On Sunday, thanks to our real estate agent, we managed to get tickets to the La Boca. This is a big deal in Buenos Aires as La Boca (Boca Juniors), the glamour team here, are on the verge of winning the league.

Unfortunately crowd violence is the norm and in the week we arrived the government had just announced that visiting fans were banned from the remaining 4 weeks of the season. We had seats in a non-rowdy section and were fenced in with the spikes turning towards the adjacent section (see below one fanatico trying to provoke our side of the fence). The game was a good one with Boca winning 4-1 and no crowd problems.

The singing was incredible and seemed more inventive than in England where they copy other songs and repeat short lines. Everyone gets into it and waves their arm as if to say ´I spit on your mothers grave´. It all looks very passionate. They also jump up and down in unison which gets the stadium, and your confidence in Latin American enginerring, shaking. Great day!

Now that we are back in the swing of city life we finally have some contact details should any of you wish to contact us for a chat or some late night texting. Here are our numbers...

Mobile - +54 154 067 6864

Home (Until 15 Dec) - +54 11 48073299

...And some recent pics of us enjoying the funky public art here in Buenos Aires.

We are now in Buenos Aires, Argentina!

This is no mean feat as getting to BA from Central America is a huge leap and means crossing the Darien Gap (look it up)... one of the most dangerous land borders in the world. Of course, we flew so the potential kidnapping/ransom scenarios meant little to us.

It is incredible to be in this city after so many months in Mayan America. BA feels, and acts, European and the Spanish sounds Italian. Steak, football, Tango and corrupt goverment seem to be the local staples... although Nat would probably add shopping which has kept us busy for the first few days.

We ran all over town trying to find and apartment... but we now have one, have found a school, made contact with various people thanks to Suzanne and are starting to settle in.

Two points to mention as we leave Cuba. We did make it to the deluxe (official) cigar shop which was lush and included a walk in humidor and smoking lounge. Very impressive... reeked of diplomats and corrupt officials enjoying their spare time. We also spent a night at a Jazz bar called the Fox and the Crow... amazing music that everyone should get to experience at least once in their life!

One of the best things about Cuba was getting to enjoy it with friends from home. Our trip coincided with that of Georgia and Emily (Nat´s old flatmates from Sydney). We only had one night together, their first in Habana and our last, but we packed a lot in and managed to visit two of Hemmingways old haunts for Mojitos and Daquiris.

The night was also memorable for two other reasons. The first, while we were eating dinner, involved an impromtu magic show at our table which literally blew us away... almost perfect magic right in front of your face is incredibly impressive and left us wanting more. The second, was convincing a hotel to open its rooftop bar for us to enjoy a 360 degree view of Habana at night. While the staff were very accomodating, the elevator wasn´t quite up to scratch and left us stranded between floors. Scrambling over each other, after a night full of drinks, seemed very amusing at the time.

We finished the night by sampling one of the infamous Cohibas which received the thumbs up from the boys.

Marcel (Nat´s Dad) had given us a mission in Cuba and there was no way we were going to leave without having achieved it - he wanted cigars - the world´s finest. The brief arrived by email and consisted of 4 pages of instructions detailing various brands, sizes and likely prices.

We had come across cigar vendors more regularly as we tracked south through Central America and had refrained from making any purchases due to the probability of fakes... having said that, the packaging was excellent and Nicaragua is now home to a reputable cigar industry of its own.

In Habana we planned to only visit official habano stores. However, as we walked through the backstreets on our way to old Habana our day took a turn.

A local couple bumped into us in a gritty non-touristy sort of area and after guessing that we were Australian offered to take us to a music festival. We found ourselves in a Chinese bar having a mojito when they (Alan and Jennifer) discovered we were looking for cigars. Alan informed us that he worked at a cigar factory and that he could get us any of the cigars we wanted at a significantly reduced price.

He offered to bring the cigars to the bar but we insisted on being taken to the cooperativa hoping that some kind of impressive backroom presentation would fill us with enough confidence to make a purchase. We were then led through streets the tour agencies don´t go and ended up on a couch in a private home that resembled a drug dealers house - think random people knocking for access and being admitted after inspection though the door within a door... think also two german shepards straining on their leashes while we sat uneasily, our bodies emitting fear.

