And all of a sudden...

...it was all over.

Gio and I booked our trip around South America July 30th 2009 and as you can only book tickets a year in advance our return flights were booked for a year later. The plan was to move them. But we never did for one reason or another. Indecision of course being a large one!
And so, all of a sudden, we had just two days left before it was home time.

We used our time to take in some more of the fantastics sights in BA, including the MALBA (museum of Latin American modern art) which was great. We also enjoyed meandering around the Palermo neighbourhood shopping till we dropped. Oh and, of course, we went out for a couple of last minute absolutely delicious steaks.

With the clock ticking we started to reminisce about our 10.something months away. Things we had achieved and favourite moments.

We have slept in 76 different beds. Only 2 of those would make you question our sanity!

Two of the worst offenders:

Volunteering in Ecuador


Deepest, coldest Bolivia

We have been on 53 bus journeys. Having completed almost all of our travel by bus (plus one best forgotten boat to Colombia, flights to Galapagos and the sail boat whilst there)

We travelled approx. 11249 Kms through central and south america.

We enjoyed the sights of 8 different countries (okay Brazil was just one big watery sight), and of course enjoyed many many many cakes in each one.
Best cakes:

Gio's triple layer dulce de leche cake

And then there are the favourite moments:

A breathtaking walk in Galapagos

Amazing animal moments - too many to list but here are a few:

The sealions on Galapagos

Feeding the calves in Ecuador - and them crazily sucking my wellies for milk!!

The ubiquitous llama (or Alpaca)

Oh and those monkey moments!!

...and the whales of course, oh the amazing whales.

In Colombia our time with the kids, especially Vanessa showing us her tiny home with a great big smile:

The amazing beaches along the way

Panama - Bocas del Toro, Wizard beach

Galapagos

Some amazing food:

Yummy piggy in the market in Cuenca, Ecuador

the delicioius Tamales in an amazing setting in Bolivia

of course the steak.....

There were some less appealing meals of course - our first arepa in Colombia:

Coffee in Colombia

And finally, the mind blowing South Bolivia landscapes

What next? Watch this space......

Water, water all around....

Our final sightseeing excursion for Argentina was up to Puerto Iguazu and the very famous water falls. Apparently when Eleanor Roosevelt saw Iguazu she exclaimed oh "Poor Nigara"! Although we had not seen Niagra falls we had certainly heard of them and yet somehow before embarking on this trip we hadn't had heard anything of the phenomenon that is the Iguazu Falls. However throughout the whole of south america fellow travellers had all said the same - amazing - and so we headed off on a nice little 17 hour bus journey to see for ourselves.

Unfortunately we weren't able to get seats on super duper first class for this mega journey, but we went for the next best thing. Which apparently in this bus companies eyes meant booze! Whisky before dinner, wine and beer during dinner and 'champagne' afterwards! The journey went by surprisingly quickly! But we decided perhaps we needed a day or two with a little less drink, especially when we arrived bright and not very sparkly Sunday morning.

After a quick freshen up we headed out for the first view of the falls. Iguazu falls border Brazil and Argentina and so you can 'pop' across to Brazil for the afternoon to see the falls from their side. We felt like fish out of water in Brazil, suddenly we couldn't understand the language!

Our first view of the falls in Brazil

Getting a bit soggy when you get closer

The falls are epic - 2.7 kilometers across!
The falls were indeed amazing, absolutley huge and very loud. But it wasn't until we visited them the next day from Argentina that we really were blown away.

Definitely worth the long, long journey. We had never seen anything like them before in our lives.

The amazing birdlife around the falls

On the journey to the falls the changing colours of the landscape were amazing. Lush greens to bright reds:

We managed to get a last minute monkey fix at a local refuge!

From wine to water

The beautiful old town in BA

Back in BA with mum we ate, drank, ate, drank.....mmm what else?! We wandered around the city (for typical BA sights see photos at bottom), visited a museum, shops and the cemetery. Sounds a little dark and random? This cemetery was amazing. Unlike the UK where we bury our dead out of sight and generally with modest headstones this was a city of tombs. We had never seen anything like it. You could have wondered around for days. It was pretty sombering to see people's coffins but a fascinating insight in to how death is dealt with in another country.

The beloved Eva Peron is buried here, (for those of you not up on Argentine history, or Madonna's film biography, Eva Peron was the wife of the Argentine president in the late 40s early 50s, and very much a heroine here in BA). There was a constant queue of people to see where she is buried, well not buried I guess - laid to rest.

Mum and I joining the Evita fans
For our last night in BA with mum we ventured around the corner to an amazing little music venue and watched a young and very cool jazz band and then a Tango singer, oh and there was some eating and drinking of course!

We said farewells to mum and then had to roll out of the airport - let the diet begin!! Next stop after all that wine was Iguazu and a whole lot of water.

The amazing mix of old and new buildings throughout BA - here literally on top of each other

Tango in the street - actually Tango everywhere in BA

Ah the dog walkers. The record number of dogs we saw with one walker was 17! Sadly they don't clear up after themselves so it can be hazardous following one of these guys, and they are everywhere! Amazing.

Mmmm Mendoza

Ruca Malen vineyard and the Andes
Next stop with mum was Mendoza and the start of a wine soaked few days. Starting well on the bus which provided wine and champagne to make the journey pass easier - that, a steward, hot meals, and fully reclining seats seemed very far from backpacking! Mendoza was beautiful. We spent one day travelling around local vineyards, olive oil and liquor factories sampling, of course, plenty of the local fair. Argentine wine seems to be overshadowed by Chilean wine everywhere else in the world which is strange as it is SO delicious here, we are starting to worry we wont be able to find it anywhere else!

Watching the bottling process

The tasting process...
A delicious day which merged in to a delicious meal and much more wine in the evening. Mmmm backpacking what was that again?!

Wine selection at lunch, a serious business!
Our second full day was spent at lunch! The Ruca Malen vineyard for a tour and then a five course lunch with amazing wine pairings, oh and a magnificent view of the Andes in the background. Wow.

Mmmm not ALL my glasses...honest

Wine glorious wine
Just in case we weren't quite full to busting we headed back in to town and had a little wine ice cream. Okay that was a little strange (and it was my turn to try the strange stuff) Gio and mum went for the 'super-dulce-de-leche' a very delicious option.

Wine again or the real Argentine favourite - Dulce de leche

Mum and I starting the week as we meant to go on

A 'submarino' breakfast seemed a little early for wine..

Another tough evening backpacking....