Donde estan mi ropa?????

Hola a todos!! For those of you who dont speak Spanish the title of this blog translates as " where are my clothes?!!" Yes I know some of you are wondering what on earth is going on with me losing stuff all the time, but this time it was totally not my fault , my outfit just vanished , although whoever took it was kind enough to leave my only pair of heels, so at least thats something, although not so happy that they took my favourite dress, only pair of leggings, only cardigan and good M&S black underwear!!!

Anyway since Cordaba where we last blogged we have been to Rosario and Buenos Aires and are now at the Argentinina side of Iguazu Falls where we have just been introduced to the Irish friend of a Spanish guy we met last night - turns out his friend is from Burnaby Heights!! For those of you not a home this is a housing estate in our town!! Small world! Rosario was a really nice city, very Parisian feel to it, lots of cafes with terraces, good shopping and the home of Che Guevarra. We were made feel very welcome on our first night where we arived in to be told there was a communal >BBQ happening in the hostel. This turns out to be a nightly affair where everyone brings a piece of meat and Juan douses it in a pile of salt and chucks it on the BBQ , then everyone sits down together, all the staff invite their friends around and theres salad , wine nad beer. We were told this would cost around 20 pesos , around 4 euro but in the end we were told 5 would be find, the euivalent of 1 euro, not a bad deal considering the amount of local wine we sampled!! When in Rome and all that! Following hte meat and wine feast we were given some Argentinain salsa lessons by the locals and then we repayed the favour with a demonstration of our finest Irish dancing!!Our demo routine needs to be polished a bit but we reckon by the end of South America well have it perfected!
Day two in Rosario we spent sight seeing and going for a run, followed by a trip to a locally recommended club where we sipped a cocktail and tryed to figure out who were the men and who were really women as there was some women who were clearly not originally women!We follwed up this bar with a trip to the taditional Irish bar - wouldnt be a city without one and were made feel quite welcome as we were a bit of novelty being Irish in the Irish bar. Left Rosario in the lashing rain after trying to hail a taxi for nearly an hour as the city hadnt seen rain in 2 months everyone was taking taxis and when we did eventually find a free one he wouldnt take us cus he would have to get out to open his boot - nightmare. Thena vary nice taxi man stopped and manged to lock himself out of his taxi while he was helping us get our bags in.Luckily on eof the back doors was still open or we all would have been standing in the lashing rain with our bags locked int he cab! One bag always has to ride up front when theres the 3 of us so its quite an ordeal gtting a taxi to fit everything in and taxi divers make you feel like there doing you a huge favour taking oyu in their car even though its their job.

Next stop was Buenos Aires , a short bus ride of a bout 4 hours to get there. We arrived in the rain and it lashed for the first 24 hours. We donned our rain jackets, this was the first time wed seen rain for a long time and we headed for the museum of LAtin American art, some amazing stuff to see there,considered to be one of the best museums in Argenitina. As it was so miserable and wet we decided to defer the rest of the sightseeing for another day and signed ourselves up for a Tango lessona dn class that evening. Spent the next couple hours getting quite excited about the idea of fdressing up and maybe even putting on some make-up - this is a very rare occurence these days!! Ali decided to come with us too and we roped another guy in our dorm into coming he´s from South Africa - Graeme (who happens to be a ranger in one of South Africas best game parks - could be a good Honeymoon location Ad!!)

So the bus picked us up and off we went to the undisclosed location where we had a drink to warm us up for the tango and then it was into the studio for the lesson. Had such a laugh and unfortunately they cut the lesson short before we got to do the fancy leg across the thigh move but we got the basics and all got awarded a certificate at the end of it to say we are accomplished beginners in Tango!! The lesson was followed by an amazing show and left us all with a desire to learn this dance properly. We returned to the hotel about midnight and were told the taxi for the club would be there at 2.30. On Argentinian time nobody dares to go to a club before this hour! Arrived back from the club around 4.30 5 after dancing to some dodgy electronic music in seemingly one of the best clubs in BA and thats where it all goes a bit hazy on the clothes front. I woke up the next morning and expected to find them beside my bed as I couldnt see my lock in the dark to open my locker. However my shoes were there but nithing else. I immediately thought I must have left them in the bathroom when I changed into my pyjamas the night before but there was no sign there. Asked recpetion incase anyone had handed them in after finding them in the bathroom. No joy.

