AMERICA

Hi guys just a quick one to say that we have loads to tell you about but we are struggling to find an internet place that will let us put photos on. So please bear with us and keep checking, it will be worth it, we've been up to exciting stuff!

Chris and Sam

Happy Birthday Lel

Thought I´d say happy birthday early as we are flying to L.A tonight. Hope you have a great day, and contrary to our most recent blog entries we are actually looking forward to coming home and celebrating with everyone. We will have a Budwiser and a hot dog to celebrate your B´Day.
Bottoms Up!
Chris & Sam

P.S Our day today was amazing. WE both jumped from a cliff. Photos to follow.

CHRIST !

Christ the Redeemer statue stands 710 meters above Rio de Janeiro. For me it is one of the most spiritual monuments in the World. Its something about the way he stands over looking every part of such a torn city.

Rio has had a big impression on us, it is the most diverse city we have visited. From violence, guns, gangs, drugs, favelas to extreme richness, beauty, tropical rainforest mixed into urban skyscrapers and pristene white beaches. At night the statue is lit up giving the impression he is just floating. It may also have something to do with the film ´City of God´ which just cant fail to impress upon you what this city is like.

So today we finally get a perfectly clear day when the views are some of the clearest our hostel owner has ever seen. First we visit a lookout where we can see both Sugar Loaf mountain and Christ at the same time.
Then we take the winding road to the top. The statue is massive, and just as impressive. We spend a good hour staring up at it and being stunned by the views of clearly the most beutiful city in the World.

Two Funny Stories

Story One:
I only ever thought it happened in movies.... one night in Buenos Aires we had all been drinking at the hostel before going out at about 3am. Three Irish girls had been drinking with us, none of our group knew them, but we invited them out to the bar.
As soon as we step into the street they turn into crazed maniacs singing at the top of their voices some wierd gaelic songs. Everybody else is clearly a little embarrased and we start to walk a bit faster putting some distance between us and the girls. The street we are walking down is full of high rise residential blocks. Suddenly, BOOM, SPLASH someone has thrown a bucket of water over Sam and Tony!. Nobody knew whether to laugh. The Irish girls had obviously woken some people up who are well trained in noise disturbance. Sam got the brunt of it dispite the fact she was the only one not to have a drop to drink.
The girls shut up singing and soon after had to go home early to be sick.
We saw the funny side of it as Sam dried off in the bar.

Story Two:
In Buzios we were staying in a very chilled hostel/house, the owner of which was a very spiritual hippy pot smoking old Brazilian lady. The hostel was empty apart from us and after a day on the beach we came home to relax for an hour before going for dinner. When we had showered and changed, I open our bedroom door to leave and I hear a scream from the adjacent room, the lounge. I react by letting out a similar yelp. I´m curious to know what I yelped at and pop my head round the corner, only to see our hostel owner stood naked with a pot of wax in one hand and a waxing strip in the other. She screams, I scream, we are both screaming just staring at each other. I eventually react and dart back into my room. Then burst into laughter.
Next morning she is really cool and comes to talk to us at breakfast and acts like nothing happened, but I cant help but see her naked in my head.

Chris

Sunny in Rio

Rio is baking hot with clear blue skies. We had a quick look at Copacabana this morning before we go and see Christ. Sam was mega happy on the beach and for some reason she wanted me to take a photo of her. It may have something to do with the 200 firemen, lifeguards and policemen training in tight black speedos on the beach.

We will be back with photos of the big man.
Chris

The Beach

The weather has improved, and its great to be back on the beach after such a long time (the last time was in July in Tahiti). The sun in Brazil is insanely hot, but the sea water is mega cold, but Sam seems to think it is good for our circulation.
Today we made a trek out to a surf beach with our wetsuits which we have been carrying since Australia. We were going to rent some boards, but the surf was pants.
Its is starting to hit us that we have to come home, and occasionally we get big stirring pains in our stomachs. On Sunday night Sam randomly started crying, I got a photo of it but apparently I am not allowed to put it on the blog.
B.T.W Thanks to all our friends who email us to remind us how long we have left, without you we wouldn´t know when to come home. Seriously THANKS!