The cigars were presented, we were assured of their authenticity (and provided with the 3 seals required by Cuban customs) and were then pressed to make a decision. Our hesitation, and many questions, caused increasing impatience and menace on the part of Alan and we were made to feel like fools who didn´t know a good deal when they had one.

Despite pressure to buy our entire order then and there we agreed to one box of Cohiba Robustos on the condition that we would have to visit a bank. They sealed the box and then began our journey to the bank. The first 4 ATMs declined our cards and as we had yet to draw any money in Cuba we were starting to doubt the logic behind buying first and paying later. As Alan, who was by this stage highly agitated made clear, once the box was sealed there was no way they could take it back.

Walking now in silence, under the midday sun, through blocks and blocks of unknown territory the whole situation became increasingly tense and when bank number 7 gave us a negative response Nat just about lost it on the street. The four of us, two locals, two foreigners, outside a bank must have looked a picture.

There was only one way to bridge the impass... a trip back to our house to get our passports and make a bank teller withdrawal. As you can imagine we had fought long and hard to avoid this and as we got in the cab (with our new friends) tourist horror stories were flowing hard and fast through our exhausted, beaten minds.

With passport in hand we went to one of Cuba's top hotels and finally withdrew the money... by this stage the four of us were barely speaking and god knows where it would have led if we hadn´t got the money.

As Nat and I pondered over the days events we almost went crazy trying to work out if it was just a complete scam or if we were just in the right place at the right time and that our suspicion and banking problems turned the deal ugly.

Points in favour of it being a scam include: they knew we were Australian, they never took us to the music festival, they never took us to the factory, they barely knew how to fill out the receipt required for customs (although this also suggests they weren´t doing this often), they were able to pay for 2 cab rides.

On the other hand the box was perfect complete with seal, holographic seal and beautiful cigars that one local we later met said were real. It is of course possible that they were husslers with access to the real product... but we just don´t know. Marcel, you be the judge!

Check out the enormous billboards positioned outside the US relations office (unofficial embassy). Luis Posada Carriles is a Cuban born anti-Castro militant who is accused of terrorist acts against Cuba including bombing a Cubana flight in 1976 and killing 73 people. The other Villian needs no introduction...

La Habana, Cuba.

We`ve hoped all along that we would make it to Cuba and it just depended on finding the right flight. While the price was right, Cubana Airlines isn´t exactly keeping boeing busy with orders, although as the Cold War demonstrated, there´s nothing wrong with Soviet technology. As I kept telling Nat, what was lost on onboard entertainment was made up for with reliability.

From the moment we arrived and met our driver we were exposed to the patent dissatisfaction and desperate urge for change felt by the Cuban people. Just like the story goes Orlando (our driver) was a University educated professional who earned a few dollars a month as an engineer and worked as a driver to supplement his income. This was the case with our guide (also an engineer) and our landlord (lawyer) who paid the government for the right to host tourists.

The hassling on the streets is intense and even people we met who we were already giving money to asked for extra. The Cubans made Central American street hawkers seem like those patient gentlemen who attend the David Jones menswear section.

Despite this, it has to be about the most interesting place we have been to on this trip, probably with South Africa as number two. It is beautiful... best described as a decaying, crumbling beauty from another era. The people admit that free education and health care is great, but everyone we spoke to wanted to the chance to earn more money and to travel.

Costa Rica, being the next country south of Nicuragua, is known for its environmental beauty, American tourists and higher prices... This didn´t make it a priority stop for us, and as we soon found out, it´s all true!

Far more developed than the other countries we have visited in this region we headed for San Jose more to get a ticket to our next destination than to experience CR. Unfortunately we arrived on a weekend and had to wait until offices opened, which meant 5 days in total in our friendly youth hostel. Still, personal admin has to get done somewhere.

Having finally worked out our next steps, we booked a tour to the Tortuguero National Park, known as a mini Brazilian rain forest. This took us via the Chiquita banana factory which Nat loved, an injured animal park where we met our first Toucan, and a roadside sighting of a two toed sloth spotted by our expert driver who pulled over so that we could check it out.

The main part of the tour was by boat and we saw a huge amount of bird life, crocodiles, and another sloth. We were also surrounded by Manatees (also known as sea cows) but they were below us so no snaps were taken.

