Buenos Aires continues to thrill and getting deported from Brazil was quite interesting as well.....

So I´m still here in Beunos Aires!

There´s a well worn saying in travelling circles that amounts to "Don´t get stuck in one place...make sure you see more." The most common place this happens is Sydney. People go there straight from England, love it so much, cant see past the Harbour Bridge or Opera House and what was meant to be a year travelling Oz turns into a year in Sydney.

Whilst this hasn´t quite happened to me yet I´ve been in Buenos Aires for almost 3 weeks now and it´s probably time to leave.

However, the last two weeks have been fun, challenging, thrilling and unique. What´s more, there have been one or two unfortunate moments which I´ll come on to but that hasn´t diminished any of the affection I have for this wonderful city.

So last time I checked in I was going to meet my two mates Ed and James in Florianopolis. Before doing this I decided to take a bus up to Puerto Iguazu and see the world famous Iguazu Falls. By the way, the buses in Argentina and South America as a whole are big business. You can get 1st, 2nd and 3rd class busses with 1st class offering you a full bed, meals, wine and a waiter for the journey. A bit OTT but it makes 18 hour journeys a whole lot easier.

Anyway, I arrived in Puerto Iguazu and saw the imposing and quite special collection of waterfalls that this Argentinian landmark has to offer. Especially striking was La Gargenta del Diablo which roughly translates into "The Devils Throat".

So with my fill of waterfalls I crossed the border by local bus into Brazil. A smooth transition through immigration where I got my exit stamp from Argentina. Worryingly though there was no Brazilian immigration to give me an entrance stamp....more to come later!!

Having moved into Brazil I got on to another bus where I made the overnight journey to Florianopolis. There I met James and Ed and it was really great to see a few friendly faces. Having been away for so long without seeing people from home it was nice to spend a bit of time in the company of friends where conversation is easy and forcing conversation is not necessary.

Ammusingly though, it rained for 3 days straight. The lads had come from horrible, dark and murky weather back home in London and had arrived in Brazil to be greeted by the more of the same. So we decided to move our flights forward and leave the next day.

The journey was simple. Florianopolis to Coritiba and the Coritiba to Buenos Aires arriving at around 4pm. The first leg was navigated without hassle. The second leg was not. As we went through immigration in Coritiba the Federal Police had a quick scan through my passport and asked for my ¨Entry Card". Bollocks!! The lack of immigration in Puerto Iguazu was beginning to hurt me. After trying to explain why I didn´t have one, the guys were not impressed and it didn´t help either that the two friends I was with, Ed and James, had the necessary documents. The Federal Police didn´t seem bothered by my explanation that they had come from London and I from Puerto Iguazu.

Anyway, after much discussion in English, Portugese and Spanish, I managed to decipher that I wasn´t going anywhere and would have to fly the next day. James, Ed and I agreed it would be best for them to carry on and I would meet them tomorrow.

So an hour later I was in the interrogation room of the Brazilian Federal Police being told that I had to pay 300 pounds to leave the country. In my head I wanted to tell them to "F*** Off¨". But not having the bottle and also worrying that I would probably excalate the situation, I simply said ¨No¨. After going backwards and forwards for a while and me politely correcting them that no, it isn´t the case that if a Brazilian man was without documentation in England he would be put in prison for 10 years, we finally reached a compromise. I was to leave tomorrow but if I ever wanted to come back to Brazil I would have to pay the fine.

I was partially content but for reasons unbenown to me I decided to kick up a mighty fuss and demand that I leave that night. So quite amazingly I had managed to side step the fine that the Police were imposing, albeit temporarily, and had got them and the airline running around looking for a way out for me that night. I managed to do it as well and an hour later I was on a flight bound for Sao Paolo with a connection on to Buenos Aires. I arrived in Beunos Aires at 12am, met the lads and had one almighty session on the beers with them.

All was good until a few days later when I had my wallet stolen on the tube. Bollocks! It happened so quickly and the guy was off in a flash that before I could do anything I had no cash, no card and no ID apart from my passport. Not good. Anyway, one way or another I managed to sort myself out but it was certainly a lesson learnt.

The lads and I then embarked on a feeding and drinking frenzy lasting a good 5 days. We ate in some great restaurants, had steaks the size of our heads and it got to the stage where rather than being mocked by taxi drivers for going home early as I was when I first arrived, they were rather impressed when we were asking to be taken to more bars after the clubs had closed at 7am. True Porteños!!

So the boys have gone now and I´m planning my exit too. I suppose I´ve loved this place so much that I´m worried things wont compare to it. I´ve almost carved a micro life for myself here where I know waiters, travellers, barman and locals. I know the roads, good places to eat, the tube and the best places to go drinking on different nights of the week. However, someone said you should always leave a place wanting more!

And so I´ll probably be out of here by Wednesday (or Thursday, or perhaps next Wednesday...just kidding) at the latest but I will definately be back.

Next stop is the University City of Cordoba. Apparently Cordoba prides itself on being bigger, better and offering harder partying than Buenos Aires. If that´s the case then the next blog could offer more suprises than this one!

Until then.......