Cider throwing and torn up calendars

So at the end of my last post I dropped the bombshell that unfortunately Jack managed to get bed bugs in Córdoba. This, of course, meant that our first port of call in Buenos Aires was to rid him of his infestation. Luckily our hostel was experienced in this department (I know it's gross but I have met lots of people so far who have had this problem!) and they offered to fumigate his whole bag for him for free. They didn't do his shoes though and we met someone who said they decided to boil their shoes when they got bed bugs, just in case. I tried my hardest to convince Jack to boil his trainers in the kitchen but he flat out refused for some reason. 

Moving on, bed bug free, Buenos Aires was a really cool place. We spent 2 weeks there in the end and I really enjoyed my time in the city. It has so many different sorts of areas- we started off in a hostel called Milhouse Hipo which was quite close to a cool area called San Telmo. That whole area seemed really Parisian to me in the architecture and the general vibe it had- lots of shops selling vintage clothes and old records, little cafes and cool graffiti on the walls.

 We found one of our favourite bars there too- it was called La Puerta Roja (the red door) where we spent a good few hours a few days in a row. They also did pretty great nachos which always helps me like a place! The good steaks also continued in Buenos Aires- I don't know why but somehow Argentinians really know how to do a great steak, and for so much cheaper than at home! I think English steak may be ruined for me forever.

On the second week in BA the three of us plus a couple other fellow English travellers, Neil & Kira, decided to rent an airbnb flat together. It was the week of Christmas so we though it might be nice to have our own space to cook a proper dinner. We moved to an area of town called Palermo which was meant to be the up-and-coming part of town with lots of bars, restaurants and clubs. I really liked that part of town and could definitely see myself living there- especially as we discovered a great little burger place (simply called Burger Joint) that I'm still dreaming of now a few weeks on! 

I admit that for a few days leading up to Christmas I hadn't really been feeling myself. I was feeling homesick while all my friends were having festive gatherings, seeing my mum put up the Christmas tree (I sat on Skype and watched her do it for 3 whole hours) and just generally missing the build up that comes with the western world. In hindsight it was quite refreshing though to not hear the same songs every day since November 1st. Our Christmas in the flat was really lovely! In true Argentinian style we bought a beef joint, bought some muffin tins to make Yorkshire puddings in and made a huge pile of pigs in blankets. We stocked up on cheap bubbly and played all the Christmas songs we were missing from home all day. And, just to make everyone at home jealous of our 28 degree heat Christmas Day, we went out to the local park while the food was cooking to chill and kick Jacks new secret Santa football around. We rounded our day off with a few hundred games of our favourite card game, cambio, as sadly we were lacking a trivial pursuit board which is my family's usual Christmas game of choice. I had a really great day with my temporary little travelling family and I know that next year I'll appreciate my return to 'normal' festivities even more because of it. 

Another cool thing we  did in BA was going to see a show called La Bomba de Tiempo, a big drum show on Monday nights in a sort of old warehouse. It goes on for a couple of hours and is really impressive- I think the highlight was when an electric cello was brought on- something I never thought I'd say. We spent a good couple of hours having a dance about and I'd highly recommend it if you ever visit. 

Originally we thought we'd stay in Buenos for New Years too but after doing a bit of research the five of us decided to head over to Uruguay for the festivities. It's really easy to get there by ferry- it only takes about an hour and a half. The city you dock in is called Sacramento Del Colonia; we had a few days to kill until NYE so we spent a couple of nights there first. There isn't too much there really and the sea is a pretty unappealing brown colour, though we did find a nice bar (with air con, it was constantly 30 degrees) which served pitchers of gin and tonic to while away a few hours in! Unfortunately our hostel wasn't that great either and after a night being serenaded until 3am by another group of travellers who were trying and failing to play the trumpet, I think we were all very ready to travel a couple more hours to Montevideo. 

I'm not sure what I expected of Uruguay to be honest- people doing this general route don't say much about it and I imagine people skip it a lot of the time. I can say I'm so happy we decided to spend NYE there because I imagine it'll be one of the most memorable I'll ever have. First of all during the day it's tradition for office workers to take to the streets, ripping up their old calendars and agendas, leaving the streets littered with numbered confetti. The next tradition; everyone takes to the streets in the daytime with the cheapest possible bottles of cider and literally drenches each other in it. We heard about this and kind of didn't expect it to be quite as ridiculous as it sounds. We headed towards the old part of town and started seeing people looking pretty wet. We saw people starting to throw the cider, and sometimes water, down from their balconies overlooking the streets. Then we turned a corner and two guys with huge buckets (luckily filled with water) apparently took a liking to me and absolutely soaked me through. After that it was carnage. We bought our own bottles, found the main procession of people dancing around to a big drum band and got stuck in- as you can see from the photos...

After a while we decided to try find a street party that a local had told Jack about. We found it eventually, after a quick McDonalds pit stop (don't judge me), and the party continued. Hundreds of people were in one cordoned off street dancing along to blaring music, every so often being sprayed with hose pipes from the bars along the street. It was so much fun; a year ago when I was wondering where on earth I'd be in another year I don't think I expected that to be the answer. 

Later on, sufficiently sticky from drying cider, we headed back to our hostel to shower and join the bbq they were hosting there. Unfortunately the staff took about 4 hours to get all the bbq ready so we were sat around for a long time which was a bit disappointing, but we just about finished eating in time to run down to the sea front for the countdown to 2016. We watched fireworks going off in every direction as we sang a pathetically bad version of Auld Langs Syne, then shouted "Feliz Año!" to anyone and any car that happened to be passing. All in all, my start to 2016 was better than I could've imagined and I'm hoping it has set the bar high for the rest of the year to come! 

The day after New Year's Day (which was spent doing not much but eating all the carbs ever) we got the bus over to Punta del Este, a beach a few hours away. The beach was lovely and I felt very happy to be there on the 2nd of January enjoying the sunshine- however we also encountered the age old problem of 5 Brits going to the beach; extreme sunburn. I promise I actually used my factor 55 sunscreen, but somehow I ended up with the worst sunburn on my back I've had in years. Carrying a rucksack on sunburn really isn't fun. 

The next day Kira, Neil and I split off along with 3 guys from Lancashire to get the ferry back to BA as we wanted to fly up to the Argentinian side of Iguazu falls. The ferry was fine and we spent the day in an all-you-can-eat steak restaurant but unfortunately the flight wasn't meant to be. When you book that many flights, buses and hostels online it's not a surprise that at some point you choose the wrong day..

To cut a long story short, we ended up getting a bus up to Iguazu in the end so we arrived the next day instead, meaning I didn't have time to do both sides of the falls which is what I had intended to do. I'm choosing to believe the people who say that the Argentinian side of the falls is better because that's the side I decided to go see as I heard you can spend much logger there and get much closer to the waterfalls. 

Words and photos could never do Iguazu Falls justice. I know waterfalls may not sound that exciting, but t's probably one of the best things I've seen on my trip. If I remember correctly there are actually about 250 waterfalls in the whole area, but the most famous one is the Devils Throat- this is the one you can get right up next to and believe me when I say you get very very wet doing so. 

There are a few trails to do in the park too in order to see the other waterfalls- these were also really impressive, however there were a few times I was questioning the safety of the walkways over the falls.. 

Later on in the day after the falls it was time to head to my next and (probably) final country; Brazil. A quick taxi ride with a lovely old Argentinian man who sang Engelbert Humperdink to me for the duration of the journey and I was over the border and waiting for my bus. 

I think this post is quite long enough for now so I'll leave it there! Hasta luega chicos!