Good Riddens Schumacher

The Brazillians love the Grand Prix. Yesterday we sat in a great outdoor bar to watch the GP. The bar was packed and everybody goes crazy at the start, and at every overtaking manouver. I´ve never been so excited watching a GP on the television. Even the coverage is better. When Massa won they started playing really triumpant music, kind of like the Rocky music.
It was great to see Schumacher fail, I will never forgive him for stealing the world championship from Damon hill in 96. It doesnt matter how good a driver he is, in my eyes he will always be an arrogant cheat.
Alonso winning World Champ was wicked, Sam represented the Spanish well shouting all kinds of encouraging words at the television.
Anyway, glad to have my say on Poomacher.
Laters
Chris

Sorry Miami

Falling in love with a place isn´t good for travelling around the world. Buzios has us and we are not leaving.....yet. After a few cuba libres we telephoned American Airlines and cancelled our flight to Miami. We are now flying straight over it to L.A on the 26th October. No offence Miami, but we think you will be easy to see sometime later in our life.

Escape Rio

Woke up this morning...it was raining! So we packed a cloth, attached a stick to it and ran away. Where? I hear you ask. Buzios! It´s not a funny sound effect like Alakazam, Pow or Bang, it´s a beach resort where Rios rich and famous go for the weekend.

It´s absolutely beautiful even in the grey, it feels a bit like a little french fishing village. With cobbled streets winding around a picture postcard bay dotted with colourful little fishing boats.
There are boutiques, sea-front restaurants and designer shops which line the leafy streets. I am in absolute heaven, and so is Chris, because they even have plasma screens on the street to show the Grand Prix.
He may be even happier if it is sunny tomorrow, we have finally seen the itsy bitsy miniscule tiny bikinies in the shop windows.
Could a place get any better? Yes, surrounding it are 22 beaches, some are for surfing and other are calm snorkelling beaches, perfect!
We could quite easily stay here for the remaining 3 weeks, especially as we are staying in a zen hostel all on our own. We might have a go at Tai Chi or meditation if the weather doesn´t clear up.

Anyway it has turned into a hazy summers evening, so we are going to dinner on the beach front for some designer fish.

Kisses from paradise,

Chris and Sam

ENGAGEMENT !

Everybody knows Harry. Even if you haven´t met him you must know about him from this blog because he is quite a feature. Aswell as being a feature, he is also the coolest guy on earth. He did a sterling job as my best man, and now I get to return the favour. Yes, many of us thought the day would never come, or that there wasn´t a brave enough girl out there to take on the task. But at approximatley 8pm on Saturday 14th October 2006, somewhere near Oxford on the river Thames, Harry proposed to the georgeous Georgie. After asking for a second time because she didnt believe him, she caved in and accepted. Harry apparently hasnt slept for a few days due to excitement, and he sounds like the happiest guy alive. They are a match made in heaven. We have celebrated everynight since and I reckon I have a few more weeks of nights out based on the great news. We are both totally over the moon, and can´t wait to see you when we get back!
Big Up for Harry and Georgie!
Lots of Love
Chris & Sam

Still Raining...

A new day and Rio is still a wash out. Before I came here I read the guide book which told me I would be able to drink the Brazilian national drink, Caipirinha. It is a refreshing mix of ice, lime, sugar and very strong alchol.
The guide said things like; ¨After a day sunbathing on the worlds most famous beach, you can sit and relax in one of Copacabanas many beach bars watching the sunset while sipping on a Caipirinha¨
So we went to full fill my dream today.
Yes we did get a few funny looks sat in the rain drinking cocktails.

The Bulls Balls

We felt a bit guilty after eating German sausages yesterday lunchtime, so for dinner we went to a traditional Brazilian Churrascaria.
It´s a great concept, you pay a set price and you have unlimited access to a buffet with anything you could ever want, then they bring you fries, rice, polenta and lots of side orders. But that´s not what it´s all about, it´s really about the meat.
A constant stream of waiters parade succulent lamb, beef, sausages, chicken and pork on giant skewers. They carve big pieces off and you pick it up with little tongs and slop it on your plate, the meat is amazing!!!

You have a token which is green on one side and red on the other. When you have the green part facing up it means serve me, and when you flip it to red it means give me a break.

I had my token on green when the waiter offered me 6 little pieces of meat, which I accepted with a smile. Chris declined and stared at my plate very intently.
I thought they might be liver or something, but anyway I am fairly adventurous when it comes to eating, so I cut one in half and was about to put in my mouth when Chris yelled out ¨That´s a testicle!!!¨.
Startled I moved my head away from the fork with a yerk, and stared down at the flap of meat. I´d heard that eating bulls balls was very common in Brazil, and on close inspection it became very obvious that I had six testicles on my plate!!!!

