Home, sweet home!

We are all now safely back in Kiwiland, and our South American adventure already seems a world away.

It's been hard to stop saying 'gracias' or 'jugo de naranja' or other countless Spanish phrases in everyday life.

Salta wowed us with its lush green mountains and ancient Spanish architecture. One night, we all went out for dinner and Nick ordered some sort of meat dish. He was presented with a massive bulk sized hunk of meat the size of the plate, covered in melted cheese. We soon learned NOT to order lama neopolitana...

After a 21 hour bus ride from Salta to Buenos Aires, we were all keen to venture into a new country...Uruguay.

It took 1 hour to travel on the ferry across the estuary to Colonia, Uruguay. Colonia is a quaint port which used to be an old smugglers' base.

The whole town is a UNESCO world heritage site, it feels a bit like walking around Tuscany or an archeological museum. Nick and Peter hired out a mini golf cart and we hooned around the city on the right hand side of the road for a few hours....We discovered secret inlets and beaches where the water was as warm as a bathtub and there were beautiful reeds to explore.

The next day we travelled to Montevideo, which is home to three quarters of the population of Uruguay. Peter and I decided to go to 'Playa Pocitos', a renowned swimming beach near the heart of the city. However, we didn't realise that Uruguay has a funny form of mangled Spanish pronunciation. The taxi driver said, 'aah, you mean you want to go to plaasha poseetos?'

Me and the taxi driver yarned about the differences between Uruguay and New Zealand, the GDP, main exports....and the fact that the Uruguayans seem to be a whole lot friendlier than their 'porteno' cousins in Argentina. This went down well, as Uruguayans are proud to distinguish themselves from Argentinians.

Nick and I discovered an amazing undercover market, which was like a giant man cave. There was beer and enormous grills fired up by hot embers, upon which the chefs threw huge chunks of meat. The market was teeming with chimneys for the big meat furnaces, the whole place smelt like a hot summer's barbecue.

When we got back to Buenos Aires, we wandered around a famous antiques market. (San Telmo market). The place was teeming with old china dolls, teapots, cutlery, nick knacks, vintage lace dresses and millions of other bargains.

Later that day I stepped onto the subway and was horrified to find that the man standing behind me had tried to pickpocket me! My bag was gaping open, and I was very lucky that my wallet didn't get stolen. It's the sort of antiques market my grandmother would have loved to visit. San Telmo is an incredible part of Buenos Aires, it oozed vintage charm. THe buldings, shops and people are all like something out of Bohemian Paris, or old-timey 1920s New York.

And now our adventure is over. We are all back safely in NZ.But our memories of South America will remain forever.