and t-shirt. We thought he would just go to sleep as he looked stoned, but he played music at volume 11 on his mobile and it was Argentinian techno, techno, techno...which was a bit weird....we expected him to say" aawwright hombre" but he never spoke to us....In the morning after a long bus journey he looked dog rough and drank gallons of Mate tea to get his fix....we have never laughed so much, but he soon shut us up when he turned on his "music phone" again.... ya ancho pura (ya pure wideo)....pure dead brilliant it was...NOT

Back in BA (Shut up fool!!!)

Sunset over San Telmo (from our balcony)

14 hours later, we arrived back in Buenos Aires...the bus was far too hot as everyone was cold....Debo had big swollen feet when we got off....and found it hard to get her boots on, but ok now...food was rubbish and we did not sleep too well....but the taxi drive to the hostel soon woke us up....2 lanes, 15 cars trying to get into the 2 lanes, only 2 can win...luckily we were one of them as our driver kept his nerve....bashes all over the cars here, so Roddy plenty of jobs for you if you wanted (although they dont look to keen on getting them fixed) we are staying at the hostel we stayed at before, which is really nice...the weather is cloudy today, but at least it is still warm...but not to the Argentinians who are still insisting on wearing balaclavas (well not quite but if they could get their hands on them then they would....aaahhhhhhh a niche in the market) we are here for a week and then heading off to Peru...have some things we need to sort out first thou. Tonight we are meeting some people we met at the hostel in Mendoza for some Thai food and nice wine and beer...this life is great... Not sure about the Spanish lessons, as they are looking to be a bit too expensive for our budget, but we will see.... we will keep you posted as the internet cafe is at the bottom of the stairs where we are staying and it costs 0.50pesos for one hour (about 9 pence) the chinese guy who works here, just laughs when we walk in...(bit of a language barrier)....xx

Birthday bash !!!

After a few...and before a few more (hence the big grin)

Went out for the wine tour, which consisted of being driven around and drinking free wine (nice). We went to a couple of vineyards and then were taken to a place which distills their own spirits. We purchased some goods at every stop (surprise, surprise - 3 bottles of wine and a lemoncello spirit cost a total of ten pounds!! ) and then were taken for a huge lunch. When we came back, we were pretty done in, but in true Scottish style, fought tiredness, by drinking some more. Great day !! We are heading back to Buenos Aires at the weekend and reckon it might be a good idea to take some Spanish lessons, before heading to Peru (we are struggling in parts of Argentina, and I reckon Peru and Bolivia will be more challenging on the language front, so it makes sense to at least have some language skills - on the other hand we always have our "point it" book!!).

Mendoza....

Arrived safe and sound in Mendoza..the bus journey from Tucuman to Mendoza took 13 hours...not too bad, even although the guy who was supposed to be looking after us, slept most of the way and when he was awake and you asked him for anything, he moaned..no screaming kids thou, so bonus on that front...Mendoza is beautiful..it sits right at the bottom of the Andes and at night you get to see some really nice sun sets...the weather is still mega hot and it still makes us smile when we see a local with a wolly jumper and a jacket on...As Mendoza is one of the wine producing regions in Argentina we feel that it is our duty to go and sample..and it is IB,s birthday on Thursday so we need to go out and celebrate...the trip costs 90 pesos each, which is about 16-17 pounds..that is for the transport there and back, tour, lunch and wine tasting so it is pretty cheap...the guy who took our booking asked if we wanted to cycle round the vine yards...we both looked at him as if he was crazy....us cycling around a vine yard when there is plenty of good wine to drink...fool....The whole of Argentina is cheap and the people here are so nice..Our hostel is great and there is a big supermarket across the road and with it being clean we can cook too...our budget is still good at this point. We are in Mendoza until Saturday and then not sure where we will go next....maybe a little town on the way back to Buenos Aires that has a thermal spa, but we will wait and see....Our flight to Peru leaves Buenos Aires on the 30th so we still have some time in Argentina to explore...

Will post some pictures on Thursday of the wine tour and IB´s birthday..

it´s only .... 21 hours to Tucuman !!!

