Closure

Well, it's over now, and we're back in the UK.
We survived all our adventures - and each other. We've travelled by bus, train, plane, car, bicycle, moped and horse; lived for a month in a 3 man tent; seen snow capped mountains, rainbow clad fjords, salt deserts, raging waterfalls and more volcano's than I can count.
We've all got our favourite places and memories: Ned and I loved Japan, with it's bullet trains and Pokemon centre, and I won't forget riding down the Death Road in Bolivia; while Annie was smitten by Cambodia and camping in front of Mount Cook, and Kim's already planing on moving to New Zealand when he's old enough so he can ride the luge as often as he likes.
Encouraging the boys to keep diaries was like pulling teeth, but I think they've learned so much on the trip, just by seeing and touching things. Ned could tell you all about tectonic plates now and Kim was correcting me on my Spanglish just by listening to the locals. I like to think they've got a better understanding now of the variety of the world, it's customs, cultures, language and landscape - and with a bit of luck, they might even remember some of it. But the trip wasn't about them, we just ran away because we could and the boys had to come with us. But I certainly don't think it did them any harm.
And six months was about the right length for this trip. By the end the boys were getting desperate to play with their friends again, and I felt like I needed to do something constructive (though it didn't necessarily need to be in England).
So here we are. We've been back 4 weeks, work is trickling in again and we've now moved to a rented flat in Lewes.
Here starts the next adventure...

Round #12

After four days in Montevideo, and on the eve of our return trip to Buenos Aires and London, we discovered why the city is so quiet. Not only is it Easter weekend and bank holiday here but just up the road on the outskirts of the city is a huge gaucho rodeo festival. We could have rounded off our trip at one of Uruguay's biggest cultural events if only we'd known - doh!

Que?

Annie had a migraine today, but tried to convince us it was dengue fever.
I think she's just malingering and looking for an excuse not to get on the flight home.
Actually, come to think of it, I'm feeling a bit peaky too...

It could be London...

...except for the palm trees. And the blue sky. And the traffic free roads. And..

Montevideo

If Buenos Aires is a mix of Barcelona and Paris, Montevideo feels more like a cross between Havana and Berlin. Lovely old classical buildings in various states of faded glory sit cheek by jowl with blocky seventies architecture, which isn't always as ugly as it sounds - and I'm very fond of Havana and Berlin, so it's a favourable comparison. In fact, it's easy to imagine how beautiful this city once was. It's just that, like me, it's let itself go a bit. On the plus side it has wide, tree lined avenues, little traffic, lots of culture, drinkable tap water and free museums - the last two being things that can't be said for the rest of South America. It's a much smaller, slower and (I suspect) poorer capital city than BA, but that makes it somewhat more interesting, and certainly a more relaxing place to spend our last few days.

We came here not only to collect one last geeky stamp in our passports, but to sit on one of the many beaches that stretch along Uruguay up to the border with Brazil. We'd have liked to go further up the coast to the better resorts, but time is against us - so we'll have to make do with the beaches surrounding Montevideo itself. The sea here washes up a strange green algae at low tide, which is probably harmless but doesn't look very appealing, but the beaches are wide, clean and of the softest white sand. Perfect for lazing in the sun while the boys dig escape tunnels.

Can you guess what it is yet?

Elvis hiding in the clouds, or is it Bruce Forsythe?

Jumping the sun

Annie shows the boys how it's done!

Colonia de Sacramento

Alternately controlled by the Spanish and Portuguese, Colonia del Sacramento is an ancient port town originally founded by Jesuit monks so they could smuggle goods across to Buenos Aires. Now it's a beautifully preserved haven for BA day-trippers and snap-happy tourists alike. Rough cobbled narrow lanes open out to wide green squares lined with pastel coloured buildings, terracotta roofs and hand painted ceramic street signs. Classic 1930's cars are dotted about, to add to the times-gone-by aesthetic. One was used as a planter and had a tree growing out of it's roof, while this one above was parked outside a restaurant, and at night a table for two is set inside it.
We sat on the pier and watched an incredibly colourful sunset and knew we'd done the right thing coming to Uruguay.

Buenos Aires

If you'd blindfolded us and dropped us in Buenos Aires, we'd be hard pushed to guess we were in South America - it's a busy, bustling modern European city transplanted to another continent. Long pedestrianised shopping precincts, with every luxury brand conceivable, McDonalds and Aroma coffee shops on every corner, traffic jams above and an efficient metro system below, classy European architecture covered in huge glossy billboards for Gucci or Nike, and immaculately dressed fair skinned inhabitants - BA had been described to us as 'the Paris of South America' and it's easy to see why. It's a city we could imagine living in (though the closer we come to the end of our trip, the more we can imagine living everywhere).
Time is running out so we couldn't explore BA as extensively as I would've liked, but we enjoyed mooching around La Boca - the colourful port area once occupied by penniless artists but now seemingly dominated by tourist restaurants and tatt shops, and watched tango buskers dancing in the streets.
Another day I stumbled across an exhibition by Steve McCurry, one of my favourite photographers, and we managed to spook the boys by letting them explore the Recoletto cemetary alone - a citadel of imposing one-upmanship mausoleums in the affluent north of the city. We also managed to catch up with Pablo and Cherry, our companions back in Bolivia, and spent a lazy afternoon on the rooftop terrace of their apartment block (if you're staying here a week or more it's cheaper to rent a serviced apartment).
But, with less than a week left before our flight home, and feeling in need of some R&R, we decided to hop across to Uruguay (it's only an hour on the ferry) and seek out a beach. And with sleet and snow forecast for Easter weekend, we need to make the most of the sun while we can!