I think the part I love most about the videos we record (apart from the very obvious perk of being able to watch them in a year’s time, when we’ve forgotten some of the tiny details), is that it gives you a chance to see what we’re seeing, only-slightly-second hand.

So here’s this week’s video diary, with some extraordinary views of Iguassu Falls, a glimpse of our helicopter ride, some streetside tango in Buenos Aires, and a quick look at the estancia we stayed at:

And while you’re at it, here’s an Empanada Tour we took in Buenos Aires (totally informally – we wanted to see where the best empanadas were to be found. Empanadas are delicious meat-filled pies. Yum!)

You can also take a look at our version of the Best Steak in Buenos Aires (we’ve been eating a lot, can you tell?) and Horse Riding on an Estancia (Mark on a horse for only the second time in his entire life!)

And, lastly, take a look at the El Ombu Estancia itself… Just lovely.

I tell you, I could get used to this.
The past three days we´ve been living the life at Estancia El Ombu just outside San Antonio de Areco, about two hours from Buenos Aires.
What does that mean? Well.

We´re staying in an original estancia house(which is kind of like a large, beautiful, colonial horse ranch) with high-ceilinged bedrooms filled with antiques, a massive shady-treed garden, and horses just outside our window. Every morning we have a long, lazy breakfast and then spend the day lounging by the pool or reading in the shade of the trees or watching the gauchos (authentic Argentinean cowboys!) corralling cattle or horse whispering. Seriously.

Lunchtime sees us having an asano feast (traditional barbeque, i.e. loads of delicious free range meat) either in the restaurant or under the trees, while being serenaded by guitar players and Spanish songstresses. And then it´s time for a siesta before our sunset horse ride through the surrounding pampas…

And then dinner, under the stars.

Really, I could get used to this. The pace of life is slow and peaceful, the views are endless and sun-drenched, and we feel thoroughly spoiled. I´ll post pics and video in the next few days – once we´re back in the city.

Yip, tomorrow we head back to Buenos Aires! I´m excited. We´re going to explore the Recoleta area, which everyone tells us is the best. I´ll keep you posted!

Everyone told us we would love Argentina, and Buenos Aires in particular, but I didn’t really believe them… Neither of us are city people, and so far on this trip we’ve tried to skip out of most cities as soon as we can. Too much noise / pollution / traffic, not enough charm.

Not so with Buenos Aires. We’re staying in the charming barrio of San Telmo, which is all cobblestoned and run-down-colonial, and it’s full of cafes and antique stores and markets and fresh fruit and bread and meat and cheese. Everyone seems to wake up at 10 or 11am, and it all feels very laid-back and chilled. A real treat after all our travels.

Now that we have a return date (10th of February, even earlier than anticipated because we could only change our flights to that date or the beginning of March, and our budget won’t give us till March), it seems to have sunk in just how far we’ve travelled and how much we’ve seen. Mark and I have been taking it reallllly easy for the last couple of days – the easiest we’ve taken it in months, in fact. We’ll do something in the morning, rest during the hottest time of the day (it is HOT), and then do something late afternoon, early evening, slipping into a late dinner and a couple of hours wandering around the various areas of the city. Of course, the heat has been a problem again (with such temperature-sensitive insulin, why is that not a surprise?) We made the foolish mistake of walking around during the hottest time of the day on our first day here, which deactivated my insulin… Only I didn’t realise till the next morning, when I woke up high and figured out that my night insulin wasn’t working. Which led to a whole day of upside down blood sugar. Bring on a fridge! Please.

The fact remains, though: this is a cool city. There’s the tango, of course, and the steak (simply superb), and the people drinking coffee at every turn, but there’s also a lot of character and charm, and it feels like you can get up close to it, like you can have an emotional connection to it (unlike Paraty, in Brazil, which was just too pretty to connect to). We’ve also had the rare pleasure of a friend for the last few days! Our dear friend Steve is in Buenos Aires at the moment, so we’ve spent the last couple of days wandering around the city, eating empanadas (these delicious pie-like creations), going out for long dinners, and generally talking talking talking. Steve’s also been travelling for months, so it’s been really interesting discussing how we all feel about our travels and our imminent return home.

More on that later.

For now, here’s a taste of San Telmo, where we’re staying:

And if you’re curious about our wonderful stay at the Hotel das Cataratas, right across from Iguassu Falls, here’s a little clip to show you just how close to the falls we actually were!

