Well we finally got off the bus at 11ish but had to put our clocks an hour forward for the time difference so it ended up quite late to look for somewhere to stay. Phoned up the nicest looking hostel in the book and got a taxi only to find it was full. We arrived at the door the same time as 2 American girls who also couldn't get a bed for the night so the nice man from the hostel walked us over to another hostel/ hotel around the corner which they seem to share accommodation with when full. The place was pretty basic and cold but we found ourselves in a double for the night for a very low price which was cool, the room was quite horrible but by that time we both didn't care and fell into bed exhausted.

Woke early and had a quick b'fast then walked around to the previous hostel to find ourselves some beds. The hostel looked really cool inside and was all geared up for the travelers - very cozy. We had to wait for a while for fresh bed but soon found ourselves in a 4 bed dorm sharing with a girl called Lilly from California who seemed very sweet but quite typical of that part of the world - bless, always stated the obvious and spoke like the characters from a High School teen film - you know what i mean. She didn't seem to understand a word we said though which was funny.

We dumped our stuff into the lockers then investigated the place and found out the area and what tours were happening. We went for a walk in the sunshine and were impressed at how much cleaner and prettier Mendoza was from Santiago. The sun was lovely and hot so we soon ended up laying in the grass in a park and soaking up the rays - wonderful. We then went to a supermarket to get some food and coffee and went back to the hostel. I cooked some fresh pasta which i found but turned out to be bloody horrible! We also booked up for the wine tour the next day which looked cool. Spent the evening just chilling out and talking to fellow travelers, ended up spending most of the evening talking to a Dutch couple who had been traveling around the world on and off for the last 10 years (going home to save each time) but they went around on push bikes! they had been currently cycling around South America for the last 3months. They were so interesting and very funny, especially the guy who kept coming out with the most funny statements.

We had a power cut later on in the evening which after 20mins Lilly chirped up and said - it's dark, guess it's a power cut eh......... then later asked a guy from Quebec whom we had all been speaking to for a while, - oh you speak French? wow.......... then asked where Quebec was.

Now that's what i'm talking about Helena and Taggart............... (you know i only jest with you - bloody yanks)

Toby went out and about whilst i did some reading and relaxed making friends with a couple of American girls who are studying in chile for a year and are on a little trip in the holidays. A group of us left at 2.30 then went and visited 3 wineries and then went up a really big hill in the local park to drink some more wine that the guide had got given for free. Had a really good afternoon and ended up buying a couple of bottles to take back with me.....

The view from the top of the hill was really good but we were soon engulfed by hundreds of school kids who were up filming something or other. They seemed to find us fascinating especially the Dutch guy with the really blonde hair. The kids all spoke really good English and were asking so many questions and wanted to have their pictures taken with everyone. We all got back to the hostel at 7pm and then a massive group of us then went out to a restaurant where for 12pesos -£3 you can eat as much as you want. Absolutely fatal as we were all by now really hungry and the amount of food was just pure gluttony and shameful. They had so many different areas serving all different kind of foods and racks and racks of meat which they cook for you to your liking, pasta bars where they cook fresh pasta of your choice and sauce of your choice. Help yourself bars of a huge variety of foods all of which were good. then you had the sea food area and the desert area where you could get the chef to make you fresh pancakes or just eat all of the squillion deserts offered. We all ate far too much and all complained terribly, i wondered how much food the place must waste on a daily basis and do they give the food away to homeless? I honestly found the restaurant quite shameful in the fact that the amount of food they had in just one day could keep people alive for a year in some areas of the world - it was just gluttony and i honestly felt quite ashamed of myself.

Some of the gang wanted to go out to a bar but Toby and I just went to the bank to try and draw out money which was like the cryptan factor - but did get some in the end, then went back to the hostel where i went to bed.

