It just takes a short ferryride from Buenos Aires to get to Uruguay, to the town Colonia del Sacramento. You certainly realise why the "barrio historico" - the historic quarter of the town makes it a tourist attraction: cobblestoned streets, an old lighthouse, and those oldfashioned street laterns everywhere....if I ever thought argentinians were crazy about their "mate", then I don't know how I could possibly increase this decription to make it appropriate for the uruguayans: whereever you go, you see people carrying mate-cups and thermos - in the parcs, in supermarkets, in bars, while repairing their motorbikes ( onehanded, of course) or selling veggies at the market, while having a walk or a little chat in the evening.....I also went to Montevideo, and on to Punta del Diablo, a little village with nice beaches nearby. From there, I went to nearby Santa Theresa, which is a nationalpark with a little fortress ( which was unfortunally closed ) and a lot of remote and stunning beaches ( were I could spend some time instead ;0)). Leaving the coast behind, I traveled further into the county, to a place called Tacuarembo, which you wouldn't find on any touristic map if it weren't for the nearby birthplace of tangolegend Carlos Gardel. It feels good, though, to be at a nontouristy place again where I'm forced to torture people with my 3-words-of-spanish and where you can get dropped off by busses in places in the middle of nowhere that are so peaceful and remote that even horses are having naps next to the roadside.

 From Puerto Natales I continued south, passing through Punta Arenas and then crossing the "Street of Magellan" to "Tierra del fuego" to get to the southernmost town - USHUAIA. Within the hours of that bustrip the weather changed several times from darkclouded and rainy to blue sky and sun,and a huge rainbow was appearing right in front of us, you could see both ends, it seemed like a big gate welcoming us. I loved that peaceful town next to the "beagle channel", the light there-especially around sunset-was very special, and the surrounding was stunning aswell, I went to the nationalpark "Tierra del Fuego" and Laguna Esmeralda for some hikes. I flew to Buenos Aires- amazing what distances you can cover in 3 hours in a plane!!! I started wondering how I would manage in such a big town after traveling in remote Patagonia for so long, but this last week here in Buenos Aires was just awesome, I don't know where time went and feel sad when thinking of leaving tomorrow! Of course I explored the different quarters of the town: "Recoleta" with that famous cemetery; central BA with the Avenida Mayo that connects the congress with the "Casa Rosada" aswell as some shopping-streets that you just can't resist; "Palermo" with it's bars,restaurants and parcs; "La Boca" with  that soccer stadium and colourful houses ( and kitschy puppets on the ballonies) around the Caminito area ( where Maradonna is everywhere) and last but not least "San Telmo", where you find loads of Tangobars and Restaurants with ancient flair clustered in the cobblestoned streets. But what made it special to me was having locals to show me around: we had a nightly picnic in a parc in Palermo, went to some suburbs on the bus ( going by bus in Buenos Aires is quite a challenge, even the locals have this little "livesaver"-book that lists all the busses and where they are passing by) to have some yummy homemade food at someones house; also we went to a fantastic restaurant to have some argentinian meat which lacks any comparison, then went to the historic "Cafe Tortoni" for a tangoshow and today to a Milonga (dancing hall), where we sneaked into an "Open Dancing" and marvelled at locals dancing tango before we got our first tangolesson ourselfes- brilliant!!!!