Reluctantly we leave our country retreat. As it is early autumn we have been the only guests and had the place to ourselves, waited on hand and foot although it was a struggle to do justice to a large breakfast and two large three course meals a day with afternoon tea and cake thrown in for good measure. We are slowly recovering but are left with a wheezy cough. At the airport pharmacy we are able to buy a prescription-only Ventolin inhaler for US$5 without a prescription, no questions asked.

The Argentine peso is worth very little and inflation is high. US dollars can be used nearly everywhere for most things. The official rate is almost 9 pesos to the dollar, but up to 12 on the black market, a semi official black market known as the blue rate, a more patriotic colour. I have given up trying to work out how much anything is in sterling. It's just too complicated.