Toby got up early and went on a trek up into the mountains which i didn't fancy, wanting to save myself for some nicer treks with some greener scenery. Obviously the surroundings are baron and rocky which is lovely but i like jungles and wildlife so declined. I did spend the day walking around the town and trying to find out where we should next go. I walked down to the bus terminal to get some info to talk to Toby about later then spent a few hours looking around the shops and just enjoying myself. I was going to hire out a mountain bike but didn't want to keep locking the bugger up each time as i wanted to have mooch around the shops. Spent a few hours in the afternoon reading my book and talking to Lilly who had come back from a shopping day from an afternoon nap. I cooked a chili for when Toby got back from his trip as i knew he would be starving, he didn't get back until gone 9pm and had left at 7.30am so he was really tired and very hungry - gosh i'm good to him. We then spent the evening drinking our purchased wine and laughing hysterically with 2 American girls, Sydney and Kate who were so bloody funny, they were only in there early 20's but i just clicked with them both. Sydney especially, had me crying and my stomach aching with cramps, Toby was also crying with laughter. We ended up doing stupid dances and basically acting like fools - highlight of my stay so far. At 1.30am they all went out drinking whilst i just went to bed as i new we had to get up and pack in the morning. Toby stumbled in at 6ish very very very drunk and not even able to stand up. So i stuck him on my bottom bunk whilst i went on the top one, thought that prudent......

He then had to stumble back and forth the to toilet to throw up numerous times so didn't get any sleep until 8am when i was starting to get worried so sat in bed with him trying to get him to sleep. I hadn't seen him that bad since New Years Eve a few years ago when he had drunk so much he stopped breathing and i had to nurse him all night.

I was really tired after going to bed at 2am then woken up at 6am and running around after a sick Toby, but i got up at 9am and apologised to Lilly for all the noise of Toby banging the dorm room door and his general drunken groaning he was doing in bed. I thought it best to stay for another day and let him stay in bed to sleep it off so said goodbye to Sydney and Kate who left to catch the bus at 11am and feeling a little worse for wear ( they had no sleep) i then settled down to write my dairy then go back to the bus terminal to purchase some tickets to Buenos Ares on the night bus for Thursday evening.

Pottered around all day and went to get a McDonalds for Toby later on in the afternoon as i thought he would be craving for some stodge. He didn't get out of bed until 4pm and looking quite chirpy considering, we didn't do much for the afternoon but did have a lovely surprise as Jesus and Edith from La Casa Roja turned up for a overnight trip. The evening was a big BBQ set up by the hostel but wasn't as good as the last one in Santiago. Did drink some wine and had a good conversation with a Israeli guy who had been really ill over the last few days but had now ventured out of his room for a few hours. Went to bed at gone 12 to find Toby and Lilly deep in conversation - must have been a shock to Toby's system having a conversation.

Checked out all our stuff at 10am then just dondered around for the day waiting to catch the bus in the evening. The bus turned out to be a right posh affair and we soon settled down to our 14hr bus ride to Buenos Aires

Can't believe i slept quite well, i usually don't sleep on public transport but the bus was so comfortable.

Arrived in Buenos Aires at 11.00 and caught a cab to the Lime House Hostel which was quite hard work, the driver didn't speak a word of English whilst we found it hard to explain in our broken Spanish. Did finally find it though, and it was just a door in the street so couldn't see what the place was going to be like. A marble staircase took us upstairs where we then found ourselves in an old cool looking building which had tons of character. They hadn't booked us up a double room though, we had booked over the internet.........................so we ended up in a dorm room which i don't mind i just fancied a bit of space for a bit.

I went and sat in the little library and investigated all the rooms and balconies which over looked the huge 16 lane main road. The people didn't seem over friendly who were staying in the hostel so i just kept to myself whilst Toby booked us up an evening of dinner and Tango - bit of a shock i know as i didn't think he liked things like that!

