Buenos Aires

• The Whisk Factor - Argentina
• Tangoing in the Moonlight - Argentina
• Revealed, Rio's secrets - Brazil
• On Cloud Nine - Costa Rica
• A Revolutionary Party - Cuba
• More than Sex, Salsa & Cigars - Cuba
• Partying with Fidel - Cuba
• Journey to the Mountain of the Gods - Peru
• Blaze a trail to Belize - Belize
• The time traveller - Mexico and Cuba

YOU MUST WATCH MY BODY not my feet,’ said Milena, as she tried to teach me to tango between tables in an open air café in Buenos Aires.

The first bit was easy – Argentine women are slim, beautiful, immaculately turned out and well worth watching! My attempts at the tango were anything but.

Our tango, originally a dance in brothel waiting rooms to keep clients from wandering off, ended in a tangle of thighs, shins and toes but I certainly wasn’t complaining. One Pope tried to have this close contact dance banned which, of course, made it more popular than ever.

Drop in on Boca, an artists’ community with brightly painted corrugated iron buildings and street cafes, at lunchtime. You’ll find professional dancers, paid by the owners, ready to whisk you around the tables before you settle down for a big juicy Argentine steak with Malbec wine.

Buenos Aires is the most westernised city in South America and it would be easy to imagine you were in Madrid if it wasn’t for Spanish being spoken with an Italian accent. Almost half the population originated in Italy.

Chic boutiques

Argentina was a wealthy country until the economy was brought to its knees during the era of the Generals. As a distraction the dictatorship started the Falklands War and the huge costs finished off the economy completely. Five years ago everything came crashing down. People lost their businesses and life savings, unemployment soared and the economy is only just beginning to recover.

As a result everything is cheap. The 40 minute taxi ride from the airport was £13 and you can eat well for less than £10 each. The city is safe with wide elegant boulevards, chic boutiques and compact enough to explore on foot.

There is one danger that lurks on every street however. Argentines are dog lovers and dog walking is big business. Every few hundred yards you’ll pass a student with a pack of dogs on a leash – I counted one with 15 – and you quickly understand why locals tend to look down rather than up as they go about their business.

One day we took a taxi to the café district of Soho and strolled through boulevards, botanical gardens and the Japanese garden, stopping for lunch at an art gallery. In the afternoon we shopped in the chic boutiques of the shopping area known as Florida, stopping in a small café for vitamin-rich mate tea and small sweet crescent shaped pastries called medialunas.

Another day we headed off to San Telmo with its cafes, antique shops and tango bars. It was Sunday and a lively flea market was in full swing with musicians and dancers performing.

Iguassu and evita

It’s impossible to write about Argentina without mentioning Evita. Just saying the name out loud brings the tune to your lips. They shot the film here and Madonna stayed at the Mansion House, part of the Four Seasons hotel, while it was being filmed.

Eva Peron, Evita for short, is seen as little short of a saint. She is buried in the Recoleta cemetery, where tombs range from kitsch edifices to contemporary glass monuments reminiscent of bank facades. Hers is the one in glossy black marble, with flowers, pilgrims and someone humming Andrew Lloyd Webber.

To complete our trip we flew to the Iguassu Falls, on the border with Brazil 80 minutes by plane from Buenos Aires.

Any country with a waterfall likes to claim theirs is bigger and better than all the others. But actually the Angel Falls are the highest, Victoria Falls the widest, Niagara the most powerful – and as for Iguassu? Well there are simply more of them… almost 275 separate falls and cascades spanning a total of two and a half miles and plunging up to 269 feet into the Iguassu river.

We stayed at the Sheraton, which has fabulous views over the falls. From the hotel numerous pathways lead through the bamboo, palm and fern trees of the rainforest, which is populated by parrots and macaws, to the water’s edge. More walkways allow you to walk out over the falls for an all- enveloping spray experience.

That night we headed into the little town of Iguassu to eat at a small restaurant named La Rueda. The owner, who seemed delighted to practise his English, insisted we accompany him to the cellar to select a bottle of wine to go with our meal of freshly caught Surubi river fish.

Two sides to the story

The next day we visited the astonishing Devil’s Throat Falls, where James Bond ejected from his speedboat to hang-glide over the foaming cauldron in Moonraker. But it took us just a little longer than 007 to get to the other side of the falls… our taxi journey across the border into Brazil took over an hour.

From there we had a totally different and much wider view of the falls and we took a 10 minute helicopter ride, which enables you to appreciate just how breathtakingly huge they are.

Of course, the Brazilians reckon their side of the falls offers the best view while the Argentines argue the opposite.

As usual there are two sides to any story. And both are definitely worth seeing.