BUENOS AIRES AND URUGUAY

Ventured to the famed city of Buenos Aires. It has a pretty big road down the centre with 11 lanes in each direction. Fun trying to cross it. Visited the Zoo with roaming otters, La Boca, the Obelisk and all the other usual attractions. Cool city, with mega hot dogs and a cool run down subway. From here we travelled for 3hours on the Love Boat to Uruguay. Stayed in Colonia Sacremento, old colonial town with cobbled streets, and then to Montevideo which we didnt like so much. After 4days in Uruguay we headed back to Buenos Aires for Sams imminent departure!!

Joel, Jarrod, Sam and Random at the obelisk. Centre point of the 22 lane road.

Us hanging at La Boca. A poor area that they have turned into a bit of a attraction. The home of Maradona. Pretty smelly river....Sam felt like he was at home in Rotorua.

Visited an amazing cemetery accompanied by thunder and lightening. The whole place was filled with tombs where you could look in and see the coffins. Sam even tried to open one!!! This is also where Evita is tombed. The thunder and lightening turned into the heaviest rain and we got completely nailed. Returned to our hostel completely drenched.

Us on a wooden draw bridge in Colonia del Sacremento, Uruguay. Logan won this fight.

Joel, Jarrod and our guide on our horse trek through the woods to the beach. Joel had the funniest, slowest horse ever. Was sooooo crackup!

CAMP AMERICA

We moved to the coast of Argentina and stayed at the most amazing camp ground ever. Came with 2 resturants, a store, a supermarket, a pool, two big bush fires, kites, a funny ´hey whats up´ man, a cool waitress and a American guy named Mark. We had a complete mission getting there which we wont go into...but once there it was really cool.

Awwww, just like Parachute! Our camp tags for the biggest and best camp in the WORLD!!!!

Sam loving some kite action on the top of the sand dunes.

A blurry photo of one of the neighbouring bush fires. We were heading to bed after midnight and then noticed chaos and a mass exodus from the camp ground. We ran to check it out, the biggest fire any of us have ever seen. Pretty amazing really.

PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA

After hanging out in Santiago and visiting the cool Island of Chiloe, we headed from Chile to Argentina to the Patagonia region. Stayed in Bariloche which is on the edge of a massive lake. Possibly the most beautiful place any of us have ever been. Also the most expensive place that we have been as it is a huge holiday spot for Argentinians (here begins the struggle to get accommodation). Went on a boat cruise on the lake which was cool.....boat broke down and we had to wait for about 3hours in the middle of nowhere which wasn't. Ate amazing Argentinian steak and local handmade chocolates. It was absolutely freezing but such an awesome place.

Us on our boat cruising the lake.

A beautiful scene in the National Park we stopped in on our lake tour.

Sam being Karate Kid on a half sunken wharf on the waterfront of town.

We moved from Bariloche to Junin de los Andes which was a river town. Spent the day enjoying the sun and river before heading to the coast of Argey.

CHRISTMAS IN HORCON......WITH OUR NEW TOY SAM.

So it was our first Christmas without any family which was a little strange but having Sam arrive and finding a great location for the Christmas period, made it a really great one. Stayed in Horcon which is about 1hour on a rickety bus from Viña del Mar. Was a small little fishing village where you could buy fish right from the boats as the fishermen pulled them up on shore. Totally awesome. Stayed with a crackup, large, Chilean called Juan Estaban who made our time even better and much more amusing! Ate and ate.....turkey, roasts, fresh fish and even a Christmas pudding from NZ!!!!.... and basically just spent the days lazing around. A holiday from our holiday.

New Years was in Valpraiso....massive fireworks display which spanned the coast of probably about 20kms. Pretty impressive. Found out shortly though that the Chileans aren't as good at street parties and general celebrating as the rest of South America. A good night.....but not as good as we were hoping.

Joel and Sam chilling on the fishing boats down at the shore of Horcon.

Horcon had millions of Pelicans who ate off the scraps from the fishing boats. Heres Sam loving it as the birds swarm around us.

We rented a quad pedal bike in Viña del Mar. Funny cruising on the road with all the traffic but funnier when we mounted the footpath and terrorized the locals.....yeah!

Us on some rocks. Reñaca.