Salta & stunning surrounds

After Mendoza we dragged our hangovers onto an 18 hour bus to Salta.

Why Salta? Well to try wine in nearby Cafayate of course! We'd also been recommended to visit Humahuaca to the North for stunning scenery.

Salta itself was very different to Mendoza - lush and green gently rolling hills, with a sub tropical climate (Iguazu was a steamy example of a tropical climate). The town is also very pretty with lots of churches, a lovely main square and low level colonial architecture.

After checking into the Salta por Siempre hostel we headed for the cable car up the hill to get some good views of Salta.

A wander around the town and a sampling of a new beer - Salta so we just had to - and we rounded off the day with homemade empanadas at the hostel.

Next morning we were up early for our trip to Humahuaca - to the north of Salta.

As we went further north and climbed in altitude the landscape changed - this was the altiplano with a semi desert climate, we were effectively in the foothills of the Andes. We were following the Humahuaca gorge up and whilst the hills were still green they were now covered in cacti and grass instead of trees and shrubs.

We first stopped at the town of Purmamarca, where the surrounding hills were made of fabulously coloured rock. The rocks were different colours depending on the minerals in them. There was also an old colonial church and a sacred tree that apparently had sheltered the local resistance against the Spanish invaders.

View from the hill in town.

All of the houses in this part of the country are made of adobe bricks and blend in with the colours of the scenery.

Our next stop was the Pukara at Tilcara

Most of ruins of the Pukara have been reconstructed - it was situated on a defensive hill with the river creating one barrier, the high situation also being advantageous.

You can spot where the pukaras were situated from the abundance of cactus on the hillsides around them. The llamas eat the fruit of the cactus and propagate them around the settlements - being domestic animals they don't go far.

Funny cacti!

We made it to Humahuaca for lunch. This town is another typical Quechan one with narrow cobbled streets and adobe houses. 

The large independence monument behind my head was made by a local Tilcara artist.

In Humahuaca we tried tamales - yum! A different take on the meat in carbs than the usual empanada!

I also got to try the traditional drink - mate - bitter herbs with hot water - I could get used to it...

We hung out here for a while and took in the cathedral with its cactus wood doors and surfit of holy water....

Then we went to visit a church that had paintings done in the Cusco style - where local artists were trained in the manner of European painters when the Spanish invaded. The quirk of the paintings in the church was that the local artists were commissioned to paint angels. They didn't know what angels were (the conversion to Christianity was ongoing) and so their Spanish masters told them to paint 'us with wings'. The resulting paintings are very amusing as it's literally conquistadors with wings - and they are still holding their muskets in the pictures! No photos were allowed unfortunately.

We stopped for another view of the colourful hills on the way back to JuJuy and Salta.

This view shows the cemetery on top of the hill by the village. The locals want to bury their dead as close to the sky as possible - this used to be an Incan belief that got usefully adopted by the church and translated to 'heaven'. In this way Christianity stealthy got absorbed into the old beliefs.

We then visited JuJuy - however this city isn't as pretty as Salta as land wasn't as available - so they had to demolish the old colonial buildings and go up in stories.

The only old bits left were around the main square and it's park.

The following day we headed out South of Salta to Cafayate with its wine & rock formations. We also learnt that the area boasts large tobacco production with fields of tobacco and steel drying sheds.

Apparently the combination of the surrounding hills and the reservoir created a more humid microclimate than to the north of Salta. Hence the tobacco and vineyards. We drove through La Vina which has the oldest vines in the area.

The key grape of this area is Torrontes - which makes a white wine. We had to wait until after we'd seen the rock formations to get to the vineyard though!

We headed first to the devils throat - a formation that had been carved by water before the landscape became more arid. Then we stopped at several miradors - or lookouts - across the valley with the red rocks extending in all directions. The castle formation was the last formation we saw before stopping at Vasija Secret to taste the Torrontes, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec.

The Torrontes was fairly sweet - perfect for an appetiser which is what we bought some for! The Malbec was its traditional dry and tannic self. The Cabernet more smooth, perfect for the steak dinner we had back at the hostel!

Mental Mendoza Moments

So our primary concern for visiting Mendoza was to drink. 

No surprises there then....

The region is famous for its Malbec - the main grape of choice for Argentines who are obviously patriotic as it's the only place to use Malbec unblended (the grape originally came from France), not that this is a bad thing :)

The second grape of choice is Cabernet Sauvignon and this is also grown in Mendoza and is also very nice!

