Raine: Dodgy start to the day as we realised we hadn’t paid our hosts for our stay! They said they didn’t mind and were happy to have us as guests... but after an hour at various banks and money changers we were able to get hold of 61,000 pesos! The cash machine would only give us 15,000. Argentina is tricky for getting cash and also for eating out. Being a vegetarian is tricky but the fact that restaurants don’t open until 9pm is another problem! So we have done a lot of self catering recently, but the cakes in the coffee houses are great. Had a marvellous cherry tart this evening ...

Driving North to South along the route N40 in Argentina from Malergue to Zapala has taken us 8 hrs it’s a trip of 544 km and a section of the road of over 100km was just rough stone. Paul did a great job driving and I took the photos. It’s the remotest drive that I can remember doing. We had no phone connection for a lot of it and passed less than 30 vehicles over 400kms. It was at this point that I stopped hankering after an old truck and appreciated the value of air conditioning and reliability of the nearly new Mazda! The scenery is magnificent giving a real insight into how the world as we know it was formed, The photos will give you a better idea than any words that I can write ... I kept telling myself to take it all in as we’ll only pass this way once ( we’re re going a different route back to Santiago).

Paul: I caught a fleeting glimpse of 3 rheas. Raine didn’t see them and teased me for hours that I had imagined seeing emus. 

The road we went on is Ruta 40 - the main north south road in the west of Argentina. Imagine the A38 or M5 being like this.

The stone roads are okay but maximum speed is about 50km/h and it’s like driving on ball bearings. 

Had a few breaks. No services on this road. 

Crossed loads of rivers.  Some dry but lots with a good amount of water from snow melt. 

Another break 

Driving Miss Daisy 

Banana and biscuit - yummy

Raine kept trying to get a good picture of this extinct volcano but always managed to miss the shot

Raine did manage this great picture