Howdy, Well we arrived in Salta, Argentina from Bolivia and it was a welcome relief to feel some warmth on our faces, be able to clean our dusty clothes and wash in water that is only stopped from freezing by adding loads of salt Im sure. We also had the first of many meals involving steak or a bottle of red wine, usually a combination of the two. A couple of Irish lads we were travelling with, (hi Niall and Bob) were more impressed with the potatoes and spend as much time discussing the merits of mash versus chips as the average englishman would comparing Paris Hilton to Kelly Brook. Anyway Salta was a pretty little city and we quickly found places to eat drink and do more eating. It is amazing how much steak you can eat when your diet has been suppressed by altitude for 10 days. In Salta we arranged a day gaucho horse riding. Before we could even get on the horse we had to eat more steak and drink red wine to get into the feel of it. We then took to the mountains on our steeds, all of us novices and by the time we got back we were all sleepy and a little saddle sore. I got my horse into a canter but no galloping this time. We next visited Cordoba, the only thing amazing about this city of 3 million people is that there are no restaurants serving food! We must have walked for 4 hours trying before giving up and going to a rubbish fast food pizza place. Arrived in the Metropolis that is Buenos Aires early in the morning and spent 5 days wandering around grazing on steak and avoiding fruit and vegetables like they were poisonous. (very close to getting back the weight I lost at altitude and with sickness in Bolivia - perhaps they should send Posh Spice here to fatten up). Although Rachel could not understand why I ordered steak every time, she always had one as well!? From BA we took a ferry to Colonia in Uruguay, a picturesque little town with cobbled streets and a gallery hiding in every other house. There were people wandering around in period dresses and dressed as monks loitering around old buildings. It was either something to keep the tourists happy or the worst undercover police department in the world but it made for some interesting photos. We also visited Tigre for the day on the Rio Plata delta, the playground of the rich boat owning porteños. A bit like a cross between the Norfolk Broads and Monaco. We had an interesting dinner of b-b-q, runny black pudding, kidneys, lumps of fat and tripe! Tried most of it but the black pudding. We then head west to Mendoza, the wine region of Argentina and hired some bikes for the day and tottered round some of the vineyards. Despite being a wine tasting day we found a chocolate and liquor company and spent most of our time and money in there. Well we are ready to depart for Santiago in Chile now and looking forward to some snowboarding (or snowballing as my mum calls it) in the next couple of days. Loads of love Andy and Rachel