So we started out by checking into Mora hostel - only to find out that they only had one bed in an air conditioned room - it hit 41 degrees that afternoon - we weren't best pleased. Then they tried to sweeten the deal by saying their sister hostel had a pool - we were straight off there! The pool was tiny but perfectly cold....

Then happy hour started - free local wine out of a 5 litre bottle - well why not! After a glass or two we  joined the wine tasting for Malbec and Chardonnay. Then we headed back to our hostel for a second wine tasting (having already signed up for it and bringing our new friends along). The lady doing the wine tasting was a little non plussed by seeing us a second time - but took it in her stride - we also tasted different wines - a Cabernet Sauvignon & a Chardonnay / Chenin blend - which was a bonus.

I particularly like her style of intruducing tasting - using all five senses. We started with hearing - hearing the cork pop - creating a pavolivan response in most of us! - or the sound of bubbles in champagne or just the wine talking to you 'drink me, drink me'!

It was very well done and I learnt a new thing, apparently you should smell the wine before swirling it in the glass as you will pick up on bad aromas - vinegar, mustiness - this way. When you swirl you release more of the good aromas which can mask a bad wine. Now you know!

The following day we were off on the bus with our new friend Ségo to Maìpu to try out the highly recommended Mr Hugo wine and bike tours. Again it turned out to be a hot day - 40 odd degrees at least, but ride around wine country was partially shaded and fairly easy with bike lanes provided for the majority of the way.

We started at an olive oil tasting at Entre Olivos - where we learnt how they make the oil and how the first press or cold press extra virgin olive oil was the best you can get, perfect for salads - not so great for cooking with though - our guide recommended virgin olive oil for that. Lowest of the low was plain old olive oil.

We also tasted tapenade and home made jams - including a spectacular Malbec one (yum!) before trying their flavoured liquors. I tried the banana dulce de leche and the rose, Cat tried the pepper (yuk!) and their cold equivalent of mulled wine - that one went down much better!

Yours for $250k - all you need to make olive oil (except the olives that is!)

After purchasing some olives we went to our first winery at the other end of the road - a longish hot cycle, where we saw the local police keeping an eye on us cyclists - we weren't even drunk yet... We ended up at the Bodega Familia de Tommaso where the irrigation channels were flowing with luscious cold water (have I mentioned how dry Mendoza is yet? Well it was a very dry 40 degree heat!) we stood in the channel to cool our feet down before our tour of the old winery and the tasting.

The winery is one of the oldest in the area - it's not longer an operating winery (ie they don't make the wine there anymore), but they do store and age some of the wine here. The building is built from adobe bricks and has a preservation order on it - which meant that the interior had to remain like a museum. It's a fabulously atmospheric place to taste the wine!

(They store some wine bottles in the old fermentation vats)

We tried the Torrontes white wine and their Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec here. Torrontes is usually associated with the area around Salta, further north, however the bodega have similar conditions so grow the Torrontes in the valley floor in Mendoza. The wine is different to the typical Argentine Torrontes which is usually sweeter - this one was dryer and perfectly drinkable! Both the Cab Sav and Malbec were fruity and deeply coloured - the Malbec had notable tannins compared to the Cab Sav and this is what makes it so good with the steak and enables it to be kept for years.

Our next stop was at Mevi for some lunch, oh and just a few wines!

Between us Cat and I managed to taste all the Mevi wines and lunch had a special deal where we got to take away a bottle for 'homework'. Mevi had some different varieties including Chardonnay, Syrah and an Italian grape called Bonarda.

We enjoyed all the wine - with Cat preferring the Torrontes and me the Chardonnay. We avoided the Rose - we were here for the proper stuff! I don't have anything against Rose - just some of them aren't as good as the red wines made from the same grapes - so we focused on the reds.

The reserva's were obviously nicer than the varietals - however the varietals were young and fruity. The addition of oak barrel aging in the reserva's just added smoothness and body.

Look who we met at lunch - our starting group of 3 had grown to 7 for lunchtime:

The Mevi bodega is all new and modern - a complete contrast to the Familia Tommaso.

From here we wanted to hit up another winery before the beer garden - unfortunately I had a flat tire so we had to wait for Mr Hugo to come and fix my bike.

Dead bike

Arty photos whilst waiting....