Yep, you read that right !!! We had a nice bus journey from Puerto Iguazu to Tucuman and it took 21 hours. It might not have been as bad, but there were kids squawking for 20 hours, 59 seconds. Debo was at the end of here tether. To finish it off, when we were nearing the end of the journey, the hostess guy insisted that we all play Bingo !! I think it was sleep deprivation on his part as he was running around the bus feeding and watering everyone for 21 hours. We didn´t really want to stop in Tucuman, because the bus was going on to Mendoza (where we wanted to end up), but Mendoza is another 15 hours away.....36 hours no way !!!

Tucuman itself is a big city with some nice architecture (churches etc.), but there is only so many buildings you can look at. Tucuman is in the brochure as the "Garden of Argentina", we went to the park to find sun scorched grass, no flowers and a few jakies (nice garden eh?) - so our trip to the park lasted about 1/2 a minute rather than a whole day. So we headed back to the hostel, which is very nice, played cards and drank beer. Started off just two of us...then four....then eight, so it was a good night.

Luckily we have bought our tickets out of here, but today we´re going to the supermarket to buy food that isn´t cheese and bread. What an exciting life we lead, but it is sunny, so it´s not all bad.

Love the "drama queens"

(pictures may follow, but there´s not much to take pictures of)

Iguazu falls and beyond!

Beni and Jeni at (one of) the Iguazu Falls

The bus journey to Puerto Iguazu was not too bad at all. All they did was feed us and tried to shove champagne down our necks so we would sleep (on the fully reclined seats). It did not seem like 15 hours and we both slept pretty well so arrived nice and fresh, or as fresh as you could be after 15 hours on a bus. Our hostel is great. Very clean with a good breakfast, and mega cheap. The town has nice restaurants and bars , also cheap. We sampled some beer last night so taking it easy today.

We decided to hop in a taxi to Iguazu falls. Our driver was Pedro. He was half Russian and not sure what the other half was. Really nice guy but drove like a crazy man (so there is some Argentinian in there). We got to the falls in record time and it cost us the grand total of 40 pesos (about 6.80ish quid) well worth it. The get into the park it costs (30 pesos each, 5 quid) We got on a wee train and headed through the national park and saw tons and tons of butterflies. We have never seen so many and so many different kinds. Of course they kept landing on Debo who was freaking out as she hates things like that, but got used to them after a while. No wonder they say "poor Niagara"..once you have seen the Iguazu Falls. The are WOWWWWWWWWW. If you only do one thing before you die, you must go and see the Iguazu falls. They are spectacular. Loads of smaller ones and then a big daddy one. We crossed a really long walkway and underneath there were crocs..yes crocs and they were waiting on someone falling in. Luckily no one did. You then arrive at a view point which oversees the Brazilian border and the biggest fall of them all. Again this was out of this world and we have taken loads and loads of pictures to bore you all with. Decided to get the bus back and waited and waited at the bus stop. Eventually this old chug a boom drove into the station and it was every man for themselves. You cant be polite here or we would still be standing there. The bus cost 8 pesos for the 2 of us and it took around 30 minutes, which felt like 2 days. It was hot and full of old people moaning about life but they all fell asleep, so it was not too bad (after IB bonked them all on the head with his bag, only joking)

Tomorrow we have the pleasure of sitting on a bus for 21 hours to Tucuman and this time we don't have the super seats. Only slightly super so no doubt we will be like burst couches when we arrive. We are planning on staying there for a few days and then heading to either Salta or wine producing Mendoza, or both. We will just have to see, as everything is so far apart and we need to be back in Buenos Aires on 30th April and are trying to keep to our budget.

Love the Blues

(PS Debo is slightly cream in colour now and not white)!! Horraaayyyy Legs still the same.

Terrifying Tigre.....

We are having a great time in Buenos Aires....the weather is roasting....but I'm is still getting bitten by the wee ba[*&% mosquitos. I've has resorted to sleeping under my mozzie net which helps. Debo, of course is fine, the mozzies are confused by the colour of her skin. They must think that being so pale, she is dead, so leave her alone.