At 9pm we made our way to the Tango club in the posh part of the City, San Telmo. Taconeando turned out to be a really fantastic place and looked just like the tango clubs you see on some films, smoky with small candle lit tables clustered around a dance floor, lovely waiters with smart uniforms bringing out the food and wine - just fantastic. We had our 3 course dinner that was part of the package then settled down to watch the dancing and singing. The Tango dancing was just amazing to watch and looked so technical but i think Toby was taken by the amount of legs being flashed everywhere. The had a great little band consisting of 4 elderly men playing French Accordion, violin, piano and double base - so cool. At the end of the show the dancers picked out a few people to drag onto the dance floor and humiliate, one was me! It was then a free for all and soon everyone was up of all ages doing all sorts of dances - Salsa being the main one.

We got back to the hostel about 2 and went straight to bed only to find i had the most uncomfortable bed in the whole world due to having broken wooden slats, a paper thin mattress and sticking out nails - not a good night sleep.

The rest of our room seem to come in between 8 and 9am that morning, all quite drunk and banging around. One in particular obviously thought it was a good time to start reading his porno mag whilst i looked on. We went and explored the City and the first thing i wanted to do was visit the cemetery which someone and said was worth going to. It took about 40mins to get there walking but it was a great way to see all the fantastic buildings and get the general feel for the City. I fell in love with it straight away and couldn't believe how different it was to Santiago, so cosmopolitan and beautiful. The cemetery turned out to be a fantastic place unlike any other i have ever seen before, all the family of local richies had been buried on top of each other for years and year then a huge stone crypt was placed on top and more bodies placed in the crypt. Some of them were like little churches with small alters and huge crucifixes on the wall. Others were much smaller and less fancier with just the coffin and some flowers but the whole place was like a maze. The statues and art work on some of them were stunning and the more fancy then the richer you were.

There were also loads of stray cats all around the cemetery, some of them living in the crypts amongst the coffins, as some of the tombs were so neglected and old you could just walk in. Some of then you could look in and see through the grid floor layers of shelves with coffins of ancestors all piled on top of one another - fantastic! I had a fab time walking around but was gutted when my camera just gave up and didn't work any more. I was annoyed because it had been starting to go wrong in NZ but Toby had said not to waste money on getting a new one as the one i had worked fine - now it had completely stopped with only half a film used.

After our tour we walked around the market selling all the local arts and crafts situated in the pretty park outside the cemetery. But after a roll of the eyes and a sarcastic remark from Toby (he hates walking around these things) i gave up looking and we went to watch the new Sean Connery film which turned out to be quite good fun. We went home at about 6ish but this time caught the train back saving us a long walk, we then just played a couple games of pool and had some pasta then went to bed. I don't think either of us were quite happy with being in the hostel as it just didn't have a good feeling about the place made worse by my dreadful bed which kept me up most of the night until Toby swapped and i got a couple of hours decent kip in his comfy bed.

I said to Toby that i think we should find somewhere else to stay, this place was just depressing us for some reason. So first thing Toby went out to find another hostel whilst i packed my bag and paid the bill only paying one of my nights stay due to the shit bed. We then troddled over to the International Hostel which looked really nice and dropped our bags into storage to wait for our double room. We then walked off to find an old cafe that had been suggested to us for some morning refreshment, the cafe was situated on the corner of a little square which was holding an arts and antiques fair - just a wonderful place to wonder around and take in the sights and sounds as well as watch the street artist dancing the tango to the crowd. We found a seat at the back of the Cafe and i ordered a hot milk which you then melt in a block of chocolate - scrumptious. The Cafe was wonderful, all old and rustic inside and lots of noise of waiters calling out orders, clinking of coffee cups, smell of coffee and Spanish conversation. After some more drinks and bread and butter we went and took some pictures of the streets and building and the market. This place is a must for everyone to visit, i so recommend a good couple of weeks just taking in the beautiful buildings with balconies and little courtyards leading into gardens and passageways with more rambling old mansions, curiosity shops and cake shops. I think my mum would just love to have a holiday here.