Then we were straight to the beer garden to sample their artisanal beers - I preferred the rojo one, they also had a pale ale and a stout.

Here we found why the local police had been so interested in all cyclists during the day - they are well aware of drunken tourists having accidents and had just banned a large group of lads from getting back on their bikes. We were able to cycle back to Mr Hugo's - but they weren't best pleased with us racing the storm cycling with no hands (btw that wasn't me!)

And so completes day one of Mendoza tasting.

The following day we went on a tour organised by the hostel - our favourite wine tasting teacher was leading it and we headed to Don Arturo first, which is also an old established wine maker. They have a very lovely property surrounded by roses - the purpose of the rose bushes is to keep the bugs away from the vines.

 

Don Arturo don't really export their wines - some of their varietals are bought by restaurants in the US, but otherwise to buy their wine you need to come to Mendoza.

We tried their varietal Malbec and Cab Sav - both were very drinkable and we preferred the Cab Sav for an easy drinking wine - e.g pre steak... They also had reserva's that weren't part of the tasting - we asked nicely and got a sample of the Syrah to try - very nice again. Their ultimate wine is one that Don Arturo created for his daughter's wedding - the celebration brand - which apparently is so good you won't want to share it! (We didn't get a taste of that limited edition!).

Apparently Mendoza is also know for its oil....

We headed to Vistandes next up - this is a huge new modern winery that makes a lot of wine and uses grapes from other areas - e.g. their Torrontes is made from grapes from the North of Argentina.

Vines outside the facility

Two of their wines - we tried the Torrontes and the Malbec (not the blend shown)

Large stainless steel tanks they make the wine in - and then they store some of the wine here before bottling - too hard to resist some extra tasting lol!

Finally we headed to another olive oil factory Raipal - they also make dried fruits here and the name is a play on the English/Spanish for raisins. We saw the vastly more complicated old fashioned methods that were used before the $250k machines were available - very time consuming! And then we tasted the results. The flavoured oils weren't as robust as the ones we tried on the first day, however the raisins and sundried tomato paste were very tasty.

Olive oil related murals at Raipal

Back at the hostel that evening we partook in the empanada making class after happy hour (free wine!), so thanks to Sego for making notes for us! We made carne (meat) empanadas - with onion, beef mince and spices to season. We were also shown how to make the pasty - but here you can buy the empanada wraps in most supermarkets. We practised rolling the edges and then got eat the fruits of our labours - with two more bottles of red wine... For free :)

An impromptu dance party started after this - we had a few more bottles of wine - an early night was the idea and I think that 1am is early for Argentines!

The next morning we were up early to hike the hills around Mendoza before the heat of the day. A lot of restorative water was required! The view of Mendoza from the top was hazy as last nights rain evaporated, but worth the effort:

Made it to the top.

Parapunters also come up this way to jump off and fly above the hills - they freaked me out when directly above my head on the climb up!

After a siesta we met our friends at the sister hostel for steak and homework wine - a lovely way to end  our trip to Mendoza.

BA: Back again!

After a bumpy ride across the water from Colonia we were back in BA again, this time staying with Cat's friend Jo in Palermo. Palermo and it's surrounds are very typical Argentine - this is where the real portenos (BA residents) live and play.

We arrived early on Saturday night and made it out for dinner in a funky Italian restaurant - Trattoria Il Ballo Del Mattone - with DJ! But he still couldn't keep me awake past midnight and everyone else was just getting going by then...

Sunday was brunch day - we headed to Malvón, a really cute little brasserie type place where they had a special brunch menu that included a 'cocktail' home made cornbread muffins and a taster pot of cereal with fruit in syrup. That's before we ordered our actual food!

We both went for a popover - which turned out to be a Yorkshire pudding type thing, opened up and filled with your desired filling - mine was scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and Cat went for the roasted veg with feta. After this we were stuffed! 

There was no room to try the baked goods - although they looked fantastic:

(Pics from the Malvón Facebook page)

All that remained for the afternoon was walking to and sitting in Palermo's famous parks.

The rose garden and trellis with welcome shade!

Paddle boats like bumper cars on the lake - the park was crowded with portenos in large family groups having picnics under the trees, rollerblading and just out for a Sunday afternoon walk.