PS – Remember our crazy experience with the Reincarnated Beatles in Indonesia for New Year’s Eve? For some reason the clip didn’t load properly, so if you’re still curious about them (and you should be!) check them out here.

I must admit, I’m tired.
Really tired.

We travelled from Iguassu Falls to Buenos Aires last night, an incredibly easy hop over the border from Brazil to Argentina (an absolute dream, actually – we didn’t even have to get out of the car!), a couple of hours wait in the bus station, and then a 20 hour bus ride.

20 hours.

Tiring.

It was a super comfortable bus, kind of like business class airline seats, with lots of room to spread out and some great scenery passing by before the sun went down. They even served food! Which was more problematic than you might think… Argentina is an hour earlier than Brazil, so we started getting hungry around 6.30pm (7.30pm on our body clock). For some reason, they didn’t pick up the dinner to serve us until 9.45pm (10.45pm on my body clock!) and I was hungrier than I can ever remember being. I was sitting there clenching my fists to keep from grabbing the bus attendant and shaking him. I tried telling them I was diabetic and needed food, but they didn’t seem to understand my urgency. I tell you, a hungry diabetic is a scary thing – I wasn’t low, I had supplies against low blood sugar (juice and fruit, not much good for hunger), but I felt crazy with hunger.

When it finally arrived, I ate everything in sight in about 3.5 minutes. Cheese, ham, biscuits, roll, pasta, all of it, gone!

So we pulled into Buenos Aires this morning, found our lovely spacious room, and are slowly settling in to the charming area of San Telmo. Only. We’ve just found out the sponsorship we were hoping for for our internal flights hasn’t come through, so we have to pay a small fortune to get ourselves from here back to Rio de Janeiro for our flight home; and it looks like we won’t be able to afford our one final indulgence – a trip to Patagonia, to see the Glacier Moreno, the last advancing glacier in the world.

And I’m disappointed. I think I’ve been very good and grown-up about the disappointment of having to go home early, and miss out Peru and Ecuador, I’ve swallowed it down and understood that things happen as they should. But this? This feels sad. I’ve been wanting to go to Patagonia for such a long time, it’s the one thing Mark and I have been referencing constantly.

Bleeurgh.

So now I feel tired. Perhaps this is travel weariness, perhaps it’s finally hit. I’m sure I’ll feel better tomorrow, after a good sleep and a steak, I’ll be all raring to go and discover this gorgeous city. But for now? Time for a lie down, methinks.

Any wise words of advice?

Seriously.

Yesterday we flew in a HELICOPTER over Iguassu Falls!!

It was incredible.

Thrilling.

Awe-inspiring.

Without doubt, the ten most exhilarating minutes of my life.
And a Dream. Come. True.

I have ALWAYS wanted to fly in a helicopter, and it didn’t disappoint!

Here’s the Best Moment of the Day we recorded as soon as we landed (we weren’t allowed cell phones in the helicopter, but I took some amazing video footage – well, I think it was amazing. I’ll let you know soon once I’ve had a chance to look at it properly!)

Also check out the Iguassu Falls I keep talking about, and take a look at the charming town of Paraty we spent a few days in last week.
Most excitingly, though, is the fact that I flew in a HELICOPTER! You can see so much from up there, it really is the closest thing I’ve ever felt to flying….
Wow. Still kind of in a suspended state of disbelief.

Alas, sad news.

We realised last week, in a flurry of addition, that South America is about three times as expensive as South-East Asia, so our budget isn’t going to last as long as we’d hoped. In fact, it looks as if we’ll be heading home to South Africa in about a month.

At first, I was really disappointed. We’re in Brazil at the moment, heading to Argentina next, but we’re going to have to miss out Peru and Ecuador, and I’m not going to be able to see my dear friend who’s working in Ecuador at the moment. We’re also not going to be able to stay the full length of time, which is such a shame.

But in the same breath, I have to say that both Mark and I feel so LUCKY to have been able to have this opportunity: to travel together, to discover so much about travelling with diabetes, and to have had so many extraordinary experiences.

As if to prove this point, we spent 22 hours on a bus yesterday to bring us to Iguazu Falls, the most extraordinary waterfalls you can imagine – 275 individual waterfalls all in the same area. It’s mindblowing. Amazing. I’m going to take some video tomorrow to show you how incredible it is… And we’re staying at the simply wonderful Hotel das Cataratas, which is inside the National Park and a TWO MINUTE walk away from the Falls.

So really, who am I to complain if we have to come home a little early? We’re feeling like the luckiest people in the world right now.

