00:00 - I had quite a full day today. Pickup at 4am to go and see the geysers and the park around it (vulcanic area in the Andes). It was tiring...I felt a little sick from the altitude (we were up at 4500 metres), but geysers aside, the scenery was again spectacular. I think I might be starting to get boring :-). Today was the day I also officially baptised my treking shoes! We also visited a tiny village that lives on Llama wool and goats. 8-10 houses at most a...

22:15 - Oh boy... What a long ride in a bus! We left at 7am this morning Salta on our way to San Pedro de Atacama (Chile). 8 and a half hours on a local bus (fairly comfortable and air conditioned). The ride took us up into the Andes and the high plains and then back down to 2400 metres (we peaked at 5000 during the journey). The scenery was amazing. Mountains, salt plains, vast flat lands...We crossed the border between Argentina and Chile and arrived in San Ped...

23:00 - Had quite a long day today. Slept terribly last night. Jolanda snored the whole night and the traffic felt it was in our room. For a small town it sure is busy! Early start (6:45 breakfast and 7:15 on the minibus). The weather was miserable...gray and rainy. We drove to Kafayate, about 200km south of Salta. Our guide for this trip was a local woman, Vanessa. She lived for 10 years in Italy when she was a child when her family decided to escape the regime ...

18:35 - Today was not very eventful. Didn't make it to Cafe Tortoni as I decided to sleep in. Pickup was at 11 so had a late breakfast and then joined everyone on the minibus to the domestic terminal. Jolanda on the way to the airport expressed concern over the type of plane we were flying with and Sally was unable to appease her :-). It all worked out ok though. The flight to Salta was a couple of hours and i made some inroads in my book on the Incas (and slept ...

And almost 7 years later, I am back in the saddle! 22:00 - I didn't sleep very well last night (it didn't help that I set the alarm at 8am on my phone running on London time and so it went off at 5am!). Today I took a day off from the group. Having done the tourist bit around Buenos Aires for the last two days, I asked Sally to book me on one of the Gaucho Fiestas trips. You get to visit a 'typical' argentinian ranch. Obviously, these ranches are for tourists, b...