Starting in Buenos Aires Sheri and Curtis wandered around the city, enjoying the many districts. The city itself is not a beautiful city per se but has many distinct barrios, each with it's own interesting characteristics and many beautiful buildings. It's a city on cultural overload. We stayed in a businessman's hotel in San Telmo district next to a nice park. Curtis's mom (Norma) flew in and we all moved into the Plaza Hotel on Plaza San Martin in the Retiro district (quite upscale). We were able to do this because Curtis endured living at the Fairfield Inn in Texas for eight months and accumulating credits. We saw some sites, took in a Tango show, and or course devoured slabs of meat. We saw Evita's grave, rode the subway, and explored the delta of the Rio Plata by water taxi. Abandoning the city of 13 million we flew up
to the Brazilian border with Argentina and visited the Iguazu Falls. The muggy sub tropical setting was the perfect place to introduce Norma to her first youth hostel stay. The hostel, set on several grassy and treed acres has a ginormous pool. With a little coaxing we got her into the pool along with dozens of twenty somethings from around the world. Next day we visited the falls which were ripping full. The falls which are really a complex of hundreds of falls on the Iguazu River are surrounded by some wild lands so we were able to see lizards, coatis, monkeys and tens of thousands of butterflies. We rode in a jet boat which approached pretty close to a major falls for a nice cool inundating shower. After a nice asado dinner and some tango dancers at the hostel we flew back to Buenos Aires and hopped on a ferry to Colonia in the country of Uruguay. 
Colonia is a former Portuguese port that the Spanish, English, and local indigenous invaded and destroyed over and over. Now it is a living museum of old buildings, plazas, and a light house. We stayed in an old house that had been converted into a hostel. We fixed up a big vegetable feed and drained a couple of bottles of Uruguayan wine which was surprisingly good.
Next we boogied on over to Punta de Este which is one of the most popular beach destinations in South America. We stayed at a hostel that is a neighborhood house and run by an Uruguayan surfer dude, Rodrigo. We did a little beach time and mingled with the glamorous tanned Latins. Curtis got an eye full of thong bikinis. Uruguay is very advanced in this matter. Next day we visited the Casapueblo which a pure white, nine story, Gaudi-like creation set on a beautiful point overlooking the Rio Plata (which is essentially the ocean). We walked four hours back on a beautiful beach in the burning sun. Rodrigo put on a parrilla (BBQ) at the house and we had a fine time chatting with an international crowd, trying some fine Uruguayan wine, and eating dinner around midnight which is the custom. 
Skipping on to Montevideo we stayed at a funky, artsy B&B that had a really cool roof top chill-out room and deck. Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay and has a nice esplanade along the water and is much nicer than expected. 
Sheri and Norma stimulated the economy by visiting a Sunday craft fair and loading up on gifts. We visited the old town but it was dead so we went on down to the port market and ate an enormous steak and drained some more Uruguayan wine (they are famous for perfecting the Tannat variety of grape). After, we visited Porticos beach. It was 95 degrees so a perfect day for the beach (along with 50,000 of our new Montevideo friends). So adios to Uruguay and back to Buenos Aires by ferry. Norma jetted back to the US of A on the 19th of January, and Sheri and Curtis caught a night bus to Mendoza. Cheers to all you'all.
