Rosario

Well I was a little nervous coming to this city (besides of course meeting Julie's family;) about the horror stories Julie had told me about the crime. You have to watch your pocket, don't carry anything valuable, dodgey people everywhere and so fourth and I was a little paranoid for sure to start with! Ha, all I've met is really friendly, sociable, super welcoming people?? I must be missing something!?

It's a very nice city, very civilised, modern but with lots of beautiful old Spanish architecture, lots of super trendy people and all the shops, bars and cafés to go with all the super trendy people! I've walked and walked all around the city and never felt uneasy. Great city.

Julie's family have been awesome and I had nothing to be nervous about and we have had a great time having lunches and dinners ect and Julie catching up on everything. Julie's mum had an operation in hospital that all went well so it was really good to be here for that also. It's been flat out busy every day and night the calender has been booked up with catching up with her friends and family. From Grans delicious homemade raviolis to the many other dinners and Asados (or BBQs as us Aussies call them) there has never been a dull moment and I couldn't have met more warm welcoming people always going out of their way to host us for something or other. Julie has a lot of very close friends and it has been so great to finally meet them all and luckily enough most of them speak pretty good English as my Spanish really hasn't got much better, actually it's shithouse so I definitely need to work on that!

Mauro Julie's brother has been a champion, really nice guy and he lent us his apartment which is pretty well smack bang in the of the city which makes it all super easy to get around. And besides the great people the Argentinians are another good thing they have going for them is the wine, I have pretty well become a wino! Maybe it's just the cold weather but man there are some very tastey reds! I think though that is about the only good thing about the cold weather is the wine and I am looking forward to beening back in the tropics. Next time we will have to come in the summer for sure and sample their whites;) really nice river here that runs a thousand or maybe more kms north and about 200kms east to Buenos Aires. They have serious bridges and there are many container ships heading up and down the river, also surprisingly enough reasonably nice beaches on the river with lots of bars and clubs but they are all mostly shut up for the winter. There's still a few very keen kite surfers getting around in the freezing cold though and we also went and had lunch with some friends at the yacht club and had a look around.

We had our last fair well lunch with Julie's family yesterday with some more of grans great home cooking and now we are on an overnight bus heading north to then catch another couple of flights back to the boat. Fantastic bus service with beds, stewardesses serving food, then followed with champagne!

Thank you Argentina it's been great!!

Back to it

I flew back in last Monday and after a glorious 35 hours of flighing I was back onboard with Julie. We just hung out on Sunflower for the week and caught up with friends just taking it easy for the week. Sunday we organised a BBQ at the yacht club to to catch up with everyone and say thanks for having us to stay there. Was a great afternoon with plenty of food going around all afternoon with of course lots of beers to wash it all down. Super nice people which made for a great afternoon and with all the beers or maybe it was the jet lag at the end of the evening it all got too much and I did my usual party trick and fell asleep in the corner ;)

The week slid by really quick and then it was time to jump on another couple of planes and buses and head down to the Iguazu waterfalls that are on the border of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. We stayed a couple of nights on the Brazilian side first and went for the day to the national park and checked out the falls. Totally amazing!! A serious amount of water flowing all over the place were the rivers all meet up. The only other thing was the 1000 other selfie stick waving tourists all over the place and Julie says I need to find more patience which I really do try but I don't think I'm all to cut out for the hoards that come to see these amazing sights!  We are now on the argentinian side in a very characteristic almost cowboy type tourist town that is very relaxed and all set up for the tourists to come and do tours and see the falls. Julie's brother Mauro and girlfriend are driving the 1200kms up tomorrow to join us and we will do some more touring with him which will be great to meet him for the first time and hang out and have a BBQ and a few beers although I am a little nervous :)

I do think I have got a little "too"used to travelling on Sunflower and am finding I don't have the patience for overland travel which may be a sad thing but something I can't seem to help. For me it is a lot easier and more enjoyable just turning up to a place, anchoring, throwing the dinghy in and going ashore for a few beers then returning whenever to your own home. This jumping on buses, finding acomodation, packing and re packing bags and feeling like a right tourist has knobs on it, I must be getting old?!! I realise how spoilt we are with the pure FREEDOM that sailing gives us :)

 The next few days will be awesome and I am looking forward to getting to Julie's hometown meeting her family and friends and just relaxing for a while in the one place away from the dreaded selfie sticks!