I screwed up my nose in disgust, but then remembered that I have a responsibility to make the blog interesting for you guys. To the background sound of ¨No Way´s¨from Chris I popped it in my mouth, and chewed it as fast as if it was a fish eye and I was competing in ¨I´m a Celebrity get me out of here¨.

To be honest it tasted awfull, very strong flavour, and it had a horrid texture. But I would still eat half a dozen of them over a sip of Durian juice ANY day.

Sam

P.S. The lamb and that was really nice though.

Birds to Boards

I got slightly happier when I found the Ipanema surf spot, but then got upset again when I realised my blond wasn´t with me and I couldn´t go for a ride. Oh yeah, it´s still raining.

B.T.W The surf spot here is floodlit at night.

None At Copacabana Either.....

....so I built my own. It´s still p**sing it down. Still upset.

Rio, Where the Beaches Are Covered in Beautiful Women In Tiny Bikinis...

...Yeah Right! We arrived in Rio last night, after a very long day, we didnt go to sleep the night before and ended staying up for 38 hours, it was a hellish trip. However, we had a good nights sleep and jumped out of bed this morning ready to bask in Rios beauty. I put my beach shorts on and ran to the window - p**sing it down! It hasn´t stopped all day, the clouds are really low so you can´t see anything. We are both very very upset because the forecast is for it to remain this way the whole time we are here. So far all we have done is go to a european style shopping center and eat German sausage.

Burnt Out

There has been a group of us in Buenos Aires now for about 10 days. At some point all of us were supposed to leave, but either because we were having so much fun, or never getting up in time to book a bus out of here (we woke up at 5pm yesterday) we have all ended up staying longer than expected.
Finally after 8 days of partying the hardest anyone has ever tried we are all absolutley smashed. Sitting in the hostel lounge last night nobody could even really manage to speak, just looks of pain, then bursts of laughter, with maybe the occasional hilarious story about last night.
In the end we all decided we should go to bed early for once (2:30am). I think even the youngest guys stayed in.
Anyway, I think our Buenos Aires bender has finally come to an end (unless tomorrow nights meal out turns big). You know you have been out too much in one place when they start letting you in to clubs for free. Tomorrow we catch a flight to the quiet retreat of Rio de Janeiro:)
Its been a wicked week and we shall always remember the early mornings with Ben, Tony, Shiv, Kevin, Dan, Darren, Daniel, G, Ethan, Katelin, Andressa, Manuela, and Steve.
Good night.
Chris & Sam

Cafe Tortoni

Cafe Tortoni is the most historical cafe in Buenos Aires, it was founded in 1858 and is THE place to go and watch Tango shows.
There are plenty of other shows that you can pay hundreds of dollars to go and see, but for 30 pesos you can watch an hour and a half show and have dinner and drinks if you like.
It was hard to take photos because we weren´t allowed to use flash and it was pretty dark, but it was a superb night. A band consisting of piano, accordeon, and cello played deep sexy tango whilst dancers swirled around manically. It was spectacular.

Robbie Williams Concert

Are the Argentines fanatical about Football? Yes
Are the Argentines fanatical about Robbie Williams? HELL YES!!!!!!!

Rob was coming on stage at 10pm. The doors opened to the stadium at 3pm. We like Robbie Williams, but not enough to wait seven hours for him. We figured he was worth about a 2 hour wait. So we caught a taxi at 8pm. We had bought the cheapest tickets, and expected to be stood at the very back (no seats with the cheap tickets). However, by some crazy stroke of luck we entered the stadium just as they opened a new section right infront of the stage.
When Mr R came on we were about 6 meters away in the crush of thousands of teenage girls holding their camera phones in the air trying to take photos. Girls cried and screamed things like "Rrrrrrobbie casate conmigo!" ("Rrrrrrobbie marry me!"). You could just tell that they thought that if only he would catch their eye, he might fall instantly in love with them and they´d live happily ever after.
It was pretty scary and for the first two songs ,a battle to stay on our feet, Chris protected my ribcage from being crushed by the weight of hundreds of people pushing towards the stage. Moderate panic set in but luckily it chilled out a bit after the first two songs.

