Mashed Potato

Good heavens. You join us in the midst of a truly mighty storm. We were about to biff off to La Boca and San Telmo (still in Buenos Aires) but we may well get washed away if we attempt it. Pub it is, then.

We're on our second spell in Buenos Aires (having done a few days up north at the Iguazu Falls) and a splendid place it is. Enormous, very European and, strangely, it reminds us of London. We have done a modicum of sight-seeing - we've been to 3 (count them) museums; the Museum of Fine Arts (very good), the Evita museum (Liz made me go) and the Modern Art museum (Modern Art, what can I say, I don't really have the necessary equipment for "appreciating" it), we've done our usual quantity of moochery - looking at old buildings, sitting in cafes etc. We went to La Recoleta and looked at the legendary cemetery, the most elaborate tombs and mausoleums. Lots of tombs of military folk with Greek gods wrestling beasts, angels weeping above their statue and weeping women in their lap. All very dramatic but a bit much methinks. The other significant event was seeing Señor Randall Gordon Duff (of SOS fame) and the delightful Gemma on their hols. Spent a very pleasant afternoon over a bottle of wine with Gandalf while the ladies went shopping and Elizabeth stocked up on shiny new togs from the fashionable boutiques of Palermo (where we are staying now). Hum, what else. Well, I'll leave Elizabeth to give you her impressions of the city, after all she is the Style correspondent, and tell you about Iguazu.

Last thing from me, I would like to thank the sheep of Patagonia for consistently providing us with the best meat we have eaten here (and, as you will appreciate, the competition is intense. Fortunately the judges are determined people, with capacious appetites). So, "baaa" to them, when they get the chance to read this.

Here she comes.....

Yes, well as for the shopping I haven't had a chance to step out in my flimsy little sandals and sundress on account of the weather. Booo and hiss. It's more like anorak, wellies and walking trousers. We may as well be in Patagonia again. Not really, it's a very lovely city, and I'm quite enjoying being in one after the barren windy wastes down south.

Anyway, I shall stop chuntering on about the weather now and tell you about Iguazu, one of the largest waterfalls in the world, THE largest according to our jolly guide but when I pressed him on that point he admitted that it is not in fact the highest or the widest but has "the largest arc". So there you are waterfall trivia fans. We stayed for a couple of days and visited the park from both the Argentinian and Brazilian sides of the border. I think we both decided that Argentina was best - although there was a very beautiful panoramic view from Brazil, you can get right up close in Argentina. As Sam rather poetically put it, it looks like you're standing in front of a giant pile of mashed potato - you'll see what he means when we put the photos on. We also did a boat trip on the Argentinian side where they take you right up into the spray, most refreshing after hours traipsing through subtropical jungle. The only very slight down side was the number of other visitors, all wanting to get the best picture and elbowing you out of the way in order to do so. It was REALLY busy. There was lots of muttering from you know who about not being able to properly appreciate nature's majesty on account of all the other bastards etc etc. but he did have a point. (Nature watch update: we've seen Coaties, Toucan, Plush crested Jays, a Cayman and lots of beautiful butterflies, aaah).

So we have a few more days of swanning around looking cool in Buenos Aires (well trying to anyway) and then we're off to Uruguay for a wee while.