It was time to pack our bags and move on this morning.  But first we had breakfast down by the pool.   It's such a beautiful hotel and the breakfast was delicious - amazing fresh fruit - figs, passionfruit, pink grapefruit, water melon and melon.  Then we'd an omelette freshly prepared by the chef.

Marcos picked us up at 9am and we headed off over the border into Argentina again with the same stops at both borders - queues were a little longer this morning as we were a bit later but it was pleasant passing the time chatting to Marcos - a very gentle man who rebuilds and repairs cars when he isn't being a tourist guide.  He has a dream to come to Australia one day - his sister and family are coming at the end of the year and he has our contact details if he manages to achieve it.  It was kind of strange as we arrived at Iguacu on the Brazil side airport but all flights to Buenos Aires leave from the airport on the Argentina side.  We had time for a quick coffee before boarding our flight.  

It was only a two hour flight to Buenos Aires and it passed pretty quickly.  When we arrived we were met by a driver who took us to our hotel.  On the way he got a call for us which was Phoebe who is to be our tour guide tomorrow and who'll meet us at the hotel at 9.15am.

Our hotel seems to be in a great part of the city but a bit of a change from Hotel Belmond.  Its a small boutique hotel which is trying hard but is a little bit cracked round the edges.  But our room is quite spacious and has a huge king size bed - this is counteracted by the bathroom which is about the size of a wardrobe.  Anyone with a large posterior wouldn't fit on the toilet - its crammed between the bidet and the glass side panel of the shower.  Forgot to take photos when we arrived.  Will take some later and post tomorrow. The two guys on reception didn't seem too sure of themselves and then they said they would get some ice and deliver the champagne we ordered to our room.  Now I know that Mark had arranged champagne for Craig's birthday but thought that was at the Tango night but maybe I got that wrong. Anyway it was a lovely surprise for Craig and he sends a big thank you to you Mark.  By the time we got up to our room it was waiting in an ice bucket with two glasses.  We thought about doing what we should do and leave it till the next day - his actual birthday but in the end decided we'd just start celebrating it early - after all turning 70 is a momentous occasion and deserves a prolonged celebration doesn't it?  It was a bottle of Mumm which is such a delicious champagne and we enjoyed every mouthful.

Feeling somewhat mellow we ventured out into the afternoon sunshine and meandered through a few streets near to the hotel and found one which had a number of outside bars and eateries.  We settled on the Buller Brewing Co and enjoyed a nice cold glass of the amber fluid.  We were both pretty hungry since we'd skipped lunch entirely as there was no food served on the flight so we ordered a shared platter of onion rings, calamari and chicken bites with blue cheese sauce.  It was yummy and hit the spot perfectly.  We got chatting to two young women sitting next to us - one from Edinburgh who was a call centre manager with the Royal Bank and the other her cousin from the North of England who has been travelling for the past year or so and the Edinburgh lass had just arrived to spend two weeks holiday with her. 

And then with an ample sufficiency of food and beverages inside us, we headed back to our hotel. I don't think I remembered to share with you that we eventually got our cabin allocation through for the ship - we're in a balcony B518 as we ordered but have gone from base level BF up to BB which is second top level - essentially means we're in a better position in the ship - Baja deck which is deck 11 and we're midships - probably more stable if we have rough weather.