It was a great show with all the essential ingredients: Balls of fire that almost zinged our eyebrows, big screens, a light show, superb live singing, and a very entertaining Robbie who seemed to be having a fantastic time trying to speak some spanish and taking the pi** out of Maradonna subtely (they don{t get sarcasm here).
Chris was over the moon because he also sang the Take That classic "Back for good".
Wierdly he brought Jonny Wilks on to sing two songs with him. He went down alright here in Argentina, but Im not sure what a crowd back home would think. The funniest part was when they re-enacted Maradonas hand of God, the crowd kind of gave a dull drown.

We had a great time at the concert, followed by a big night out that ended at 9am this morning. Looking forward to sleeping in Brazil, though I doubt that will happen!

Nightlife Review: Buenos Aires

As we have done nothing else the last few days but go out, we thought we´d do a review on the top night spots in BA. Overall ratings are out of 10, the higher the better in our opinion:

Million
3 levels of converted mansion, high ceilings, restaurant area, unisex toilets. It was really packed and unless you find a seat they have the most riddiculous system for buying drinks, once more you have to pay to get a ticket and then give the ticket to someone else that gives you your drink. This made it hell at the bar. It was a nice looking place but the wannabe restaurant manager was extremely arrogant and too above our group to take a picture of us, she took the camera, clicked it at the floor and literally threw it back.

Overall rating:6

Opera Bay
Typical purpose built club, inspired vaguely by the Sydney Opera House. People had raved about this one but we weren´t that impressed. There was 4 different areas, we spent most of our time in the outside!
Getting in was a nightmare because they separate guys and girls and that causes caos, the girls get in first and then refuse to go in until their partners get allowed in, so it´s a huge mess.
The music was shockingly bad, you kept thinking to yourself "what am I doing here", and the DJ made some ear bleeding transitions between tracks. Too many teenagers.
Great to watch the sun rise over the city. Drinks were decently priced. Entry to the club twenty five pesos (about five pounds).

Overall rating:7

Ink
Very cool small nightclub, packed even at 6am on a Sunday/Monday. Silly bar system still applied here, but you didn´t have to wait so long. Great music, great club, wrote a whole blog entry on this one before.

Overall rating:9

Jobs
Aw WHAT WAS THIS PLACE!!!! It was very weird huge wharehouse type building, felt like a huge youth center with pool tables and benches, and a real mix of ages. It isn´t smokey because they passed a law here recently, but it feels like it ought to be. The music was unrecognisable because of the size of the place but none the less you had to shout at people to be heard.
It did have one very cool thing though, you could have a proper go at archery. They had instructors, targets and proper sharp arrows (which could have been worrying had it not been for the glass screen). More worrying was that Chris had a go and managed to hit the bulls eye despite being "slightly" intoxicated.
Entry ten pesos which included a beer.

Overall rating:4

La Cigual
We got there at 4am so probably a bit late but it was cool. It had good music, it was like a bar with a small dancefloor, quite latin feel. The boys drank Mumm champagne for 6 pounds a bottle. Luckery I was drinking water so I could point out all the lady-boys and posh prostitutes to them, and make sure they didn´t make any errors.

Overall rating:8

The Casino
We didn´t exactly get in, they wanted documents to prove age from some of us (I was gutted they didn´t ask me, but then I don´t think I´ve been asked since I was 15!).
I went in briefly to find a friend and....what a hole. It might have chandelliers but it is tacky, tacky, TACKY!
There was an overwhelming amount of sleazy old men, and it had a horrible vibe. It´s free to get in but thumbs down to the Casino.
By the way it´s on a boat, aparently it is illegal to gamble but they get away with it because it´s on the water.

Overall rating: 0

Kilkenny
Your feet stick to the floor if you stay still for too long. it{s like the Queen Vic only dirtier, smellier and darker. Hiddeous music, just yuck.

Overall rating: 0

Asia de Cuba
This is were the elite go aparently, and I can well believe it because it was fourty pesos to get in, that´s eight pounds! Luckily we knew a guy, who knew another guy, so we paid twenty.
Scrutinised heavily by the bouncer on the outside, we were deemed as worthy and allowed in after a short power wait that made him feel important (the rolls on the back of his head should have made him feel pretty unique).
Once inside we found probably the best place. The music was brilliant, and there was a great atmosphere. It was fairly big, very packed, and had a massive sculpture of a dragon with red eyes in the middle of it (irrelevant I know, but it was pretty cool). Drinks were expensive and frozen, and bar staff mega arrogant once more, but this one gets the thumbs up.