Here’s hoping this is an extremely lucky week for you too!

So here’s the first of our South America video diaries (we skipped out a week of video diaries while we jetted back to South Africa for insulin- and family-time, so we’re now on Week 17).

I must admit, the beginning of our time in Brazil had me feeling a little discombobulated – mind in one place, emotions in another, body somewhere else entirely. I suppose that’s what you get for trying to visit 3 continents in 1 week! And now? You’ll have to watch to find out…
As well as to see some of the truly amazing sights that we’ve been lucky enough to see since we got here.

Really cool. I promise.

Some of the best, in fact:

First of all, we saw the sun rise over Cape Town, as we were about to catch our plane (at 6am, yawn!)

Then we visited the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro… Wow.

Caught some amazing views on top of Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio…

And finally, my favourite, we discovered a slice of Brazilian forest heaven in the mountains near Petropolis. Take a look:

And finally, in case you’ve been curious about the amazing hotels we review for Just the Planet, we’ve started a new kind of video – Luxury Hotel Moments.
Here’s one from Copacabana Palace, the fabulous hotel we stayed at in Rio:

And click through to this one from the lovely Green Bridge House.
All in all, a pretty special week, I’m sure you’ll agree!

So we’ve been in Brazil for a week, and I feel as if we finally have enough of a taste of it to make a few observations…

But first, an update!

We arrived in Rio de Janeiro after what can only be described as a week of madness. South-East Asia to South Africa for a whirlwind in-and-out visit to pick up fresh insulin and say hello to our families. Then off to South America, another 5 hour time difference, and a whole heap of jetlag. We were in Rio for 3 nights, right on Copacabana Beach, luxuriating in the delicious glamour of it all and soaking up a few sights (mainly the beach and the beautiful Sugar Loaf mountain, where you swing between two incredible vantage points on cable cars).

Then we headed off to the mountains surrounding Petropolis, to a wonderful little hidden gem known as the Green Bridge House, home to some remarkable views, stunning nature, and delicious food. Really delicious.

After our two nights of peace we headed back to Rio for a night, mainly to check out the Corcovado (or Christ the Redeemer, as he’s also known) – the most famous landmark of Rio, and to buy some extremely cheap Havaiana slops.

And then we boarded a bus for Paraty, where we are now, a charming little seaside town that’s been declared a UNESCO National Heritage Site, and feels to me like a little European village – it’s all cobblestones, horse-drawn carriages and charming cafes.

So now! A few brief impressions:

* Brazilians are reallllly confident. Everybody walks around in skimpy outfits (tiny tank tops, miniscule shorts, crop tops, you name it), no matter what their body looks like, or how old they are. I like it!

* Everybody is really tanned. Seriously tanned. Chocolate doesn’t even begin to describe it. I feel pale.

* It’s crazy expensive. Obviously we’re still in a South-East Asian mindframe, but everything seems to cost at least three times as much as it did in Asia, and more than it would at home.

* It is so beautiful. The bus rides double as scenic journeys, even if you’re only going an hour (as we did on our way the mountains around Petropolis).

* The food is dangerously delicious, and full of carbs. I mean, everything is a carb – loads of white bread, deep fried pastries, deep fried snacks, meat and cheese. I’ve had to hold back (a lot) on the diabetic front, or I’d be gorging myself and taking massive doses of insulin… I’m already on far more than I was in South-East Asia!

More observations tomorrow, I promise. Sorry for the long gap in communication – internet has been a little tricky to come by of late.

To make up for it, here are some views from the last few days…

In Rio de Janeiro. Brazil. South America.
Not sure what day it is.
Hell of a long journey to get here.
Woke up at 4.30am, got to bed at 2.30am. Went through passport control (long long long lines) 3 times between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro alone. Six times altogether. Exhausting.
South-East Asia, South Africa and South America all in one week.
Yikes.

A little tired.
As you can imagine.
But now staying in the simply glorious Copacabana Palace (till tomorrow).
Yup, you guessed it, right on Copacabana Beach. In Rio.
Quite surreal.
Especially seeing as I have that song in my head on a constant loop.
You do too now, don’t you?
Co-pa-ca-ba-na!

South America already feels more familiar.
Potatoes. Meat. (Beans). Fruit.
Loving it!

Will report more coherently when the fog of tiredness lifts completely.
I’m guessing tomorrow. Or the next day.
10 hour time difference between today and where I was a week ago.
Enough said.