Next step was to search the room again, my whoel bag, Jos bag and random empty lockers just incase Id put them somewhere else in the dark , again no luck. So off I went to the church donation bin incase they been found lying somewhere random and someone thought they should be given to charity. Rooted through some groce old clothes that I wouldnt give to a skip let alone a charity and no sign of my favourite dress etc. We were all baffled by the mysterios disappearance of them and the staff in the hostel just though I was a nitcase going around searching for my clothes. Ieventually decided they turn up somewhere but unfortunately they never did. I had my suspicions about hte only other girl in our dorm a Russian but Ali says her ass was way too big to fit into my dress so it wasnt likely to be her that took them!!

So I resigned myself to losing htem and did some retail therapy in Zara in the form of a new cardigan to help cheer myself up over losing some of my favourite clothes. Luckily the weather improved the next day and we spent a lovely sunny day sightseeing down in La Boca in the Caminito area, bought some art and some more jewellery - what a surprise!! Explored some more of the city that night and Sunday spent the day at eh markets in San Telmo - again jewellery featured in this - danger! I will definitely need a new jewellery box on return home! But its so cheap her and so unusual you just cant leave it! Amazing markets here including an antiques one where I picked up some Austrian crystals - cus everybody knows every backpacker wears Antique jewellery!! That evening we followed the chanting and dancing to the football statçdium where we attended The bOca Juniors against Godoy Cruz form Mendoza. A lot of cgheerful chanting, a lot of dancing in the stands but unfortunately lost by one goal in the last few minutes. However we had the extra excitement of De Porto (guy who won the US open) attending and doing a lap of the pitch. Went to another meat grill for dinner nad even tried my second bite of almost rare Argentinian steak!!! I know Mum- I hear you saying You did WHAT?? The guys are convinced they will have me earting red meat again in the next few weeks!!

Spent one more day in BA , visited Evita´s grave and spent our last hours trying to go for a run as we knew we had a 22 hour bus ride ahead of us. I say trying to go for a run because we never actually got it in. We headed off in what we thought was the right direction, the plan being to walk down one of the main streets and start running when we reached the park. After 30 minutes of power walking in our shorts down one of the busiest shopping sttreets in BA and getting some very funny lokos we thougth we must nearly be there. After 45 minutes we brought the map into a shop and asked where we were now on the map, expecting the woman to point to a sopt very near the park I got quite a surprise when her finger pointed to a point nearly off the map completeely in the opposite direction!! Yes we had power walked in completely the wrong direction for at leaset 45 minutes and there was no way we could run back without getting run over or hit by every second person nustling along the street . So hence we didnt get out run in, however while we had our runners on we managed to succeed in getting actross all 16 lanes of the widest street in the world in one go( we had been attempting this for the last 4 days but kept getting the red light at lane 12). So at least we ran somewhere!! Much to the people at traffic lights amusement we paused momentarily at lane 8 and jumped up in sir and did running high 5 - maybe you had to be there for this to be amusing!!

Boarded our bus at 7 that evening and felt like we were stepping onto 1st class on a plane. Got sweets as we boarded and soon settled into our cama beds, which are huge leather seat which recline almost all the way backa nd have foot rest. Soon we were served a drink and snacks and the first movie of the night came on, in French with Spanish subtitles so good practice for the languages! Soon dinenr was served, chicken, mashed potato, bread, pizza bread, swiss roll with ham in it ( a random local dish!) and a dulce de leche shortbread - yum! We sat backa nd enjoyed this cvery tasty meal and indulged in carbs for the first time in 5 days, I couldnt resist the mashed potato it was just too creamy! Had wine and beer with duinenr and then enjoyed an after dinner cookie with champagne - life as a backpapcker!!! And here was me thinking wed be roughing it on some dingy bus! No chance inArgentina! Much to the annoyance of most other people onboard Im sure >I laughed my way through Mall Cop and then settled down for the night. Breakfast was served at 8 , followed by luch at 11,30! Afte4r a diversion we were nearly ont he bus 24 hours but felt no more than 5 , much better than flying!

Arrived to torrential rain in Iguazu and settled into our hostel with large pool where we are tonight sampling free Sambva lesson after a day at the Falls. The falls are AMAZING and will make any other waterfall I ever see seem pitiful Im sure. The highlight of the day was going in a speed boat underneath part of the falls, I will put up the pics asap, very funny , havent laughed or got that wet in a long time! Heading tot he VBrazillian side tomorrwo, so will let you all know how that compares in a few days! Next stop Rio de Janeiro just in time to celbrate Jo´s bday! Love to all xox