(By the way, apparently in the 80s the Costa Rican government decided to scrap its army and direct all military funding to education and health... it is now known as the Switzerland of Central America)

On crossing the border between Nicaragua we were given strict instructions that the bus would stop, we would all get out to pass through immigration, and then our bags would be searched.

Stage 1 passed without incident... then they said that if everyone on the bus paid US$1 dollar our bags wouldn´t be searched. Everyone on the bus agreed immediately. Not sure if this would be called a bribe, but we were not complaining.

Just a quick note on the Nicaraguan elections. Frankly when we arrived we had no idea there was about to be a national election. However, one road trip left us in no doubt that something was up. It was pretty impressive... every house, car, and shop displayed some kind of sticker, colour, flag or poster to express their affliation.

In comparison to Australia it was quite a change to see political positions so openly expressed by the general public. Then again, they have good reason to get involved. Nicaragua only has national elections every 6 years and as the poorest country in the region they need effective goverment. It is also a country that has struggled to shape its own future with the US generally not liking left wing leaders, and funding the infamous contras. We read a brief history while on one of our routine 7 hour bus trips and Nicaragua is the best example of the hypocracy of the US who says it wants democracy, but only if it delivers a leader of its choosing. (The above photo is of a painting in leon and shows Ronald Regan sitting on the shoulders of a Mayan woman)

We spoke to an American living in Nica who said that US land owners were worried that if Ortega won office he might reclaim foreign owned land (as he did a similar thing in the 80s when he took power, and Chavez nationalised foreign owned national resources recently in Venezuela).

We now know that Ortega has won but I will be suprised if he does anything radical as foreign investment is so crucial to Nicaragua´s future. Still, it´s interesting to be here, in 2006 when the same issues are being fought over in Central America that have dominated here for the last 2 decades, only this time the US isn´t funding a war.

Our final stop in Nicaragua was San Juan del Sur... a small fishing town come surf haven for wave hunters. San Juan also meant our first trip to the Pacific coast, having visited the Carribean in Belize.
While it was very beautiful, as non-surfers we didn´t really take full advantage. Nevertheless, we did have some seafood, a rarity, and go for a swim.

Back to Latin America. More specifically Nicaragua.

Two colonial towns have featured. Leon, the more liberal University town and Granada, conservative and wealthy. We liked them both although the Spanish spoken here in Nica is a complete wreck and makes a beginner feel like... yes, a complete beginner. We also thought that it is likely that Granada will become the new Antigua with its beautiful parque central, colourful colonial buildings and romantic horse drawn carriages.

In Granada we had our first run in with the policia on this entire trip. We decided to hire a scooter to visit the ´biggest market in the country´ in the nearby town of Masaya, which was disapointing besides discussing real vs fake cigars, and the very beautiful Laguna de Apoyo, a lagoon in the crater of a volcano where we took a dip to cool down from the intense Nicaraguan heat.

On our way back to Granada, only a few blocks away from a refreshing frappuchino, we were waved down by a policeman. We handed over the documents the rental place had given us in the event that we were pulled over and the cop said something about 'no license' and 'accompany me to the police station'. Our cries of 'we don't own the bike' were met with a blank stare.

On the way to the station we started stashing cash and passports in different parts of our bags in anticipation of well known corruption in central america.

We arrived at the station, complete with prisoners behind bars, where we were told to wait in what resembled an interrogation room - four concrete walls, no windows, a table and two chairs. After refusing to sit down and mumbling our growing concerns (part of which was due to being surrounded by male police who had no qualms in taking their time looking at Nat) we were then asked to sign a statement, in spanish, which placed us on the bike, ilegally, in a very matter of fact way. We insisted on altering the statement to make it clear that the bike was rented.

In the end the drama didn´t live up to our fears. The scooter owner arrived confirming our position and we were allowed to leave. Naturally, as we left the station the very officer who had detained us was taking the bike for a spin (and obliged when we asked for a photo).

By the way, the anti-bush sentiment expressed in the US media was overwhelming. The tone was far beyond a ¨it looks like the democrats will win¨, and more blatently like ¨the country cannot bear one more minute of this government, the Iraqi disgrace and the most corrupt, inefficient congress in our history¨... It was a very political media... much more so than in Australia. (photo taken in Madrid)