Uruguay

Well, after leaving Iguazu we made our way to the border to Argentina before crossing to Uruguay.How stupid am I, I lost my slip of paper to get out of the country!...anyway the police printed out loads of stuff for me and said I should go to the bank and pay a fine. We returned to the minibus and guess what??...I found the blanco paper! So our guide goes back into the station, after getting slightly annoyed with me, and they won`t let me off.I`m currently barred from Brazil until I reach the Brazilian embassy!So have to go to the embassy when I reach Buenos Aires.So, my nickname is definately with the group now! After another overnight bus we arrived in Salto, the heavens had opened and they didn`t close for the whole time we were there. We settled into our prison cell of a room, had stale bread for breakfast...but I did manage to get my first real cup of tea!We spent the day at a thermal health spa, as that`s whatyou do in Salto! I also treated myself to a massage, remember this is Uruguay and very cheap! We went for a lovely meal and it only cost 1.50 this time...even better and it was nice! Salto was a bit of a flying visit, left the day after for a 6 hour bus ride for the capital Montevideo. I really like Uruguay, it has a really European feel to it. The buildings are beautiful, we had a tour of the city in a little mini bus. Montevideo has some gorgeous residential areas and is on the coast too, surrounded by water with the river the other side. The people of Uruguay are quite strange...yet very nice, they all walk around with thermos flasks with hot water and a little cup with herbs in, it`s called ´Matte´, they go everywhere with these things drinking from a silver straw, very bizzare! We were there for the weekend so the city was pretty quiet during the day, but had a superb nightlife, managed to get a Saturday night out. The bars were really cool, although I did find myself dancing to the Venga boys which was very worrying! Sunday we boarded another bus, just a few hours drive to the small town of Colonia. We arrived in the evening and went for a wonder around, it`s a really quaint little town with cobbled streets and our hotel was like a small country mannor. I sampled the traditional food, the chivito...basically beef, ham, egg, veg, fries, salad, cheese, mushrooms all piled onto a plate. It was lovely, but couldn`t get through it all. All I seem to have done since I`ve been away is eat, and since the trek the exercise has slowed! So, we left Colonia on Monday morning and got a ferry across to Argentina, managed to get out of there cause I kept my slip of paper to hand. We arrived in Buenos Aires and because of a demonstration it took us about 30 mins to do a 5 min drive, but we arrived at our hotel right in the centre of the city. The hotel is ok, but very noisy as it`s on one of the main streets...I had to use my ear plugs for the first time last night! We went on a city tour which was rather boring, and I randomly bumped into some s I met in Rio on the one stop that we had on the tour. We went to the Tango region of the city, it was so cool and colourful and loads of people doing tango demonstrations. We went for yet another all you can eat, but this one was much nicer. Today I have been to the Brazilian embassy, and they told me something totally different to what the police at the border said...but in short, I`m not going to be going back to Brazil and if I decide to, I will sort it out when the time comes! We went to a huge cemetery today. It`s like a small town of graves like houses above the ground, you look inside the doors and you can actually see the coffins, it`s really horrible. Some of them have like whole families of coffins inside. We saw Evita Peron`s grave ´Don`t cry for me Argentina´, loads of people there taking photos...including me of course! Just been and looked around the shops, bought myself some trousers as I`ve had to throw a pair out and I`ve looked at the weather for Southern Argentina and it`s not looking great! Tonight I`m going to a Tango show with a few of the people on my tour and then tomorrow is another free day in the city. I`ll probably have a wonder and see some more sights. It`s a great city, but I feel like it`s quite American. Tomorrow evening we meet the people that are joining us for the next 2 week leg of the South American tour and then Thursay we take our 22hour bus ride to Baroloche, the lake district of Argentina. I`ll hopefully have some photos up soon, but this interent cafe doesn`t allow you to plug in USB...how rubbish! Goodbye for now......
Well, I went to the tango show, tried a bit of dancing, it is so amazing, I don`t know how they move so fast. It was a good night and we had some lovely food. In Beunos Aires I have walked miles, backwards and forwards to different areas of the city. I went to the National art gallery, they have some great paintings, they have picasso, miro, Kandinsky, Cezanne and many more. It was really cool, we also saw a really cool display of hearts in the park...I`ll have to get the photos up soon. Last night I met the rest of my group, there`s going to be 15 of us travelling for the next couple of weeks. People seem ok, a real mixture though! I`ve spent today with an Australian (Jess)we`ve been to the antique district, there`s some fantastic shops and small markets. Jess took me to this little sandwich and cake shop, it was so cute. I can`t believe how cheap it was, I got a sandwich, homemade cake and a bottle of coke for 65p! It was brilliant since I went out last night dancing and spent more money than expected. We`ve just been walking around...Jess wanted to go into Zara, bit of a mistake! I bought a little black dress....thought it would be useful! We`re now going to make our way back to the hotel to go to the bus station. Bus is at 7pm and we arrive in Baroloche at 2pm tomorrow, this bus is non-stop so we get dinner, breakfast and lunch. I hope it`s cosy! Hopefully I`ll sleep well as I didn`t get in until 3am this morning and had to be out of the room fairly early.