After breakfast and saying goodbye to Stuart and Charlene, three of us headed to the local bus station in Tupiza. We had booked seats on the cheapest local bus to get us to the border (just £1.50 each for a 3 hour journey) and the bus really was basic with holes in the floor that meant you could see the road.

From there we could either cross the border and stay the night in the small Argentinian town of La Quaica or we could get a 7 hour bus straight to Salta. Adam was feeling unwell in the morning so we decided to wait and see how he felt at the border.

About 20 minutes outside of Tupiza Adam suddenly announced that he was going to be sick. There was a door shutting us off from the front of the bus and the driver and Adam was banging on it like mad before it was opened. He then stood at the main door looking very green before the driver finally realised he needed to stop and let him off.

Andy got straight up to help him blocking my way before realising that perhaps it was my job to check he was alright which made me laugh. When I got off the bus Adam was throwing up into a ravine and several workmen nearby were clearly enjoying the show! At this point the bus driver also decided to drive another 50 or so feet up the road so we thought he was leaving without us. He didn't though but did proceed to beep his horn madly as if telling us to hurry up. As if you can hurry up being sick!!!

We still don't know why Adam was ill, he ate the same as everyone else and we were no longer at high altitudes but it could have been anything he touched. Either way, once it was out of his system the bus journey was pretty uneventful.

At the border Adam was no longer feeling sick but he definitely wasn't feeling well so we decided to cross and stay in La Quaica for the night. Andy decided to stay as well.

We found the road to the border and traipsed through the town of Villazon with our heavy backpacks in the baking heat. Once at the border we joined the queue for passport control and crossed without fuss.

Once on the other side though we quickly realised that we should have changed our Boliviano's into Argentinian Peso's on the other side as nowhere here would accept them! This was a bit of a pain as we had about £70's worth and the lonely planet guide said there were no cashpoints in town! Oops!

After trying to speak to several local's (Andy's Spanish was better than ours) we found 2 local banks and one of the cashpoints in one of the banks would accept international cards…success! We have found out on a number of times that the lonely planet guide is out of date!

There was literally nothing in the town apart from a hotel, a few houses and basic restaurants and a bus station. Everyone just passes through as there is nothing worth staying for! That said though we booked a night in the hotel, went and booked our bus tickets for the following morning and settled in for the night.

It was at this point that we discovered Andy was a newspaper photographer back home so I managed to get some tips for using my camera which was cool.

The following morning we left at about 8.40am for another 7 hour bus journey. The buses here are much more comfortable than the ones in Peru and clearly designed for long journeys. Although they are also more expensive…can't have it all I guess! We settled in, Adam was feeling much better, and enjoyed the ride.

Once in Salta we headed straight to the hostel we had researched online but we hadn't booked ahead and when we got there it was fully booked! We ended up staying in another one further down the road which looked like it would have had a very good atmosphere if it had been busy but it was dead. There was some interesting graffiti on the walls though from previous guests which we had fun reading.

That evening the three of us found a local restaurant and then went to a bar which was based on the Simpsons and had Homer and other characters all over the walls. The cocktails were also named after the various characters. I had a Mister Burns, Adam had a Homer (haha) and Andy had a Barney. They also contained ice cream which was nice! Once again there were very few people around though so we headed off early and after a quick drink in the hostel went to bed.

Adam and I spent the next 2 days wandering the streets and shops of Tupiza. It was really very similar to many of the other city's we have visited and the only thing that made it different was the cable car up a nearby hill that gives good views of the area. There were also some pretty nifty manmade waterfalls. It was cloudy when we went up there though so the photos weren't great but the weather was fairly warm. Andy made his own entertainment during the day and went bungee jumping off a local bridge. He also booked his bus ticket out has he was heading in a different direction to us.

Our last evening there the three of us cooked dinner in the hostel kitchen, well Andy and I enjoyed drinks and watched Adam cook if I'm honest but we helped a bit. The following day Andy checked out early and Adam and I wandered around a bit more before catching a 10 hour night bus to our next stop Cordoba. All in all Salta was pretty disappointing really.

Sarah