Monday we headed out to Konex to see La Bomba de Tiempo - a drumming group. We ran into some of the guys from the hostel in Uruguay - so not just a locals thing, but the venue had a great urban vibe that had Cat reminising of Hoxton & Dalston. Everyone really got into the beat - we didn't dance though, you can only drink by the bar where you can't really see the stage and you can't dance with a litre of beer in hand, although Natalie did try #wetfeet.

At least I got to try Fernet & coke again - the popular drink choice for young Argentine's despite it being an old person drink back in Italy where it comes from. I actually preferred it to the first time in Uruguay. The bitterness of the herbal Fernet was better balanced by the coke (drinking it almost neat was not pleasant!) and the sugar + alcohol mix is a little like jäger bombs - also keeps you going all night!

After the show finished we headed to a little tango bar where several different singers regaled us with their mournful songs, it felt like a proper Argentine night out!

On Tuesday Natalie and I headed to La Boca to check out the Ron Mueck exhibition. We didn't make it  to the gallery on our last visit and Natalie needed to check out the colourful streets of painted houses.

Ron Mueck makes incredibly realistic human sculptures using materials such as latex and hair. They are not life size, but scaled differently - some larger than life and some smaller. They are so realistic you want to touch them - but that wasn't allowed :(. It was also worth watching the documentary film that shows how Ron and his assistants make the sculptures - creating individual skin pores and attaching each hair independently to create stubble. I would definitely recommend seeing this exhibition - currently travelling around the world - so perhaps in a city near you soon?!

After the exhibition we picked up Jo and Cat for fish and chips at Chipper (a posh chippy - we had lemon sole and two bottles of a very nice Sauvignon blanc!). Sometimes it's good to have a taste of home and to skip some steak for fish!

We then headed to a proper porteno institution - La Catedral del Tango - where luckily (?) we had missed the 9pm tango lesson completely. So instead we settled in to watch others demonstrate this dance in the hot oregano scented hall (they serve pizzas here hence the oregano). It was a vast cavernous space with lots of little side rooms where instruction could be taken. 

At first we watched and then soon got dragged up by locals eager to share this special dance with us. They were undaunted by our lack of Spanish or dancing technique - although by the time I'd had enough to drink to loose my inhibitions I was a bit too drunk to actually remember any of the moves - but it was fun!! 

The dance itself - especially when you are watching real people with a passion and not professionals - is completely mesmorising. The foot work, the body position - heads together and hips apart, the twisting of the women's hips, completely encaptured my attention. Seeing beginners and experienced dancers all on the floor at the same time makes it look obtainable. And every so often we'd see a couple with complete class - the fancy flicks of the legs seeming so natural and not forced or pretentious at all - so much better than watching it in the tourist areas where it's more like Strictly Come Dancing.

A small snap shot of La Catedral - video on Facebook for friends!

The next day we were off on a 14 hour overnight bus to Mendoza - to better appreciate the Malbec....

Relaxing Uruguay

So after Iguazu we waved goodbye to David and popped back over the border to Argentina, finally with Cat's bag and caught a night bus down to Concordia. From there we had to wait 3 hours for a connection over the border to Salto in Uruguay - sitting in the bus station with wifi and coffee we were happy!

At Salto we left our big bags at the luggage consignment office - we found lockers that would have been cheaper later, but to be frank getting my bag into that locker would have been a mean feat!!

The ladies at the tourist information office suggested getting a bus to the Termas de Damyan - but given we had about 3 hours before our next bus on to Colonia we decided to taxi it.

10 minutes later we were kicking ourselves for not having negioated the price - made the cabbie's day though lol! He even came back for us later...

We were dropped outside the entrance for the Acuamania water park - right next door to the public hot spring baths that we were aiming for - so we went with the water park! It still had hot water and lots of grass to sit, sunbathe or have picnics on - some families obviously came for a full day and brought everything.

The added bonus of the water parks was the rides - Cat and Natalie made it down the steeply dropping one (which I wimped out on!) and we all tried the other tall one - with wedgie results lol - and the more kiddie winding ones.

The chance to chill out and then get a shower before an 8 hour bus ride made the whole experience worthwhile - so we didn't just have a travel day!

We arrived in Colonia at midnight and checked into our hostel - a welcome caprinha wasn't required to help us sleep that night, but was still good!

The following day we headed out of Colonia to Carmelo for a day trip. As we only left at 2pm we headed to the main square in Carmelo and grabbed some lunch, some wifi and some tourist information. The bodega we were aiming to visit hadn't responded to my email and the tourist information lady told us they closed in the afternoons (this is contra to all the public info that was available - but perhaps they just had a function that day?!)

