After breakfast we rumbled down the hill to Cachi,then rumbled some more on route 40 - dirt, sand, gravel, mud, anything but tarmac. Locals sped past us and left us in a cloud of dust sometimes wondering where the road went. We managed around 19 miles in our first hour - only 81 miles left of this. Superb scenery once again but this time without the drops. Amazingly this unpaved road through the mountains is actually a 'wine route'. We passed several Bodegas (Vin...

Our VW Gol hire car was delivered to our hotel. Donna drove and I navigated, it was Sunday morning and thankfully the roads were quiet. We headed south on Ruta 68, with motorcyclists whizzing around us. Mothers with kids on mopeds speed down the road with none of them wearing helmets - hardly anyone wears them. We turned onto Ruta 33 and soon left the tarmac behind us, it was gravel and sand and the road twisted and turned with the road narrowing, the drops inc...

After a great bus journey we arrived in the sprawling city of Salta. We had mixed feelings about this, we much prefer smaller, quieter places but Salta was a means to and end so we had little choice. We were delighted to find our digs was close to the central plaza and what a wonderful centre Salta has. Lots of grand colonial buildings, orange trees line the plaza, street artists, market stalls, a great choice of souvenir shops, restaurants and cafes. The only ...

When you take over 300 photos on a bus journey then it surely deserves a post of its own. We left San Pedro bound for Salta in Argentina. I hadn't had much sleep because of my toothache and felt like sh#t. If I have a restless night then Donna doesn't sleep much either, so neither of us felt good. The bus laboured uphill climbing through desert towards distant volcanoes. I tried to sleep but couldn't and glad for it as the scenery was glorious. Desert turned to...

Our last day in San Pedro, we hired bikes and road north on a dirt road to the Atacamena Indigenous Catarpe area. There are so many cycle hire places here and peak season is over so hire prices are low. We had 2 bikes for 6 hours for seven pounds in total. One of those stray dogs took a shine to us and led the way for us for several miles - he seemed to know all the turns to our destination. We were the first riders of the day at the check point (payment point!...