It is amazing how quickly it has come around, but later this evening we will be departing the shores of south america at the end of this the first leg of our little adventure. It's been amazing, but i'll get to the emotional bit later as first i'm going to tell you what's been happening since our last mail from chile (writes Steve)

During our last couple of days in san pedro we wrestled with a dilemma that was only vexing inasmuch as we were lucky to have the choice to go skiing in santiago (our livers would have suffered possibly irreperable damage at the hands of our new friends elliot and iain, though it would have been worth it), if we wanted to or, if we didn't, to continue with our original plan and head back into bolivia. It was a hard one. In the end, and after much deliberation, we decided to head into argentina as per our original plan. So, we got on another bus and off we went...

The bus to salta, a small town in the north of argentina, wasn't long and wasn't by any means unpleasant. For some reason we did stop at what passes there for a motorway service station, where we waited 1hr 20mins to be served with a sandwich and a cup of coffee (meanwhile the driver had pasta and wine, 1 hour before us!?!?!?) And the whole strange event delayed what could have been a 9 hour journey to be an 12 hour journey. These things happen over here, and it is usually best not to ask why.

On arrival in salta we made our way, smugly - as this was the only occasion when we had bothered to make a reservation ahead of our arrival - to our hostel. Unfortunately we had to wake up the elderly mother of the hostel owner, who herself was no spring chicken, and between her fuzziness and our useless spanish we had 5 minutes of unsuccessful banter on the doorstep at about 145am. Surreal. Fortunately the owner returned soon after - apparently she had gone to meet us at the bus station, but hadn't told us she was going to do this. Mad. Anyway, we found our room and collapsed for the night. When we eventually got up at what we thought was 9am (it was actually 10am as argentina are 1 hour ahead of chile) we had breakfast, which was included, and then put in our washing, which was also included. How could this be? All this included (the taxi from the bus station was included too) in 8 pesos, or about GBP 1.70 per person per night. On top of all of that, the lady who owned the place and her elderly mother were definitely the friendliest hostel owners we have met in the whole of south america. Definitely recommended... They are at 509 mendoza, if any of you happen to be passing through.

So, we were in argentina with no guide book. Oops. I thought this was funny, annabel was slightly less amused given her love of guide books. In any case we mosied around the town for the day, taking in the atmosphere and trying to figure out what were the external signs of a country apparently on its knees. With the exception of long queues at all of the banks, sales in every shop and prices that we backpackers only dream about, there were none. People were going about their business.

One of the first things we did that morning was make another change of plan, and this time it was a biggy. We decided to travel the 1500km to the foz de iguacu, the world's widest waterfall, that sits on (or rather reigns over) the border between brazil and argentina. This meant that we wouldn't go back to bolivia, and that we would need to fly out of buenos aires, but that wasn't a big deal and we managed to sort it out with a couple of phone calls. We also decided that we were in need of adventure and that we would spend the next day white water rafting. Later that afternoon we booked our bus and our rafting, and went on the hunt for steak (which we found, surprisingly enough, at the very agreeable price of less than $2).

The rafting was excellent fun - we got absolutely soaked to the skin and had a great time. It was surprisingly hard work in the end, but i can only put that down to the fact that franz - our overly competitive german obergruppenfuhrer and boatmaster - felt it important that we were the first dingy to make it to the truck at the end of the course. Not satisfied with that, upon our return we had lunch, changed clothes faster than superman (but in more space) and went for a hike and a bit of an abseil.

The next day we climbed to the top of the hill overlooking salta, which gave us a pretty good view of a town that was much bigger than we had expected. After that we mosied some more, and caught our bus to resistencia (the half way point to iguazu).

The bus was disappointing, to say the least. No video, and our seats were opposite the toilet (ewww). A short time after our departure, and to add to our suffering, some local musicians got on the bus and proceeded to practice for the concert that they seemed to be heading to. Fortunately for us, they got off before we'd had chance to think much about sleep, and we were left in relative peace and quiet. Unfortunately, that was not the end of it... This bus made more stops that night than any other bus we have been on. If it stopped less than 30 times in the 12 hours we were on it i would be amazed. Result, no sleep at all. When we eventually arrived in resistencia at about 730am the next morning we were not in good shape. We stumbled into a taxi and headed for one of the hostels we'd found out about. What a dump!! This place was a complete tip, probably the exact centre of nowhere, and when the hostel said he didn't have any rooms 'til later it took us about 30 secs to decide that we would go back to the bus station and get on another bus and complete our trip to iguazu in one go. We knew that this would mean a total of 27 hours in transit, but we didn't care.