So instead we got a taxi for the 2km ride out of town to Bodega Cordano where Diego, a 5th generation wine maker, greeted us and took us for a tour around the winery. The Cordano's were Italian immigrants who started a local grocery store for the community. Hence the winery has lots if antique original fixtures from the old days of the store. It also retains an affinity with selling the local produce - not just wine.

We tried their Dulce de Leche, the blackcurrant jam, a local cheese as well as the local variety of wine - Tannat. This is the variety that Uruguay is famous for. We enjoyed trying the Chardonnay, the Muscatel rose, the Tannat rose as well as the traditional red Tannat.

On the drive back into town to catch the bus to Colonia our taxi driver was effusive at showing us the local area and explaining - mainly in Spanish, but I think we got the gist of most of it! We saw farms, horses, different birds - including one which I think is typical Uruguayan - but I didn't catch the name.

That evening we had a cheese and wine party on the sheltered balcony of the hostel whilst a storm raged around - a great way to spend our last night in Uruguay.

The following day we headed into the old town of Colonia starting at the old gate and town walls. We then headed to the lighthouse or Faro for a view of the town from up high. The old town is all cobbled streets and quaint little houses with colourful plaster work on the outside. We also saw the oldest church in Uruguay. Colonia was founded by the Portuguese in 1680 as a smuggling port in response to that at Buenos Aires and has changed ownership several times.

You don't need long to see the town - especially when some of the museums and attractions were closed over the holidays - so we stopped for final chivitos and beers before heading to the port to make our way back to BA.

Wet wet wet @ Iguazu

Having flown up from Buenos Aires we met up with David at the hostel in Puerto Iguazu on the Argentine side. Unfortunately David's luggage hadn't made it into the same plane as him - but unlike Cat's he was only without for 8 hours - more on that later...

The following morning we headed off on the public bus from the station across the road from the Marco Polo hostel (prime position!) to the Argentina side of the falls or cataratas. The bus ride was a little eventful as it got really hot and then broke down - we eventually made it to the main gate where we paid our dues and made our way into the park.

There are 3 main trails to follow - a lower, upper and the one to the Devils Throat. We did them in that order with a stop to get absolutely soaked in between the upper & Devils Throat. The boat ride under the falls is a must! Yes you get absolutely drenched, but on a hot sticky day this is a welcome thing.

They take you into the mist of one fall and then to the other side for your 'blessing'. This is where they take the boat right under a small fall - the water makes it difficult to see and there was lots of shreaking from the whole boat. They give you a dry bag for your stuff - so at least we could get changed into dry gear when we got off - a lot of people just walk around the park in bikinis and shorts though!

To get to the Devils Throat you get the little train up the 5 km trail and walk about a km along raised walkways across the lake at the top of the falls. The Devils throat is horseshoe shaped outlet from the lake that is truly spectacular. The shear volume of water going over the side creates a perment mist that periodically hits the crowd on the viewing platform. You can't stay too dry anywhere here! It also generates rainbows - ahhh!

A montage of the views and experience is below - lots of falls and pre and post soaking photos!

Clockwise from top left - view over one of the falls from the upper trail

View from the lower trail of the same fall

Me with the large falls in the background

Cat & David pre boating soaking

Large falls from upper trail

Large falls from the boat

Top of a fall from the upper trail

Devils throat!

Me post boat soaking!

Another view of the falls from the upper trail

Not much description there - but there are 270 different named falls and I can only remember 3 - but I wouldn't be able to recognise which is which in the photos!

That evening we met up with Natalie at our hostel and had a very long dinner - 2 hours to cook a steak?! No wonder they were overlooked!

The next day we were up and over to the Brazilian side - David heading off early to fit it in before his flight home and us at a more leisurely pace taking the irratic local buses for about £1.5

Border control was very funny - some buses don't even bother to stop as locals don't need to stamp in to their country and we waited about 1.5 hours for the bus from the same company before giving up and paying again for the same journey. (The guide books tell you buses are every 15 minutes but that's with different companies - ours only went once an hour and didn't wait at immigration!)

After all the hassle we got to our hostel - the Bambu guesthouse with time for a swim in their pool and then my first Brazilian caprinha and dinner.

