It is almost impossible to try to describe the landscape that we have travelled through in the last week. Going north from the large town of Salta we have driven on roads that were barely there, through towering mountains and vast plains. The scenery became more and more desert like with enormous cacti in a range of colours and shapes. The communities were small and isolated with small mud houses and their animals which were mostly lamas. The Ruta 40 was almost impassible at times and there were moments when we thought that we must be in the wrong place! we did emerge on the border post and there was about 200 km between leaving Argentina and entering Chile. the terrain was desert, going through high passes at about4/5000 metres. It was almost overwhelming in its immensity and isolation. However this is the main crossing point and we were amazed to see huge trucks going at about 15/20 miles an hour struggling to cope with the inclines. The last few kilometres into San pedro were so steeply downhill the brakes were not amused. We came down about 2000 metres in a very short time! San Pedro is a lovely town with White washed houses and narrow little streets. It is very touristy and is obviously on all the itineraries. It is strange to hear English and lots of American voices. Having said goodbye to Argentina we are now preparing to enter into Bolivia . This will certainly be different, not least because we are not sure where the next petrol station will be and we will make sure that all the spare tanks are full! We have weathered a sandstorm which filled the truck with sand in about 2 minutes! the nights have been very cold but it is hot in the day.