Overall rating: 9

Rumi
Again, a posh joint for the rich Argentines. Small and packed, playing trance music until 6am to a not so crazy dance floor. Drinks are expensive here, but we all had a massive night and got totally sloshed.

Overall rating: 8

Owls

Oh dear, we have nothing much to report at the moment guys, only that we are being absolute party heads and totally uncultured. Instead of visiting Eva Perons grave we go out till 10.30am and then sleep in the day, we have got stuck in a nocturnal body rythm in Buenos Aires. It´s very strange for me as I don´t even get to have a drop of alcohol, so I spend the evening amused by watching everybody else deteriorate into a drunken mess. Then I jump out of bed feeling as fresh as a daisy whilst everybody else in the hostel looks like zombies!
I am determined to go out today though so should have something to tell you, and tomorrow we go to see Robbie!!!!!

Sam x

La Boca

"Don´t go to any of the other streets ok! You are only allowed on Caminito, any other street is very very dangerous and something will happen to you" said the receptionist of our hostel as he pointed out on the map the few places that are safe to walk in.
So we went there today to have a look, and it was great. It is a very colourful neighbourhood, the houses are all painted different colours, the reason being that they used all the leftover paints from the shipping yard nearby because they couldn´t affort to buy paint. It has been preserved that way too, each house a different bright primary colour, and the street artists add more with their paintings of passionate couples dancing Tango.

There is loud tango and salsa blaring out of the bars and restaurants, and an old man is teaching a bashful tourist to dance in the middle of it all. It´s the picture of what I had imagined South America to be, raw and latin.

It´s just a shame the street was about 100 meters long, and you could really see that any other street would be a bad idea. Mostly because groups of teenagers looking mean sat at the entrance to them smoking and spitting.
But La Boca is probably my favourite neighbourhood so far.

Theatre Colon

Buenos Aires´ oldest Theatre, with its seven story high balconies was a welcomed chill out session last night after the Polo. We went to see the Orchestra Della Tosccana. Afterwards we went to Buenos Aires best resturant, ´Desnivel´ for some amazing Bife de Lomos.
Buenos Aires continues to be a great city, full of amazing things to do. We have just booked tickets to another concert, this time at Buenos Aires´ biggest theatre, the River Plate Footbal Stadium to see Robbie Williams on Saturday.

Tortugas Country Polo

Spending the morning rushing around Buenos Aires city center wasn't fun, I desperately tried to find something that would turn me from scratty traveller to high society it girl for as little "plata" (cash) as possible, whilst Chris slept off a mammoth hangover.
After being beeped at, grabbed at, and whispered obscene things at by old men, I finally arrived at a sanctuary, a place all girls feel safe and happy at, it's called...Zara.
After shedding my worn out holey clothes, I put on my new dress, a pair of shades, some heels, and finally felt like myself again.
Chris eventually crawled out of bed and made himself look very presentable too. The two of us plus 3 new friends we made in the hostel took taxis out to Tortuga Country. It being a monday afternoon we thought we would be the only people watching it, but when we got there we had a surprise. This was a very important match between two of the top teams in Argentina, and the immaculate Polo ground was packed.

It was a great atmosphere, the sun was shinning, the ponies were on top form, the game was really close, and the little posh kids got overly excited and started jumping, screaming and spraying seven-up like it was champagne at a Grand Prix!
After the game some canapes were offered around and the boys had a couple more drinks.

Tortugas country club is about 30 km out of BA center, it is a private neighbourhood with a secure perimeter, body guards, tennis courts, golf course, gym, swimming pools, it's own polo ground of course, and huge mansions.

Sam the "Backpacker" Packwood & her friend from Brazil, G.
We got to have a look around after the match and it reminded us of the OC, or Stepford. The security was so tight that we actually felt pretty unwelcome after the match when we tried to get a taxi out of the neighbourhood. But it was a great game, everybody enjoyed it, and I forgot all about the dirty old men in town!

Ink

There can´t be many places where at 2am on a Sunday night you can say "Lets go out" then five minutes later end up in an amazing nightclub packed with people, and come home at 6am in the morning. We all went out to Ink last night and had a great time. B.A nightlife is turning out to be the best I´ve seen.
It´s now 1am on Monday and we have just got back from the Polo/Theater/Dinner and are off out again to a different club.

