Cordoba

Hola mis amigos, llamamos Heath y Abi, y estudiamos espanol. Yes, it's true, one week of Spanish classes and we are officially fluent. Ok, not really, but we can construct a new sentence within 5 minutes of someone asking a question which is an improvement on the blanket "no entiendo".
Spanish classes were loads of fun. We had four hours a day with Fernanda, who was approximately 2foot tall and very sweet. There were only four in the class so it was really intensive and we felt confident that we were learning loads, until we went outside and had to actually practise. But we will persevere!
Cordoba as a town is really cute. There are loads of colonial buildings and it has a massive student population which makes it more lively. We also found an all you can eat buffet for 5pounds, which we went to far more often than we should have. Our belts have had to be loosened since leaving, but it seems impossible not to eat the fattening yet delicious food in Argentina. Oh well, lets just hope for some more food poisoning.

Santa Fe

We left the sunny gorgeous Iguacu into mainland Argentina. Unfortunately the weather did not follow us and it was raining and freezing by the time we got there. Due to a lack of warm clothes, an inability to find life on the streets and too much partying and jumping, we did not really make the most of this city. Its fair to say that we spent the whole two days in the hotel room, watching films and eating sandwiches. We did venture out once for a beer but the place was a ghost town and we quickly returned to the warm room and movie channel. Thus there are no photos from here. And no good stories. But it was a great couple of days anyway!

Iguazu Falls

We had a couple of great days at Iguazu Falls, firstly on the Brazilian side and secondly on the Argentinian side. The Brazilian side is supposed to be great for a "panoramic view", but we feel this could be translated as "the falls are too far away but we'll take your money anyway". The Argentinian side is a million times more impressive - you get to stand at the Devil's throat, get right under one of the lower falls as well as see the whole thing from afar. For some reason the waterfalls seem to act as an afrodisiac, and there were plenty of frisky South Americans doing their thing in the crowd. Slightly bizarre. The trip was made more awesome with our new friends Rob and Tim, who encouraged us to do multiple jump shots (yes, its still cool to jump) as well as accompany us to an all you can eat BBQ. "Mas carne" they say, "si si" we say until at least 20 animals have been consumed. Meat sweats ahoy.

Ilha Grande

Gilligan would've been pround to wash up on this particular Island!! Ilha Grande, or The Grand Island is amazing!!
Probably made all the better because of our stay with Jorge! This man is a legend. His casa was my casa. The room we had was unparralled, with a fridge, sink, mezanine double bed, no less than 3 couches, tables and chairs. It had it all! Best of all was the food. Breakfasts were a feast of fresh cakes, bread, cereals, fresh coffee, fruit, etc... and for just 4 pounds he cooked the most plentiful Brazilian dinners - not too be missed!!
Besides rest and sleep we did get time to see the many sights of the Island, including Lopes-Mendes beach (white sand, blue waters, great waves), waterfalls and the Blue Lagoon where we snorkled with the fishes and sea turtles. One of the best places we have been on our entire trip and met some great people there as well.

Rio

We were at the Copa, Copacabana.... try going around Rio without singing this 24/7... impossible. Thanks Barry Manilow. But, to be honest the Copacabana beach deserves to have an irritatingly catchy song about it - it's amazing!! It's quite bizarre having such clear amazing beaches attached to such a big city, but this is something we could get used to (Ipanema in particular). Other sites or course included standing on the top of the hill with Jesus; spectacular. And we thought we were so Brazilian that we attended a favela party. What silly silly gringos we are. We were approached on Sunday night and told that there was a secret party happening in the favela out of town.. shhh don't tell anyone. So we pay through the nose to go to the "Don's house" 2hrs away, but just before we get there we stop to get our tickets. And there arrives six other buses full of suckers going to the "secret party". Needless to say, it was not really a favela, it was a warehouse (although it was the warehouse where they filmed City of God.. one small claim to genuinity), and we were quickly ushered to the gringo platform in order to be separated from actual Brazilians. The rest of the tourists amused themselves by snogging each others faces off, but since we are an old married couple we just got drunk instead, and laid bets as to who would hook up next. How very ethnic of us.

London

Ah London, how we miss you so. It was only a brief visit, but it was so good to see family and friends. Unfortunately for us that meant a lot of drinking with a lot of people.. schucks. And we made it back in time for the main event... Jessie and Matty getting engaged! Congratulations guys! We didn't want to leave all the festivities but Rio was calling and the world adventure continues....