The good news was that this next bus was much much better. The seats reclined, it had leg rests and it had a video. What more could we want!!?? It also didn't stop every 5 minutes, but every 15 minutes instead. We watched a couple of videos and, before we knew it, we had been on the bus for 10 hours, it was 2130 and we were in iguazu. We had done it!! What had seemed undoable just 24 hours earlier had been done and was over. We quickly found a hostel and went for some dinner. In between those i had a lucky escape from my own clumsiness as i slipped in the bathroom, attempted a double somersault with a half pike and two twists, and landed on the floor crashing my lower back into the toilet. Now i don't know what passes for a spinal unit in the northern extremities of argentina, but i am glad, very glad, for that little piece of luck and all the milk i consumed as a kid as i wouldn't want to find out. I now have a bruise, which is unpleasant but getting better.

The next day we didn't get up too early. We missed breakfast in the hotel and stumbled into town in the hope of satisfying annabel's craving for muesli with fruit and yogurt. No such luck. We eventually found some cereal that looked like cornflakes and something that looked like a banana and, combined with a carton of grapefruit juice made the best of it. There must have been something in that grapefruit juice because what we did next is not easily explained in the cold light of day...

Iguazu falls can (and should) be seen from both the brazilian and argentinian sides. So, thinking that we would spend the afternoon on the brazilian side and spend the next day on the argentinian side, we got on the bus to brazil. Hmmm... No book, no brazilian money and not a word of portugese between us. First, we exited argentina, as expected, but then entered brazil without passing through any kind of immigration. Not normal. The bus driver told us it was ok. Phew. We then found that foz de iguacu is a big city, and that we couldn't just hop off the bus and walk over to the falls but would instead have to travel a further 30km. We also didn't know where to get off the bus, so i asked the driver and he said "here", but not having any money and not knowing where to go from "here" we didn't get off the bus. Hmmm. After further deliberation, i asked him where he was going next, expecting "back to the argentinian side". Unfortunately, he said he was going "to the paraguayan border". Double oops. We attempted to get off there, but fortunately he took pity on us and kept us on and dropped us off at the tourist bus stop further round. Better, but not perfect, as we still didn't have any money to pay for this bus and there were no banks within sight of where he dropped us off. We went over to the bus anyway, and were practically herded on to it. The lady taking money wasn't impressed with my 100 argentinian peso note, and so i offered the emergency $1 i had in my wallet and she took it. Salvation. All we had to do now was pay to get into the park.

When we got to the park we were relieved - very relieved - to find a cash machine. We were even more relieved to hear that noise - which will be a favourite of anyone who has hunted around any latam city searching for a cash machine that works - which is of the machine counting your money. We had some brazilian money. We gave thanks to the god of unprepared tourists and set off into the park.

A couple of shuttle bus rides later and we were there. We hadn't heard of the Iguazu Falls until a couple of weeks earlier, but we were glad that someone - James, i think, so thanks to James and Jenny - had told us about them. They are stunning. For me, they are now the 2nd most amazing thing i have ever seen (after the grand canyon). The sight of more than 2.7km of waterfalls, big ones, is something i will never forget. It is amazing. The sound is like constant rolling thunder, and they are so beautiful it is like walking through a prehistoric paradise. They are pretty hard to describe in words, but if you have the internet to hand then we would recommend having a look...

We spent the afternoon there and then headed back to the argentinian side in a generally more organised fashion. Having said that, we did decide that we wouldn't get the bus all the way back into the city but, instead, would get off as the bus drove past the road that leads down to the border. This would save us time and money, and surely we'd be able to get the bus back to the argentinian side as it went past us on that road. Surely. We hopped off the bus and started walking. No buses had gone past us when we got to the border and so we joined the line to get a re-entry stamp. Just as we got to the front the bus drove straight through the border, much to our surprise and annoyance. We were then told that this was the exit office, and that the entry office was 2km down the road. So, we started walking some more. 1km on another bus approached, but when i tried to flag it down it just accelerated past us. Oh dear. We continued walking, and eventually got to the entry office. We walked quickly past the sign declaring "Las Malvinas esta Argentina" (the falklands are argentinian) and got our re-entry stamps from the army guys at the border. Then we kept walking. We eventually walked all the way back to our hostel (which my back was very happy about) and got ourselves a beer. Tomorrow would be more organised.

