We were there in good time in the lobby and one of the first to get on our little minibus. Unfortunately, we had to wait for nearly half an hour while a group of annoying Brazilians leisurely finished their breakfast and made a nuisance of themselves.

That meant that it was nearly 10:15 before we even left Buenos Aires, after more than an hour in a pokey minibus. Most annoying.

Our first stop on the tour was the Tren de la Costa, a tourist train which runs along the side of the estuary of the Rio Plata. I wanted to look at the river. Emma pointed out that it was a river and not likely to change much, unlike the scenery on the other side. Good point.

We were all herded off the train at San Isidro, the fifth stop along, where we were given half an hour at the local market, where Emma bought some more trinkets and then went to see the square in town.

Some of the Brazilians had decided that they couldn`t be bothered with the trip and went back into Buenos Aires. Whatever. The rest of us carried on to Tigre, being shown the scenic route through Bs As nicer suburbs.

We sat downstairs at the front of the boat for the hour long journey which took in three different rivers in the delta, turning round at the olde worlde summer house of 19th century Argentinian president, Sarmiento.

The journey was leisurely and relaxed, ending at about the right time for us to get back into the minibus and take the Autopiste back into Buenos Aires - much, much quicker than the way out!

We were dropped in the middle of town and hotfooted it to Subway for lunch, before heading back to the hotel for an hour or two.

By now it was the end of the working week and we wandered down to Puerto Madero, the reconstituted former docks area just south of the city centre.

Continuing the leisurely theme of the day, we strolled along the docks, Emma noticing that most of it seemed to have been made at a foundry in Cardiff. Wales everywhere, you see.

After an hour ambling along, it was time for food, but everywhere there seemed a bit beyond our budget, i.e. my willingness to pay that amount and Emma trying to conserve her remaining cash.

Eventually we decided just to walk back into the centre, up the hill (which wasn`t that steep on the way down, I`m sure!) and then along to Lavalle where we ate in an old fashioned restaurant that I had been in before. I ended up with noquis in tomato sauce (why not?) and had an ice-cream on the way back to the hotel where we went and had an early night.