Yesterday, we got the train out to Tigre, which is a little town about 1 hour away, on the train. We went for a boat trip down the river to see how the other half live (fancy houses and huge speedboats on their own little islands). It was very nice, but it took about 2 hours. I think 1 hour would be enough. On the other hand it only cost 3.50 GBP so who's complaining. After we went to a fun park where we went on this terrifying ride. Basically it is a HUGE swing. They pull you up about 40 feet,in a harness (but you are lying in it, facing the ground), you pull a ripcord and plummet (head first) to the ground, before the swing kicks in and swings you over the crowd.......Luckily we did not die....but we thought we were going to ..... Terrifying, but great - although I don't think Debo will do a bungee jump in NZ now, because she was shaking from head to toe. We bought a DVD of us doing it to bring back....we had a sneak preview of it, you can see my face, but can't see Debo as she has her head down and her eyes closed. After we went on a roller coaster that you sit on, but your legs hang down (i.e. the coaster hangs from the track rather than sitting on the track).....it was great too, but after that, we'd had enough and went home.

Today, we are going on a (15 hour) bus journey to Iguazu, to see the falls. The bus is meant to be really comfy, with reclining seats etc. We'll let you know how it was (it's overnight). We don't know if there is Internet access up there, but as always...I'm sure we'll find something. Apologies if it take longer than usual for an update, or any response to emails.

Love the Blues x

Finally arrived in Buenos Aires

"is that girl really that white?" they said to one another

"and look at her hair.... has she never heard of straighteners"

After 4 days in Dallas, 11 hour overnight flight, we have finally arrived in Buenos Aires. We got a Remis taxi from the airport to our hostel which cost 76 pesos, around 12 pounds. Our hostel is in San Telmo part of Buenos Aires, which has loads of cafes, bars, shops etc close by. The hostel itself is really nice. Very chilled and our room in very comfortable. Poor IB got bitten to death by the mozies, (as usual) so he now looks like a pin cushion. We will go to the pharmacy to see what they can do, but he will live. Mozie net will be removed from ruckie and used tonight as it should have been last night, but we were too tired. Walked around this morning and this places gets hotter and hotter. We eventually arrived at the bus terminal and got our bus booked to Iguazu Falls. It is an over night bus journey, but we paid a wee bit more to get comfy seats, air con,free bar and food (approx 31 pounds each - compared to 26 pounds and you have to sit with the luggage ha ha) We leave on Friday night and plan to spend a few days there and work our way back to Buenos Aires in 3 weeks time. Not sure where we will end up, maybe Mendoza, which is the wine producing capital of Argentina...sounds like us.....We were planning on going down to Patagonia, but it is too far away and costs too much for a flight. We might try and get down that way when we are in Chile, but around Santiago there are also 14 vineyards, so the chances of us going else where are slim...We should have stayed at home and gone to the off licence, but the weather is much nicer here, so I suppose it is worth the trip. ha ha....Will update when we can , but cant see it being for a few weeks, but we might be lucky and get an Internet cafe up a hill somewhere...we are both very happy and very very chilled (In IB´s case very bitten )and that is without any Mate Tea...(Sloany and Luisa you know what we mean)

Love to you all...The Blues

All is forgiven Texas!!!!! Thanks to Gerry and Gail

Well, the other day we were walking about the "nothingness" around our hotel and we bumped into Gerry and Gail (or it could be Jerry and Gayle) a couple who were also stranded at the airport, but had there car with them ( a very nice Hummer). Anyway, they were filling up there car at the petrol station (or should that be gas station, since we are in the states), and asked if we wanted a lift to the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, since they were going for a look around. We jumped at the chance and said "Yes". Unfortunately it was closed, for tours, since there was a motocross event going on, so they asked if we wanted to go to Fort Worth instead. Forth Worth has a history and had one of the largest stockyards (if not the largest) in Texas, where thousands of cattle (or steers) were traded. There was plenty to see and gave a flavour of the "real" Texas. We are very glad we went.

Today our nice new friends, took us to a HUGE flea market. We wandered around for an hour or so and had to buy hats, since the weather is scorching at the moment (well it is for us Scots, apparently this is nothing).

It is great to see a little bit of what Texas has to offer and thanks again to Gerry and Gail.

[pictures to follow, since this computer is "locked down"]