Where's Willie? (2: Chile to Argentina)

We seem to be on the move a lot the past week. For a few hours it looked as if we'd be stuck in San Pedro de Atacama (a funny little Chilean desert town that's full of tourists and has an unreal feel about it, not somewhere you'd particularly want to be stuck), because the bus tickets we'd been promised in Uyuni didn't seem to exist. Thankfully it was a false alarm and the following morning (after 24 hours in Chile) we were on the bus for the crossing of the Andes and the Argentinian border via el Paso de Jama to Salta (other people we met ended up hiring a truck to get them over the border). So nice to get to Salta: it's a lovely city, nice and warm due to the much lower altitude, and the food is great. No more high-altitude endurance tourism!

After a few days in Salta, largely spent drinking great wine, coffee and beer and eating steaks and empañadas (little pastries filled with meat, cheese or chicken), we went south to Cafayate for a couple of nights. This is a small town surrounded by mountains and vineyards in the north-western wine producing region of Argentina, and it's highly relaxing. Since then, we've been working our way south-east towards Buenos Aires, with a stop in Córdoba to break up the journey. And that's where I'm at right now. It's a big, busy, modern city and it's hot as hell. Looking forward to staying put for a few days in Buenos Aires and enjoying the sea breeze. I'm heading straight to the airport to meet the Peggie Martinez to my Willie Gonzalez, Neasa, who's joining me for three weeks of 24-carat relaxation.

I seem to be experiencing some luck in dodging transport strikes. In Cusco I happened to see something on the news about road blocks near Puno, and in the space of an hour and a half I'd somehow ended up with a plane ticket to La Paz for the following morning (I later heard stories of people being stuck for days in Cusco and of tourist buses being stoned near Puno). Today my friend Christine had to go to the doctor where she found out that there was a bus strike tonight which we'd heard nothing about and would seriously disrupt our Buenos Aires travel plans. An hour later we'd been able to change our tickets to a different company, getting seats on a nearly full bus, and were back on track. So lucky, we could very easily have been standing in the bus terminal like gobshites tonight. We could be yet, so say nathin'.