We went back to the hostel for 1pm and checked into our very lovely room situated over looking the indoor courtyard and chilled out for the afternoon doing our diary and for me to catch up on some sleep. Ended up giving Toby the biggest back massage in the whole world as he had twisted his back whilst lifting the backpack.

Slept really well thanks to quiet and comfortable room and felt refreshed and raring to go. We packed our bags and left them in reception so we could spend a couple of hours looking for a new camera for me - wahey! It took 3hrs in the end to walk up and down the streets testing out all the cameras and then sussing out the prices on the Internet. We were seriously thinking of buying a proper camera, the one with a big ole lense etc but we found out it was more expencive to buy in South America than the UK so thought better of it, anyway the darn thing was huge when in it's case so we ended up with a lovely Minolta one with a little zoom, something i have wanted for ages. We then went and posted some postcards and bought some empanadas before heading back to collect our bags and to catch the train to Tigre and some countryside. It is a small town on the Rio Del Parana set amongst all the many rivers and islands of that area. We found the info office and found a place to stay that took our fancy but couldn't get through to them to come and pick us up by boat. The taxi man did try to help by letting us use his phone but to no avail so we just got the taxi down to the river on the off chance of getting a lift across with someone else. He dropped us off and we waited for a water taxi but the only boat that turned up wouldn't take us over for some reason so Toby went and phoned again finally getting through but not understanding a word the bloke was saying on the other end, but within 5 mins of phoning a little boat made it's way over to us and then took us back to the hostel on the other side of the river. The blokey (Julio) who ran the place turned out to be a real sweety and even though we couldn't understand a word he said he would just laugh and smile. The hostle turned out to be set amongst the grass and trees and surrounded by water which seemed like paradise to us coming from the city. He showed us a double room which was too expencive and the dorm was horrible so we opted for camping which was great for me as it was just nice to be sitting outside with the birds and trees again. I found a huge ant trail that led to an old tree trunk, the track was formed on the grass but had been so well used it had worn all the grass away ( they were big ants) when you looked closer you could see many trails leading off of the one trail all busy with huge ants carrying numerous amounts of things, all of which were very important to them. The tree trunk which was the nest, was huge and had all different parts to it with different ants doing different jobs, some were taking in all the leaves they had collected and others at the bottem of the trunk were taking out all the rubbish - completely fastinated me but probably boring the pants of you............

Julio took me over to a little shop on the water to get some provisions as there was nothing on the island so bought loads of goodies. when i got back i opened up my backpack to find that once again a whole bottle of shampoo had exploded and had gone over everything. I had to wash and rewash the lot but ended up throwing away my mosquito net - it was a gonna, why don't they make shampoo bottles with screw lids anymore......

Anyway we spent our evening reading outside until it was too dark to see, then went indoors to the resturant part where Julio cooked us some dinner of chips and a beef snitzel sandwich and then we went to bed. I woke up to hear the biggest clap of thunder so woke Toby up and we ran around collecting my washing and anything else we could find before the storm came our way, and came it did!

The storm was HUGE, just our luck to decide on camping for the first time in ages and we had a thunder storm with torrential rain....... the lighting was blinding and the thunder hurt your ears, it went on for a couple of hours then the rain came and flooded the whole area we happened to be camping, now i know why the hostel was on stilts. The floor of the tent was soaking in the morning which really bloody anoyed me, as it was an expensive tent but seems to soak up all the water through the ground sheet leaving everything damp or wet. Our old cheapy tent never let in the water! We spent the morning drying everything off then Toby thought it would be a good idea to go canoeing whilst i declined as i didn't have a dry towel and just didn't want to get cold and wet again. I spent the afternoon reading and packing up the tent. Toby got back 2hrs later looking very cold and wet as it had been raining again and not looking like he had had fun, glad i didn't go.

