Water, water everywhere

The very beige-ness of overnight bus food.

Another eight hour coach ride took us back to Argentina and this time to the very popular site of Iguazu Falls, in the northeast of Argy. We were both very excited to visit. After an hour drama over a lost credit card (some lovely Argentine had handed it into the bank-we need to give some good karma back!) We spent the day wandering around the walkways, playing with the butterflies and trying to avoid the starving Coatimundis! Thanks to Kate, Jonnie and Wilf for the wonderful Wedding Gift no. 20. The falls were absolutely spectacular, we took a boat ride to get super close – and completely drenched! We spent all day there just soaking up (mind the pun) the atmosphere and views, it had rained heavily the previous day and so the falls were very full, we saw Coatimundis (a bit like big racoons), Toucans, a tortoise and parrots and butterflies galore. It was a fabulous and very special day.

Me taking snaps of a Coatimundi!!


Before the boat trip....

The boat trip

After the boat trip, drenched

Our last ever overnight bus took us back south (26hours!!) to a wonderful Estancia thanks to the lovely in-laws, Penny and Ian and Wedding Gift no. 21. It was a part of the trip we were most looking forward to and it did not disappoint. We spent three days riding our horses, playing with the dogs and eating far too well – breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and huge dinner all with a vast amount of Malbec. It was bliss, a real chance to savour our honeymoon and enjoy the last moments of it. On our last night the owner, David, joined us for dinner and we found out our bus to BA was fully booked so ‘oh no, what a shame’, we had to stay an additional night, so we milked cows, rode horses, played with dogs and ate even more-what a pity ; )

Our gorgeous fire in our bedroom at the Estancia

Surprise stop, Uruguay

Having had our fill of overnight buses we cheated and took a flight from El Calafate to Montevideo in Uruguay. Uruguay had not been in our plans but it sounded fun! Uruguay, we discovered thanks to our lovely taxi driver from the airport, is the same size as Wales with the same population size, so Ed felt right at home!

Gluten free meal on plane=rice cakes and for desert? more ricecakes!

We spent ten fun days soaking up the sites of the capital city Montevideo with its fabulous Gaucho museum, went on to the beautiful Punta Del Diablo which being out of season was like a ghost town! Thanks to Wedding Gift no.19 and Kate, Nigel and Lyra and the Bridesmaids we upgraded our room to a sea view and it was fabulous, waking up to see the waves. We ate well and drank well and soaked up our last beach time on the trip. Next beaches will be beautiful Pembrokeshire and Dorset coast-just as gorgeous but not nearly as warm!

hmmmm yum, Parilla!

Lapping up the sunshine and sand dunes

Beautiful sea view, thanks to the Smiths and Bridesmaids x

We then decided to travel through Uruguay back to Argentina rather than get back to BA so it was an eight hour coach up to Salta for Ed’s birthday. By this time we were quite accustomed to the local specialities of Chivito (ED) a breaded steak sandwich and Medio y Medio (SARAH) a half and half mix of sparkling white and white wine, not the most sophisticated of drinks having sampled Argentine Torrontes, NZ Savignon Blanc and Ozzie Chardonnay over the last few months but it became my guilty pleasure, not least because they only sell it by the bottle and Ed refused to drink it ; )
So, Ed’s birthday came around and I took him off to the local thermal pools, a kind of centre parks of a place with dozens of pools all different temperatures. It was a fun and relaxing day out, being a Sunday it was full of locals and being Uruguay and a fairly random spot in Uruguay we only saw one other tourist! It was a giggle of a day. Happy Birthday hubby!