The next day we got up early to get to the argentinian side before the coach loads of day trippers arrived. We were on the bus at 725 and off we went. On arriving we were rewarded for our early start with stunning views of the early morning sun shining through the spray from the falls, peace and quiet and uninterrupted views of the falls from every angle. It quickly became clear that when the literature on the brazilian side proudly claimed "the falls can be seen from both sides, but the brazilian side has the better views", it was lying through its very back teeth. The quality and range of views from the argentinian side is far far better. Somehow they have constructed a number of walkways all over the falls and it is possible to walk out over the falls and look directly down them, to get a "water's eye" view, as it were, of what it is like to fall over the edge. We also went on a speedboat ride into the mouth of one of the waterfalls and got even more drenched than during the whitewater rafting. Amazing view, and a great relief that the driver of the boat knew what he was doing.

All in all the iguazu falls were an amazing experience that we would recommend to anyone coming to this country. They were certainly worth the 1500km that we travelled to see them.

From iguazu we had to get to buenos aires. 1387km away. Fortunately, the competition on this route is fairly intense and we were able to get a bus for less than $17. What's more, the buses on this route do the best impression of airline business class that it is possible to do while remaining on the ground. The seats recline almost completely. The videos work. Food is served on board. There are leg rests and despite the buses being wider than any bus in the UK there are only 3 seats across and even i had loads of room. This was going to be an 18 hour journey, so this was all a good thing. The journey was comfortable, but the most amusing part came after about 5 hours when we stopped for dinner at the bus company's restaurant... We got out, were ushered into the dining hall, served with bread, our choice of beer/coke/wine/water, followed by a starter, a main course, a desert and fizzy red wine masquerading as champagne. All of this was included in the price. All of this was also accompanied by a guy on 2 keyboards and his lady friend singing argentinian lounge music to us in the background. Surreal. We got back on the bus, were offered brandy, watched a video and then went to sleep. We slept most of the night.

The next morning we arrived in buenos aires. For those who've never been, it feels like - and is generally thought to be - the most european city in south america. First we hit the shops, in the search for bargains and we have found some. That first night, unfortunately, annabel was ill again and so i was let loose on my own the next day. Unfortunately i had admin things to do like change our plane tickets, check out another hotel etc and so i didn't get to take much advantage of my liberty.

By the end of the day annabel was feeling better and so went for a walk to look at the teatro colon, the main opera house in the city. As we walked in we saw people queuing and, being good brits, decided that the right thing to do was to join the queue. Actually, we decided that it would be quite fun to see the buenos aires philarmonic orchestra playing, well, something, though we weren't sure what. Most of the tickets were sold so we had to share a box with 4 others, but we had a great view. For those of you in the know on these things, we listened first to mahler and then to brahms. To my untrained - and northern - ear, both were very good and the rest of the audience were also similarly impressed.

The next day we went for a walk in the local park, saw the fine art museum and then walked a further 100 miles (or that's what it felt like). We've also been out for a great dinner in the recoletta area, to celebrate a year since our engagemet (barf), or that was our excuse and we're happy with it. Since then we haven't done much of great interest. We've seen a couple of the local areas of note and done some shopping and we've seen a couple of films, but nothing culturally worthy. So that's it, really... This evening we're on the 2150 to miami, and from there we're heading to LA. We're spending the next couple of days in LA with annabel's cousin, who has very kindly agreed to give us lodging, and then on saturday night we're heading for asia for the next leg of this little boon doggle.

Until then, i thought i would leave you with a few stats, which may be of interest and / or amusement...
• Countries visited - 6
• Distance travelled since arrival - c. 9750km
• Distance travelled on buses - c. 7500km
• Hours spent on buses - c. 164
• Modes of transport - 9 (bus, plane, jeep, foot, bike, taxi, train, canoe, motorbike taxi)
• Lines of latitude crossed - 6
• Lines of longitude crossed - 8
• Hostels frequented - 34
• Nights on buses - 7
• Nights under canvass - 5
• Mountains climbed - 8
• Mcdonald's seen in ecuador + peru + bolivia + chile - 3
• Mcdonald's seen in buenos aires - 20
• Books read - 9
• Hair cuts - 3 (steve 3, annabel 0, though i have trimmed annabel's hair with my pen knife 3 times)
• Nights in bed after 2200 - 5
• Nights in bed before 2200 - all the others!!