Toby got chatting to a man called Carlos who had turned up earlier in the day and turned out to be the owner of the hostel. He spoke really good English and said we could catch a lift back over with him and he would drive us to a hostel back in Tigre which was kind. He also offered us his boat in Brazil to stay on when we were in the area which was even kinder! he was good to his word, after catching the boat back he packed us and our bags into his little car then picked up his daughter. He then drove us to the info center again to find a the cheapest place to stay then dropped us off,.lovely bloke.

We ended up staying in a sort of hotel place which was a bit run down but had a great double with our own bathroom and TV which was great. Went and bought our tickets down at the riverside for a passage to Uraguay for the following morning, the stroll down there was lovely and reminded me so much of Surrey, walking down by the river whilst the rowers passed by and all the beautiful houses, some of which were huge but were empty and run down - what a waste.

Got up at 6.30 and had some b'fast then headed down to catch the ferry for 8.30 but it took quite a while to get through passport control etc so had to get there early. Got ourselves a seat on the boat and then had a very pleasant journey along the river for most of the way, passing some amazing houses on the river banks, huge mansions some of which again were empty, really could buy a place out this way and make a mint.

Only a 40min bus ride and we were across the border and back into Argentina and the little town of Colon which turned out to be a beautiful town and much different from the Uruguay settlements. Much more money over these parts so obviously better looking towns and villages.

We trapesed around town with our backpacks trying to find the International hostel for the night and finally found the place just as my shoulders were going to collapse. The place was really nice and so much different to what we had been staying in, clean and had all the modern facilities. We enquired about catching the bus on Tuesday to Iguazu falls and it seems we can catch the night bus, excellent. We dump our bags in the dorm room and then go to find our first meal of the day but can't seem to find a little cozy restaurant which is what we fancied. We did however find a cozy little cafe so went in there and had a bottle of wine in REAL wine glasses! fantastic. We the just went and had a pasta/ pizza meal at a local restaurant which wasn't very good before going back to the hostel and having a wonderful long overdue shower and bed.

After my coffee we spent the rest of the morning walking around Colon around all the little cobbled streets and brightly coloured villas, all very Mediterranean. We then checked our emails and i sent some over due ones, especially to my friend Ian Scorer who his also traveling and seems to have disappeared somewhere. I took loads of photos before going back to to the hostel where we collected our bags and caught a taxi to the bus terminal. Bus picked us up at 1.30 and deposited us an hour later outside a gas station 5ks away from the national park we were hoping to have a look at. It was then a big trail to get to the entrance of the park so decided to stay put in the cafe at the station and just have some lunch and drink coffee. I went and sorted out the tickets for our other bus that was coming to collect us at the gas station and take us to Iguazu Falls then bought a really cheap bottle of wine to help me sleep on the 12 hr journey on the night bus.

Stayed awake all night................ mmmmm maybe i should try whiskey.

Quote from Toby as he just lets rip a big fart whilst i'm typing ' it was the heat, made all me organs swell up' ........... sorry had to write as i thought it very funny.'

Feeling very tired and gritty so headed for the hostel near the bus station and thought i should get some shut eye but still couldn't settle so went out for some B'fast then a quick walk around the very hot and tropical town then went back and sat out in the open area and read my book until 12midday to find out if a double room was vacant as it was really cheap. Luckily it was but not for another couple of hours so went back out for a walk and to take some photos - very impressive little place, completely different scenery to what we have seen so far, well we are on the Brazil border so very very green with lots of noisy insects and tropical birds flying all over with amazing colours and long tails - just what i needed, some wildlife at last.

We went and stopped off for a quick cold drink and went back to the hostel so i could have a lay down. We moved into our new room which was situated in another building across the road, bit dark and no air but better that the dorm.

Did get an hour of sleep but Toby kept wandering around the room doing things and making noise so didn't get a lot We just sort of lazed around for the rest of the afternoon and then i had a shower only to find the water stopped half way through so had to go back to the other building. When i got back to our room i realised just how hot it was, no air what so ever and not a fan to be seen. We decided to go out for something to eat but no make it a late one as we were getting up early to go to see the Falls - very exciting.

