villa venus - there are no boarders, if you open your eyes.

Puh...finally the odyssey of our bus-transfer from Switzerland came to positive end! After a unforeseen custom check in Rotterdam with modern scanning and lovely drug dogs, we got not only the friendly information of missed out our container boat, we also received an invoice of CHF 1000.00 for this custom check. To be sure that we pay, they just cancelled our bill of lading - Rotterdam is now immediately in our top ten of the most favorite cities in the world.

Once the later container ship was close to Buenos Aires, the shipping company decided to invite the vessel for a friendship stop in Uruguay to drink some Mate (Tea), that meant another 3 days of delay, then there was a weekend and last but not least they placed our container in the middle of a big stock of containers, so that they could not get hold of our sent item. Wow, emotions from deep frustration to complete happiness and back within moments and somehow a great test for us at the start of our traveling time.

Furthermore we found out, that the Argentinean custom process is definitively not the easiest on our planet and this motivated us somehow to take a clever custom broker to support us through this labyrinth of documents, stamps, payments, copies, handshaking's, laughing, friendly nicking and pay money to the right persons to make things faster and easier...but we did it and now we are on tour....yes 

But let's start from crazy Buenos Aires again, where we could spend a few more hours, than we expected. Strolling through the barrios (quarters) of La Boca, home of Maradona, Boca Juniors and colorful immigrant houses, San Telmo with its alternative scene and markets, trendy Palermo and La Canita with charming restaurants, shops and bars. We joined a football game and the singing of River Plate, we checked out the biggest steaks (half a kilo and up), listened to Tango in cozy little clubs, saw the Polo final and walking now through B.A. like real gauchos without any guide book or map.

Due to the fact of even more extra time we took the ferry to Colonia a wonderful little colonial village in Uruguay, had a wonderful parillada in the Puerto del Mercado in Montevideo, where they also created the medio medio, a mix from Sparkling wine and white wine, a real headache wondertoy. To follow the steps of the rich and sexy like Shakira and Zinedine Zidane, we head up to the Uruguayan Coast. This was a highlight; the people in Uruguay are super friendly and always interested in you and your plans. The coast offers fantastic beaches and hikes up to 20 km through untouched sand dunes and unfortunately a lot of dead bodies of sea lions and penguins. But following the stinky perfume of the sea lions, we found one of the largest colonies in the world, just amazing, a spectacle to watch these creatures from very close and listen to their noise and taste their unforgettable eau de toilette.

But now we are cruising with Villa Venus through this wonderful country and having great moments and discoveries every day. It's a daily adventure to talk to motivated police controls...we never speak one word of Spanish as soon as a police guard stops us...helps a lot to get our without any discreetly payment. The nature is stunning, a lot of land with just nothing, only healthy Parillada food delivery of four legs...the meat is absolute first class and the price for this quality beef cheaper than vegetables, pasta or fruits. Argentineans (and Uruguayans) eat all the time, dinner is best after 10.30 pm and should not be finished before 1am. During daytime you see thousands of thermo bottles carried around to have always a fresh mate (tea) not too far away from the next siesta.

Now we reached the Peninsula Valdez, where we could see the wonder of whales from the first row, actually mamas of 20 meters lenght and 50 tons weight with their "little" babies, which drink around 100 - 200 liters of mother milk per day - just incredible. The area shows wild horses, sea lions, sea elephants, orcas, ostrich, guarnaca (lama), rabbits, amardillo thousands of Magellan penguins, which you may smell as soon as the sea lions. We were lucky to see the magic of a sea elephant's birth - it's nature pure and your are just a visitor in this protected area. But the visitors from Villa Venus find every day a hidden beach for another romantic night with sunset, BBQ (Parillada) and a nice bottle of Malbec.

On the way to Peninsula Valdez we survived an enormous thunder storm, it was really scary to feel nearly the bus been blown away, but we knew, that we are safe, as long as our neighbors (Flamingos that night) are not smashing uncontrolled to our bus front window. We feel really great and we are enjoying our trip after the problematic start even more. We take day to day on our way to the really South and explore surprising landscapes, meeting relaxed people and are just happy to have the chance to live our dream.

we wish everybody a merry x-mas and a happy new year!

Anke and Tom (Schetty) with a big 24 hour smile.