We left the estancia early Sunday morning for a drive day and a bush camp. Flat tyre enroute (Another one? That's the 3rd in as many weeks!) which held us up but Michelle and I cheered ourselves up by doing the truck dance. We will have to video this as it's quite amusing. Actions to the tune of 'A little less Conversation', it involves various moves (while seated) such as pulling the horn, canoeing, I'm your Venus, swimming, turning the lightbulb, packing shelves and reticulating sprinkler. I know none of this makes sense and you think I've gone insane (not far wrong if I'm honest!) but you'll see what I mean when you see it!

Camping that night wasn't without drama as I woke up to Michelle shouting something about a leech. It ended up being a slug that had somehow ended up in our tent, crawled on the roof and dropped on her forehead.

A few more sagas over the last few days. We still haven't tracked down the phantom vomiter although we do have our suspicions. We seem to also have some thieves aboard the truck - our rum and wine have disappeared and someone ate 2 apples one lunchtime so I had to go without (but nobody would admit it and I know there were enough because I had personally counted them!). Michelle and I have also had a blanket lifted of our bloody truck seat (I mean how cheeky can you get?!) which then magically reappeared. I saw the culprit so we think it's the mute twins that have been pilfering (these, by the way, are 2 Danish girls who have hardly said a word to anyone over the last 10 days!). Oh, and I've had to tell several people off for dropping their cigarette butts on the ground. Anyway, enough b****ing for now.

Anyway, 1st stop on Monday was a cute little town called Tafi del Valle where had a nice cup of tea and then we drove through cacti land - it was incredible - a load of giant cacti sprouting out of the sand like huge fingers. We then stopped for lunch at Quilmes which is Argentina's most extensive preserved ruin. It dates from AD1,000 and is a 30 hectare urban settlement which probably housed around 5,000 people. The Incas then invaded followed by the Spanish who deported the last 2,000 people to Buenos Aires (where there is still a district known as Quilmes where they brew beer. Our overnight stop was Cafayate which is home to some of the country's best vineyards. We went to one that was called Vasija Secreta where we had a free tour and wine tasting - not surprised it was free as it was pretty yucky! We had a brief wander round the town where there's a famous ice cream shop that sells wine-flavoured ice creams (surprisingly tasty!) and stuffed our faces with a sheep's cheese stuffed tortilla.

So, there we are. Still having a fab time. Missing people I've met along the way but also very excited about what's around the corner.

Looking forward to hearing all of your news!

Linda xxf