River 3 - Boca 1

"You are River fanatics today, if you so much as even smile when Boca score, they will kill you". Thats what our guide told us as we got into the minibus to take us to River Plate vs Boca Juniors.
We were going to be sitting with the River fans in their home stadium. Other class quotes from our guide Phillipe included, "If you find yourself in any trouble shout my name and I will come and help", "Only take your ticket out of your pocket at the very last moment, do not show any money, they will take it from you".

As it turned out we had amazing seats in a relaitvly safe area. The most dangerous people around us were a pair of gold chain wearing 5 year old boys with beer bellies, sticking their fingers up at the Boca fans, and even they played patter cake together at half time.
It was everything we had expected, the stadium filled 2 hours before the game, and only started emptying one hour after the end. The noise throughout was thunderous, the stadium under your feet shakes, your eyes and nose filled with flare smoke, hands and throat raw from joining in. The stadium doesn´t have the imposing feeling of Twickenham or the Millenium Stadium, there is no roof and an athletics track puts abit of space between you and the pitch. However it is full to capacity at 75,000, and the passion of the fans manage to make it one of the most stomach churning, rib cage shattering atmospheres I have ever seen, or felt. The noise is beond belief.
River start with red and white ballons each, then out come the vertical banners stretched from top to bottom of the stands. Next a train of about 100 people walk into the stadium and line the back of the stand with which looks like could be the biggest flag even sown, they dont unravel it yet. Next comes the band marching in with countless drums to a solid beat, then a parade of guys with red and white umbrellas, and flags on poles about 20 meters square each. Finally the gigantic flag drops down to cover the entire River end from top to bottom. Its an unbelievable sight.

It quickly gets ravelled back up just as River run out to the pitch. The stadium moves under our feet and hundreds of red and white flares get let off to clouds of ticker tape. The Boca fans reply with a slighlty smaller flag, banners, ballons, bands, and fire.

The game starts well with River scoring, but Boca coming straight back with a goal. It´s noticable how neither fans stop shouting at any point, even when the opposite team scores. I remember in the Molineux the Albion fans used to go quite for half an hour after the Wolves scored.

Second half was class with River scoring two more. Still Boca fans refused to go quiet and gave an impressivly intimidating show.

The final goal.
The game was brilliant, but the atmosphere better. When the full time whistle blew, we all had to hang around waiting for the Boca fans to leave first. They didnt, they ripped the seats out the stands and threw them down onto the River fans below. Then, for good measure set the stadium on fire.

We got out six hours after we entered with our skin and bones intact. I think the british football fans can learn something from these guys, it really was an awesome expericence, an atmosphere I think can never be beaten.

Buenos Aires Nightlife

Buenos Aires, rated the 142nd most expensive city in the world (out of a list of 144). It also is supposed to have the best nightlife in the world. Everynight, all night.
So its Friday, and Sam and I spend the whole day trying to find some cheap clothes to go out in. I haven't worn a shirt for eleven months, so it takes a while to get used to it. Sam picks up a black dress and some MORE high heels.
Through talking to shop assistants I found out that we were to go to a place called Million, and then on to Buenos Aires best club, Opera Bay.
Back in the hostel and I manage to drum up a team of 14 people to go out with.
So at 11:30pm we pop next door for a tactical coffee, come back and get changed, and get taxis to Million, a massive manor house converted into a bar. Its full of rich Argentines eating and drinking. Its a great place and we all chill out chatting and drinking until 2:30am. Ready to try the club, we catch taxis, and arrive outside a gigantic, slightly flater replication of the Sydney Opera house. The queue is huge, there is a ruck of about 100 guys by a fence shouting to the bouncers to let them in. Occasionally a bouncer picks out one or two guys and they go through. The caos is due to the lack of ticket machine thingy, so they are unable to queue. Finally we manage to find a seperate queue which looks more orderly so we assume it is a special queue for tourists. We stand moaning for a while that we havent queued for a club since we were 18, but after all this is supposed to be the best club in B.A. Arriving at the front of the queue, the freakishly tall, bald bouncer with a brick for a face allows only the 3 girls into the lobby area. He points us guys to the ruck of blokes over by the fence. Not funny. We try forming a tight group and charging at the mass of Argentines, it doesnt work. There is no way we are getting in. Plan B. Sam. Two minutes later the eleven of us get the fence lifted for us, Sam has managed to talk brick face into letting all of us in aswell as a couple from High Wycombe.
The club is huge, complete with swimming pool. The crowd is a little young and the music is terrible. They played Madonnas ´Holiday´. Anyway, its a hot spring night in the 142nd most expensive city in the world, we are with a group of 16 epic people so it doesn't matter how bad the music is, we are going to have a good time. Steve, an Irish guy discovers that the good champagne here is 8 pounds per bottle. Two minutes later and we each have our own bottles in hand.
The Argentine men are particulary forward, so it takes quite an effort to get Sam across the dance floor, we all seek refuge outside on the clubs decking looking over the harbour and the next 4 hours are spent drinking ridiculous amounts of bubbles and having a wicked time. We all get to experience one of the coolest moon sets behind the Buenos Aires skyscrapers.
At 6:30 am we all jump back in the taxis and go home. It was a classic night out, and the start to a manic week of partying in BA. A warm up for Rio.

