Our trip to Buenos Aires was a long one. Lucky for us, the buses in Argentina are unreal! Literally first class all the way, so the 25 hour journey was nearly enjoyable!

Buenos Aires is a fabulous city, so different than any other city in South America as the standard of living is far higher. It’s referred to as the Paris of the Southern Hemisphere and it’s easy to see why. Gorgeous colonial buildings, wide boulevards, and great shopping!

Our first stop was to see where Evita, the wife of the ex-president, and played by Madonna in the film of the same name, was buried. The graveyard is where the rich and famous are buried in Buenos. The whole place is like a miniature city, all coffins are placed in hugely elaborate tombs. An eerie place, but fascinating nonetheless.

We took a visit out to Boca, a working class area of Buenos famous for the soccer team Boca Juniors. It’s an amazing place, full of artistic coloured buildings lining all the streets, with tango dancers and other artists entertaining the crowds. We visited the huge concrete Boca stadium which is where the most passionate soccer fans in the world follow their team. Maradonna, the most famous footballer in Argentina, has his own private box here.

There was no match on in Boca while we were there. However that night Boca’s rivals, River Plate, were playing a match in the north of the city so we went for a look because we heard the atmosphere at matches had to be seen to be believed. It was electric, absolutely mad! The stadium was only half full but the noise was like a jumbo jet taking off! Luckily River Plate won so the crowd was well behaved thank God!

After the match we decided to treat ourselves to something else that Argentina is famous for, their steaks!! We splurged in a pretty fancy restaurant and got the most unbelievable steak we had ever eaten! Full bellies for a few days after that!

During our last couple of days in Buenos, I did a lot of shopping in the numerous shopping districts in the city.

On our last day, we treated ourselves to a tango show in one of the main theatres in the city. I wasn’t too sure what to expect from tango, but it was brilliant! The dancers were amongst the best I’d ever seen. They’d give the guys from Riverdance a run for their money!

Our next stop, and second last of our trip, sniff, was at one of the most famous waterfalls in the world on the Argentinean/Brazilian border, the Iguaçu Falls. The falls are shared by the world heritage parks: Iguazú National Park (Argentina) and Iguaçu National Park (Brazil).

Words can’t really describe how amazing these series of waterfalls were. Imagine the most amazing waterfall you have ever seen on the TV, now multiply it by 200. That’s the amount of waterfalls cascading down into the Iguaçu valley at one time. It really took our breath away. The park was really well laid out and you could walk right underneath some of the biggest waterfalls in the world. Of course we got pretty soaked!!

One the Brazilian side of the falls, you got an overall view of the whole park. You can almost walk under the biggest waterfall at the park, Garganta el Diablo. An amazing experience.

While in Brazil, we also took a visit to the biggest dam and hydroelectric power plant in the world, the Itapao Dam. This dam provides 90% of Paraguay’s power, and 20% of Brazil’s water. It’s certainly big, and created the biggest artificial freshwater lake in the world.

That evening was our last bus trip of our travels!

While we were looking forward to going home, Brazil’s capital, Rio de Janeiro, was certainly not to be missed.

After a 24 hour bus journey we arrived in Rio, to rain, rain and more rain! Our plan of spending our last few days on Copacabana beach topping up the tan seemed to be slipping fast!

After spending nearly a year in hostels, and campsites, it seemed wise to enjoy our last few days away, so we booked into a well swanky hotel on Copacabana. I think I deserved it!!

Unfortunately, the rain didn’t let up for the next three days much to our disgust, so we enjoyed ourselves to the best we could. One of the days I’m ashamed to say, we went to a huge shopping centre for the whole day! Bowling, TGI Fridays, Cinema and more food!

Even in one of the greatest cities in the world, when it rains, you have to entertain yourself somehow!! Luckily for the last two days the sun came out and we wasted no time in checking out Rio.

We headed up to the famous Christ the Redeemer which looks down on the city. The views up there were fabulous, the coastline of Rio was one of the most picturesque we’ve ever seen. After that we got a cable car up to another huge summit called the Sugar Loaf, right on the entrance of the harbour. Here we watched the sunset over the city; it was really a perfect evening.

On our last day, the sun shone, so we finally got our chance to lie on Copacabana beach for the day. This is one of the most famous beaches in the world and it was easy to see why. Gorgeous long beach, great surf, beautiful people(!), and the greatest setting in the world.

And so the last day of our 10 and a half months adventure arrived. Taxi to the airport, 14hours to London, and then onto Dublin, and yet, it still didn’t feel like we were going home. Though once we emerged into the glorious Irish weather complete with yes, rain, rain and more rain it felt like home!

I’m back at home a week, and looking back over the last year, it’s difficult to pick out the highlights of the trip, as every country, had so much to offer, different traditions, languages, and cultures all so unique in so many ways.

But my top10 are:

1. Experiencing the energy that Hong Kong has to offer
2. Island hopping in Thailand – Ko Tao is paradise
3. Learning to surf in Bali
4. Jumping crocs in Darwin!
5. Driving the circuit of Australia – Magic
6. Living and enjoying Sydney – One of the greatest cities on Earth
7. Scuba Diving the Great Barrier Reef
8. Climbing the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand
9. Inca trail in Peru
10. Iguaçu Falls in Argentina/Brazil

My one piece of advice to everyone is: If you get the opportunity to travel, DO IT, you’ll never regret it. It was one of the best experiences of my life and the memories that I have I’ll never forget.

 I hope you all enjoyed my travel blog, thanks for keeping up with my adventures!

Slan go fóill
Róisín
xxx