This entry is dedicated to our friend Mia who loves rocks.

So we are back in Argentina for the last time. The Argentinian customs was interesting. Firstly we had to queue (the first time ever) outside the office in the blazing midday sun. Everything was slowly handwritten in two ledgers after the officer had returned from the kitchen where he was cooking lunch and then a very camp Customs officer wanted to inspect Gerty but got no further than the kitchen arrangements which got him quite excited. In all we took over two hours to get through. We ended up wild camping by the side of a Gaucho Gil shrine on Ruta 40. We were kept awake most of the night by a horrendous thunderstorm with incredible flashes of lightning right over head. Very scary. The only damage was Peter's foot well which was full of water the next morning. We gave a little thank you to Gaucho Gil before we left.

The next day we headed north and drove through some large streams of water and piles of mud on the road. The rain had been so bad for a couple of nights that bulldozers were clearing the mud in many places and in two places signs warned that you crossed at your own risk. Gerty sailed through.

We made a brief visit to a pre Inca site occupied by a tribe called Los Quilmes. It consisted of a hill fort which had been heavily restored giving it a bit of an artificial feel.

Just north of this is the province of Salta. The whole area right up to the border with Bolivia consists of red, orange, yellow and green sandstone from deposits originally laid down in a sea millions of years ago. The waters eventually disappeared and the layers of sediment were pushed up and finally eroded by wind and water to give a very dramatic and colourful series of mountain ranges. To see these we drove through three valleys, Valle Calchiquies on Ruta 40, Valle de Lerma on Highway 68 and Quebrada de Humahuaca on Highway 9. The later has even been given World Heritage Site status.

On Ruta 40 we wild camped again and this time got bugged by millions of tiny flies. Luckily they didn’t seem to bite. The owner of the land wandered over and seemed quite happy for us to stay-at least that’s what I thought he said. His lack of all but 2 teeth made his Spanish hard to translate. He seemed more concerned about his mules that he was moving.

We popped into Salta to visit a museum with an exhibition of three mummified (actually freeze dried in the dry, cold conditions) children that were sacrificed (given alcohol and left to die in a hole), around 1490, by the Incas on top of Mount Llullaillaco (6740metres). It is considered to be one of the most important archaeological finds in Argentina and the exhibition was certainly quite amazing. On display was the 15 year old girl. Her face, clothes and adornments are in perfect condition. I really thought that at any moment she would look up. The colours of the artefacts found with them are so vivid you just can’t believe they have been buried for so long.

Another cat story. At one campsite a little kitten was playing around when I had a shower. A bit later I returned to use the facilities and the kitten had knocked over and was curled up asleep in one of the bins. I should mention that these bins are for the used toilet paper that you don’t flush down the loo. That will be one smelly cat!

After more maintenance on Gerty (greasing wheel bearings) we headed, yes you’ve guessed, north yet again.