Salta was a more westernised type of place.. Etam, mobile phone shops and hundreds of chemists and shoe shops?? Not sure why but there seemed to be a need for these shops more than any other shop. Maybe they have a lot of ill fitting shoes and due to the heat they get swollen and buniony feet and therefore need a lot of chemists??.. Anyway with its lovely central park and cable car over looking the city, Salta was a nice place. Our hostel was nice too and it was here that we sat with lots of beers and lots of Argentinians watching the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic games from London. Although in parts I felt it was a wee bit cheesy (ruddy spice girls and Jessie Joke!!) I still sat there, a million miles from home feeling really patriotic and proud to be British. For what its worth I think we Brits put on a good show throughout the games and did ourselves proud. There were a few Brazilians in the hostel watching the proceedings with us and there was a lovely feeling of camaraderie between us and them. Good luck for the next games Brazil!!

We had heard that Salta and of course Argentina had the best steaks in the universe and were advised to hunt down a little restaurant called 'Jacks' who were renown for serving the biggest and best steak in the whole of Argentina. So off we stomped for miles, with achy feet and achy back, to find said restaurant....we found it, it was closed.. so after waiting outside for an hour like a couple of hungry stray dogs we found another restaurant and ordered ..steak. It was beautiful, succulent, melty in the mouth. I started to wonder how 'Jacks' could be any better than this.

The next day we went back to 'Jacks to compare....oh my goodness...after about twenty minutes , a cow arrived on our plates, the biggest hulk of meat I have ever seen..cooked to perfection, tickling my taste buds and nose buds as the smell wafted across the table like a hundred roast dinners in one. As the knife slid through the meat I think I actually dribbled..a bit....drool, slurp! (sorry you veggies but...seriously this would have converted you!) Ray and I stopped talking for about 30 minutes and communicated only through mmm,mmm noises....totally mouthwateringly steakily, beefy goodnessy, moo cowy, yum!!....in fact well worth the airfare....

There were some great things about Salta..Ray found a supermarket which had the longest and slowest queue known to man every time he went in there but on the plus side he found bottles of red wine from Mendoza for seven Argentinian Real (approx £1) a bottle...result!!

I also found the site of a whole family on a 50cc moped a sight to behold. Mother, toddler, father driving and on his mobile phone and baby of about six months old perched on the front, it was a fascinating balancing act, if not a bit worrying!!....

We spent about four days in Salta and wanted to head to Peurto Iguazu just on the Argentinian/Brazilian border to see the waterfalls but our last rotten bus journey put us off doing the whole 24 hour journey in one hit so we decided to go just over halfway (15 hours) and stop one night in another town called Corrientes.

Corrientes was again quite a westernised place and although I am ashamed to admit it, I quite liked being back to familiar shops, streets and precincts. The centre of Corrientes could have been a shopping Mall in Portsmouth, Manchester or Liverpool!

Coming into the city we had driven over a very long bridge over a river. The Paraná River is a river in South Central, South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. We didnt know it at the time but at the next destination we would be standing at the point where the river meets these three countries, within about 500 meters of each other.

We were due to leave Corrientes on the night bus and travel the rest of the journey to Puerto Iguazu but the bus didnt leave until seven so we had the day to kill. We decided to walk along the river. It was a swelteringly hot day, so we found a big shady palm and chilled out under it for a while. We noticed that the sky on the other side of the river had turned almost purply black and the clouds we rolling in, coupled with the rumble of distant thunder. Suddenly a ear piercing crack and eye blinding flash of lightening hit the ground near us!! My heart nearly bounced out of my chest, it was very scary but you certainly knew you were alive!!...we sheltered under a tree and watched as our first tropical storm took over the town...fab...just fab!

Slowly the worst of the storm passed but the thunder grumbled on as we got on our bus to Iguazu. I am sure that on this trip we will see more amazing storms but that was the first and it was brill!!...(please see photo section above)