Yerba Mate

Mate: South American tea-like drink made from leaves of a South American holly called mate.

It´s more than that though. Mate is a cultural icon, a way of life, a way to socially communicate, even a way to pull.
Argentines drink this tea out of little cups made of pumpkin, wood and even cows hoofs! They stuff a load of these tea leafs in and then they carry a little thermos with hot water and keep topping it up. They drink the amber liquid through a silver straw/strainer pipe thing, and they take the stuff absolutely everywhere with them!
You´ll see them drinking it in their cars, it´s on sports commentators desks on TV, shop assistants walk around with it, couples drink it together in the park, builders share it on the sites...there is no getting away from the stuff.
To make it even more special the Argentines have unspoken rules about mate drinking, here are a few we found out about:

*If I´m the mate owner or server, when someone finishes it they can only pass it to me to top up and then I pass it to the next person. But it always has to go to other people through me.

*You never waste it, you always have to finish it.

*Unless you are the mate owner you never stir the bombilla (the pipe thingy). The main reason for that is that it disturbes the particles and you get little bits in the bombilla which someone has to suck up (yuck!).

*As the owner only you can decide whether to put sugar in it or not.

*Finally, and most importantly, mate is a social drink and you never drink it alone.

Chris told me that it´s a way of pulling too. If a guy wants to talk to you they will offer to share their mate with you (oh and you never wipe the bombilla, so you are sharing spit very early on).
Shortly after telling me about this last custom I had my first experience of someone trying to pull me with mate. A street seller with quite a few teeth missing and a very gummy smile looked at me as I got out of a taxi and extended his mate towards me with a wink.
I´m sure it´s rude to refuse someones mate but...I´m a PG tips girl so I didn´t feel too guilty.

Just for the blog I ordered a mate yesterday to see what it tastes like, Chris refused to share it with me on the grounds that I made a terrible decision the day I tried Durian. Once again it wasn´t a very pleasant experience, the stuff is vile! It made my face screw up in ways I didn´t think were possible.
The verdict: leave it to the Argentines.

Tutto Letto

During our time in South America we have become rather fond of bus journeys, you might laugh and think that's sad but the buses are AMAZING, and this time we went for the ultimate category....The Tutto Letto.
It's a fully reclining option, the seats are wide, really cushionned and much more comfortable than the hostel bed I slept in last night!
I might be sounding like an old lady here but believe me when I tell you that an 18 hour journey flies on one of these.
They feed you lovely food, and Chris got to have lots of wine, champagne and whiskey. They also play movies, usually very good ones, only this time they decided to show one about kidnappings in south america which I found a little unnerving.
An 18 hour journey back to Buenos Aires on this luxury coach cost us about 25 pounds, so fingers up to Aerolineas Argentinas who would have wanted to charge us about 100 quid just because we are tourists.
The funny thing is that whenever they advertise Tutto Letto on billboards they always show a lady in her nighty sprawled sexily on the seat, so we made our own more decent British version of that above.

Did you know...

....Butterflys have tongues? They are long and green. I put it on my hand and it licked me. Wierd.

Iguazu Falls

The 3rd largest falls in the World are in Argentina and are called Iguazu Falls. I was excited about getting there this morning when I woke up, but I knew I was in for a long day. For one Chris started the day doing his best impression on Mr T and shouting repeatedly to the top of his voice "I pitty the fool!", it was kind of embarrassing. I shot him a sour look which prompted an explanation that fool and fall sound the same. My amusement rose ever so slightly but it was barely perceptible.

Miraculously the National Park hadn`t been ruinned by tacky touristy thingies, and we somehow avoided the gang of 50 americans all wearing matching polo shirts and baseball caps.