Got up early and caught the 7.30am bus which took us to the Falls Park where we had to wait for 10mins before it opened. Seems all the coach loads of people turn up at around 11am and it goes down hill from there on, hence we were early.

We had bought a all in one ticket which let us go on a truck ride through the jungle then onto a boat, we had all day to do this but i thought it wise to get wet first then have all day to dry off. So we walked through some of the subterranean jungle to get to the truck meeting point, stopping on the way to see monkeys and anteaters, all of which we got very excited about. We bought a quick b'fast of muslie bars and then got on the huge open truck taking a load of us through the most wonderful scenery, my first sight was of a Toucan flying through the tree tops. Now that made my day even before i had seen the waterfall! We got dropped off about 20mins later to the beginning of a steep walk down to the rivers edge then onto a boat. I had been told that we get very very wet so had taken precaution by bringing my water proof trousers and jacket which i then donned. Toby had neither and was even wearing his boots which i had told him was a bad idea..............

It was a steady boat ride down river and over a couple of rapids which were fun and made the dutch lasses in the boat scream.......... what girlies.

We were soon floating around the bottom of San Martin falls one of the Iguazu family and had a chance to take a few of the many photos of the day. The falls were breathtaking and so so so so so big! The boat driver told us to put our cameras away as we were now going to get wet, and very wet we got...... he took us right near the base of a huge fall so all the spray just covered us completely soaking everyone and everything's, including backpacks which we were desperately trying to cover with what ever we could find. The dutchies were screaming to high heaven which encouraged the driver to take anther spin at the huge wall of water - fantastic fun.

We were then dropped off a little way down the river where a dripping Toby with squelchy feet and a bone dry me stepped onto the rocks to dry off our bags and my jumper which i had used to protect my bag. A little boat took us over to another part of the Falls where we could see some more of the fantastic views and take pictures of flocks of black vultures and huge lizards that walked on the path in front of you as you walked. A few more paths led us to some pretty amazing viewing spots where we could witness the shear power and beauty of the falls, Toby even got a little teary!

We seemed to walk around for ages taking photos of hundreds of different butterfly's and birds and anything else we could catch on camera before catching a little train which took us to the beginning of the bridge walk to Devils Throat. The walk took us across the huge expanse of river where we saw an alligator laying in the mud before coming to the end of the walk to the sightseeing platform - it completely an absolutely took took my breath away, i have never seen anything so awesome in all my days. These Falls were colossal and were just everywhere as far as you see, all different bodies of water cascading down the huge cliff - couldn't even see the bottom. There were hundreds of swifts flying everywhere making nests amongst the lush greenery which grew amongst the water. After a long stay taking in every inch of the Falls and loads of photos we walked back to the beginning of the walk and caught another boat back to the train station, but this time we floated down which was a lovely ending to the day in the peace and quiet of the jungle.

Caught the 4.15 bus back to our hostel and saw another Toucan just as we were leaving - fab. We were both knackered as all the walking in very humid and hot conditions had just drained us. Toby booked up a bus to get to Rio - 22hrs - oh joy. I went out and bought loads of rice crackers for our journey then had a very cold shower and went out for some dinner and a long cold drink.

Caught the normal bus at 9.50am from the terminal and got chatting to an Ozzy couple of girls going our way. We caught the bus to the border then had to get out to get through passport control, all the time hoping the bus would wait for us the other side as we heard it generally doesn't..... luckily this one did and as usual Toby Jones was the last one to board. The bus took us over the bridge where only a few of us travely types had to get off to go through the Brazil passport control, this time the bus just drove off so had to wait for another one to come past. Luckily we didn't have to wait long and hopped on another one which then took us to the centre of town........ now in Brazil!!!