BUENOS AIRES

WHERE: Buenos Aires

WHERE (less detailed): Argentina

WEATHER IS: hot, close to oppressively hot as we slep around the city for five hours

TEMPERATURE: 25-33 degrees

FOOD IS: if you like steak and wine then you'll think you've died and gone to heaven. A big juicy Bief de Lomo steak costs between ￡5-￡10. A good bottle of wine ￡2-￡5. Other food isn't quite so nice and prices aren't too far away from London.

UNEXPECTED JOY: discovering Buenos Airean ice cream. Thanks to the historical influx of Italian immagrants Buenos Aires is seriously blessed with ice-cream making talent.

PEOPLE ARE: very friendly and eager to help. Paul nearly tackles a sweet old old lady who comes across to help us as we consult our map (damn you India for making so distrustful.)

HIGHLIGHTS/LOWLIGHTS: After a 36hrs stopover in London we depart for South America up a new traveling companion (Julie "Hoolie" Baxter) but down a laptop power cord (well done Paul)...Paul's continues his winning streak when he ages us all five years after (in a heavily hungover state) he declares - somewhere over the Atlantic - that between UK customs and now he's managed to misplace/lose our wallet which contains our only international debit card and ￡350 cash...

... despite emptying the entire contents of our hand luggage across the plane floor, twice, we come up empty...three hours later and now with a clear head Paul spots the wallet and its contents across the ailes and back a row... we soon realise prices in Argentina have risen somewhat since the currency devaluation when were charged ￡25 for a taxi from the airport to Buenos Aires city..."is it just me or does buenos Aires seem closed to you?"...embarrassingly we discover we've arrived in Buenos Aires during the two day Carnival in which everyone leaves the city... Paul's annoyance as he realises all the hours he's spent on his Learn Spanish tapes only give him two sentances of conversation before e has to play the "speakey de english?" card ...

... visiting Evita's famous balcony... and Evita's grave... and the Evita museum... ingenious homeless woman washing her clothes (with washing powder) in the fountain in front of the Parliament building while cooking dinner on her makeshift BBQ ... watching in stunned silence as the woman at the table next to us starts to breast-feed her five-year-old son (awesome steak by the way)... making the first of what turned out to be daily trips to the quaint San Telmo area... debating whether we could survive a nighttime visit to the La Boca part of town to watch a Boca Juniors football match ...

...Paul's outrage at learning ticket agents charge ￡70 for a ￡6 ticket... a daytime trip to the safe-as-houses Boca area and a tango show ... we enjoy another lonely planet winner as our taxi pulls up at a boarded up restaurant ... discovering the much anticipated spontaneous breakout of street tango dancing has been replaced by surprisingly tuneful samba drum marching bands ... Rhaani's vegetarian status is seriously questioned as she seeks out "Choripan" (sausage sandwiches) at every turn ... we discover the amazing Argentinian ice-cream and the wonderous Dulce de Leche Granizado flavour (caramel choc chip) ...

...Paul discovers even Ice Cream parlors have security guards when he questions the comparative lack of ice cream in his cone... Rhaani telling Paul to man-up after Paul debates whether to ask the security guard if he can use the ice cream parlor's toilet...

UP NEXT: PERITO MORENO GLACIER