The next day Cat, Natalie and I headed to the Brazilian side of the falls. Whilst this had been poo-pooed by several people as not as good as the Argentine side, we found bit still gobsmacking!

On the Brazilian side you get very close to the major falls - to the extent that the mists drenched us again! The noise of the falls is deafening up close. You also get the overviews of the falls - if Argentina has 80% of the falls then Brazil has views of 80%! 

A snapshot of the Brazilian side:

View of the main falls on the Brazilian side - the 20%!

Overview of the Agentine side 

Me in front of the main falls post soaking!

Overviews of Brazilan falls

Unfortunately I can't work out how to embed videos - will let you know if I work this one out!

BA: Buenos Aires

After new year in Uruguay we headed to Buenos Aires via bus and boat - sleeping a lot to recover from the partying!

By the boat though we were good for empanadas and beers - so not all bad ;)

We were staying in the BA Milhouse Avenue hostel - another party hostel, but with good facilities and very central to the centro. The first day we grabbed a cheapo Ugi pizza and headed to bed to try and get some sleep. This gave us enough time to recover and start to explore Buenos Aires.

We started out in the micro centro, where we visited the La Prensa building - beautiful faded grandeur!

We also said hi to Evita on the side of the building and saw the Presidential building where she did her famous speech.

We popped into the cathedral to shelter from the rain and were pleasantly surprised by the baroque interior.

We then headed out West to visit Las Violettas - a cute little bakery and paterissie where we had coffee and lots of cake!

Next stop was Puerto Madero - a recently renovated area of the port that's a bit posh - think warehouses and nice restaurants overlooking the water - a bit like Shad Thames in London.

That evening we found a local parilla restaurant in San Telmo and indulged in some steak and Malbec.

Before...

After!

We walked back to the hostel to try and digest it all!

The following day we headed to the colourful area of La Boca

Colourful streets and a great courtyard restaurant for chorizipan - literally chorizo in bread!

After David visited the football stadium we headed back to the centre to walk through San Telmo when the antiques shops and market was open.

That evening we met Alexa and Jules for drinks and dinner - first time to catch up post wedding! We didn't crash their honeymoon too much I hope!

A Brazilian New Year in Uruguay

After 36 hours travelling: taxi - plane - plane - shuttle bus - boat - auto bus - taxi I finally arrived in Montevideo Uruguay and was reunited with Cat and David!

The first thing they did was to take me for chivitas - steak sandwiches with all the trimmings! The next day we had some time in Montevideo wandering around the streets. We visited the old mercado (market) where the grills were hotting up grilling more meat.. This time we passed - it was only 11am, I have to leave at least 12 hours between steaks lol!

Fruit stall - glorious in colour and with flags for decoration

Outside of the mercado

Meat!!!

The clock inside the market

Our next stop after Montevideo was Punta Dell Diablo - further up the coast towards Brazil. This place was laid back and chilled out, but we were going to be there for NYE and it definitely livened up!

Nothing about this place is developed - it has lots of low rise buildings and apparently the population swells to 30,000 in the holidays (lots of holiday homes owned by the Argentines). I found it charming - lovely beaches, little restaurants and a real relaxed pace. The surf was pure Atlantic - great fun but with wicked undertow - lots of waves to play in!

The second day there we met some Brazilians on holiday for New Years too - Pedro offered us a taste if a local tipple - Fernet and coke - I always thought it was more Argentine, it was interesting.... Very herbal taste!

Our new Brazilian friends

Our hostel the Bitacora promised a party every night and we managed at least drinking late if not actually partying whilst we were there - shots of friendship vodka from the Brazilians helped ;) I can't actually remember the toast we did - but it reminded me of Vietnam!

On New Year's Eve the Brazilians have several traditions they follow for luck in the next year - one is eating lentils - some of the Brazilians cooked up a storm and offered us some! The other tradition is to wear white - no one told me! So I wore red - the only person on the whole beach doing so, although I was told red was good for romance (fingers crossed lol!)

We headed to the beach with a drinks cooler for midnight and also joined in with the tradition of jumping 7 waves - getting a bit wet in the process! Fireworks set randomly were firing all around also.

After we finished our midnight drinks we headed back to the hostel to continue the party until the club out of town opened. In the end we didn't go to the club - it was too late and we needed to get up at 7am for our bus to Buenos Aires.....

A great New Years with fabulous company!