So, yet another retrospective entry - but at least this time we're still in the place I'm writing about! This is Saturday, our third night in Salta, and in fact our last night in Argentina, as tomorrow we cross over into Bolivia! We had a long drive day on Thursday, across more flat, flat landscape. It was a bit more interesting than the day before, as we occasionally drove past villages, with pigs, goats and horses wandering about grazing by the roadside. We a...

Last night's meal in Asunción was complicated by a power cut, which seemed to affect quite a few blocks of the city. Luckily we had placed our orders and had just got our drinks when the lights went off, so we sat sipping in the dark for about 20 minutes, and then a waiter arrived with a candle on a plate, singing "Happy Birthday to you....".  We thought that was quite funny, until we saw that the candle wasn't much bigger than one you'd have on a cake, and ha...

Our 6 hour drive to San Ignacio yesterday (Thursday),via the 'short route' took us along soft sand roads, bumpy earth roads, and finally, onto asphalt - hurray! The truck didn't get stuck, or broken, so we didn't have to do any digging, or pushing, and we made good time. We even stopped for a picnic lunch at a service station with an area of grass and a brick built BBQ (don't think health and safety would allow that combination of fire and petrol in England!) The...

 Wednesday started with a trip to the Ibera visitors centre, where we watched a short film about the wetlands environment, how some of the wildlife had been brought very close to extinction in the past and how the eco balance has been restored since it became a nature reserve and hunting was banned in 1983. We then had a guided walk through the forest, where we saw howler monkeys (including a mother with an 8 week old baby clinging to her back), some large spid...

So after a long drive through the Pampas yesterday, where we saw a lot of pampas grass, cows and flat, flat landscape, we spent the night in a small town called Mercedes, in the real Gaucho country. The shops in the town sold saddles, gaucho hats, and great big ornate silver belt buckles, as well as the ubiquitous leather covered flasks and drinking cups for 'hierba mate' tea. We had a walk round the town, which had some nice colonial style architecture, then ano...