Argentina

In the morning (well, morningish - these beds are a luxury we cant afford to waste), we got a cab to the La Boca area of BA. Its most famous for the huge football ground which dominates the skyline, but there are also loads of arty shops which are all painted in different colours. There are people performing tango outside cool little coffee shops. It felt like Camden, but warmer and more spanishy.

By the time we had had lunch is was too late to see the famous Recoleta cemetary, so we prepared to go out for another birthday meal in Los Palmeras, which is an area in BA with lots of restaurants and bars. The vibe is very chilled out - there isnt music pumping out into the main square and no aggro - everyone sits on the roof terraces or outside the bars drinking and eating. I couldnt help thinking that the equivalent area in England would be full of shouting, fighting and loud crap funky house music. We were still very hung over from the night before at the gay club, so we played pool till 1am and left.

BA is tango city. Second night in we all went and saw a tango show in the basement of a famous tango café, Café Tortoni. Not knowing what to expect, it started setting the scene of a bar with ladies of the night and charismatic men. Dancing, singing and music followed and it was brilliant. Especially the drummers, with their dark long hair and Argentinean good looks!

Afterwards we went to another steak restaurant with live tango dancing and again the biggest pile of meat described as a portion for one I've ever seen - Ollie had meat sweats. I ate the free bread.

So time to burn off the steaks we headed for tango lessons. Ollie having done salsa thought he was a natural, all wiggly hips - shame tango is about keeping clean lines. I got made redundant as Ollie's partner, as he said I wouldn't stop leading, I think he wanted a chance to dance with all the other women (who tried to avoid Ollie in the non air con room - sweaty!). The dance teacher, a 6ft dark skinned long haired lothario, grabbed me and told me to 'dance'. I was held so strongly if I wanted to lead I had no chance, I didn't stand on his feet and felt like Mrs Tango, after he left me with a sultry 'muy bien', mmm, - ollie scowled.

However looking back at the photos I've got the grace of Charlie Chaplin in a dress - my tango dreams are crushed.

Full day on the truck today, boiling hot and everyone getting truck fever so as soon as we reached the National Park everyone jumped off the truck and straight into the Rio Uraguay. This is the natural border between Argentina and Uraguay. The river is quite silty looking but the floor sandy with little vegetation so perfect for a late afternoon dip and wash. I say river, it is huge, some people swam half the way out but undercurrents make it too dangerous to swim too far. At one point I was sitting in the shallows and something slimey wrapped round my ankle then tightened. Ollie said it was a leaf, I saw no leaves, but it looked like eel territory to me, I got out quick and started dinner as I was on cook group.

We got the fire up and started to roast off vegetable, beef and chicken skewers with freash salsa. Once the darkness came in around camp we started hearing strange screaming noises and shuffling. Having not long ago watched the film, "I am legend" my senses pricked and we started investigating. All around us were these strange little creatures, resembing a cross between a Possum and a Chinchilla, coming up to knee height. Although cute they made the strangest noise and were as blind as bats - but could smell the bread Ollie was hiding in his pocket. A few minutes later he had them eating out of his hand, it was then when we noticed their massive sharp teeth and claws. In fact Ollie was so fascinated by the creatures he forgot to take a photo of him feeding it, Ollie showing off, missing a kodak moment - this NEVER happens.

The locals called them wild rats but I have since learned that they are rodents called a plains Viscacha.

Very early start the next day but managed to glimpse the morning break, a beautiful red sunrise over Uruguay, then back onto the truck for the next adventure.

We left the Iguazu falls to travel the 442km to the Argentinian Pantanal.

On the way we stopped for lunch at a small town called San Ignacio, which used to be the site of San Ignacio Miní, an old jusuit monestary. The ruins looked like they were about a 1000 years old, but when we found out they were only 300 years old, no one was that bothered any more, so we left.

We stopped at a gas station and then took a dirt path for 2 and a half hours to get to our destination. The drivers werent sure whether the rain had made the path uncrossable, but the truck is an off-road truck anyway, so we gave it a go. The road was perillous and muddy - the truck actually slid sideways a few times, but we made it in the end, and arrived at a campsite in Carlos Pelligrini. It was the first sign of life we had come to in about 200km of dirt roads, and it was supposedly a main tourist destination for the Pantanal, but it was tiny. The roads were made from dust and there was only 1 shop. There were a couple of bars though, which are more important.

The next morning we took an early boat trip onto the Iberá Wetlands. We saw caymans (South American crocodiles), capybaras (which are like a huge guinea pig), herons, deer, a tame wildcat and loads of birds. We booked ourselves into a guided walk around an area where there are supposed to be a family of monkeys, so that made me excited.

After the boat trip we had a relaxing afternoon at the campsite, washed some clothes but didnt do the horse riding because it was too hot. The walk in the evening proved fruitful because almost straight away we spotted the family of howling monkeys. It was weird being close to them without a cage and we hung about (pun) and took loads of photos of them until they left. One of my main prorities on this trip is to see as many monkeys as possible, to the point where my nickname is now Monkey Boy (which Ive been called many times before, but mainly because of the hair on my back, not my obsession with spotting monkeys). The walk included many types of land, including savanna, marsh, jungle and lake. The guide spotted some armadillo tracks but they are shy at the time of day we were there, so we didnt see any. The guide taught us to say "¿Donde molitas?" which means "Where are the armadillos?" in Spanish, which should come in useful for armadillo spotting in the future.

We were promised a whole pig for dinner that evening. The previous night a drunk man at the bar said he would sell us his pig (dead, I presume) for only 15 pounds, but we couldnt find him, so we had to make-do with more pasta.

On the way out of the Pantanal we sat on top of the truck for the first time, which is a cool, but windy, experience.