We didn`t however avoid the Brazilian lady well into her sixties who walked around the whole day in a skimpy flowery swimsuit. She was even spotted in the restaurant like it, where she got very dissaproving looks from a british couple in his and hers full safari outfits.
Oh yes the fools, I mean the falls! Weeeeeeellllll, they were breathtaking of course, and all the usual words that we use to describe these things apply, such as:
* Awsome
* Epic
* Inspiring
* Outstanding
* AMAZING blah blah blah...

But here are some original things we thought, heard and felt:

1) Chris wanted to ¨Get in¨or roll down them in a barrel
2) They weren`t as loud as we thought they would be
3) It`s surprising how calm the water is on top before the drop
4) I thought it looked like it would taste of diluted cola
5) You used to be able to hire a local in a rowboat to take you to nearly the edge and then row you out of danger. Until some local lost control of the boat and killed himself and 7 German tourists.

Oh and lastly, here is a sign we saw lots in the jungle (I guess there`s a story behind this too!)

Football

Harry has been to Argentina, and two of his greatest stories he ever told me about this country were...
A) Ostrich Riding. He rode an Ostrich, which sounded like one of the funniest experiences imaginable. I found the way you just put a brown paper bag over its head and it would stop running hilarious. I had been looking forward to doing this the whole way round the world.
B)Going to watch a River Plate football match. The Argentinians either support Boca or River. They are the most passionate supporters in the world and the games are wild and usually dangerous, but very entertaining. Harry went to see River play and remembered the defening roar of the crowd, until suddenly it fell silent, drums started beating in time as a family of what could of only been Argentinian mafia walked into the stadium, and took their seats. The crowd then errupted into deep thunder again.

I emailed Harry a few weeks ago in a little bit of a stress because every local I asked in every Argentine town had never heard of riding an Ostrich. I was getting some funny looks. Harrys relpy stabbed a knife into my stomach, as I´d had minor memory failure and he´d had actually ridden the Ostrich in South Africa. Gutted.

My luck must of doubled because of the Ostrich thing. Whilst in Buenos Aires Sam and I managed to get two of the most wanted sports tickets on the planet. River vs Boca on Sunday 8th October. It cost a small fortune, but is penned as the most passionate sporting event ever. Don´t worry Gaby, Sam has bought a gun, I have a cattle prod, and because of the expensive tickets, we dont have to go through the arms check!
Maradonna will be in the stadium so if Sam has a bullet left at full time, we´ll give him the hand of God!

What A Difference A Day Makes..

Saturday:


Monday:

We have travelled the huge distance from the most southerly point in Argentina to almost the most Northerly point. As you can see the temperature has changed from -2 to +30, as a result are bodies are in danger of cracking.
We have arrived in Iquazu to go and see the famous waterfalls. We stopped briefly in Buenos Aires so Sam could brief herself on the shopping avaliable before we head back there for a week on Wednesday.

Last Day Snowboarding

I remember going on snowboarding holidays to Austria and thinking to myself how much I looked forward to the apres ski and the gluwein, and how I wanted to hurt myself the minimum possible, and so therefore snowboard the absolute minimum too.Things have changed.
Watching a Boarder Cross Competition on Friday

I`ve grown to love snow boarding and I was very sad on Saturday which was our last day up the mountain for this trip.
It was raining and miserable that morning in the town, but as soon as we hit the country in the minibus, big heavy snowflakes attacked the windscreen and made us both very excited.
Cerro Castor (the resort) looked amazing, the ground was covered in fresh snow and all the trees had a generous dusting on their branches. It reminded me of Christmas and I couldn`t help but hum some Christmas classics.
When we got to the top of the chairlift it was so heavy, that it also reminded me of that great movie with Jack Nicholson "The Shinning". I know the tune to that too so I switched to humming it from Jingle Bells. And I amused myself when Chris asked me what route I wanted to, by flexing my index finger and replying "Redrun, Redrun".
Chris spent quite a bit of time spinning in the air and doing amazing 360, and I got carried away in the moment and tried a little jump too. I thought nobody was looking, but when I fell flat on my face I heard some abuse from the chairlift which I had forgotten was right above the board park.
After a full day we made our way straight to the airport to catch the 7.55pm flight with Aerolineas Argentinas to Buenos Aires.
The plane was delayed by over 3 hours and so we got to our hotel at about 4am, needless to say we had a hiddeous time at the bland airport, but at the end of it all we sank into possibly the comfiest bed in Argentina and slept like babies.