Lo,

Today we find ourselves yet again killing time (this time 14 hours) until our bus leaves for Mendoza at midnight. This time round we're in Córdoba, Argentina.

The train from Uyuni down to the Argentinian border was a bit rubbish in the end. The seats were a bit uncomfortable and terrible music was played very loudly at us while we tried to sleep (we paid a fair bit extra for 'Executive' class, which I think entitled us to said music and very little else). We were, however, served a very rushed breakfast in the dining cart (dead fancy), which was nice enough. The border crossing was bloody hard work. The train station on one side was about 10 miles from the border and the bus station in Argentina about another 5.

Our first bus journey in Argentina was a bit rubbish. Firstly the people who load your bags onto the bus all expect tips here. Secondly, the bus stopped twice within about an hour for thorough police drug searches. Everyone is shepharded off the bus into a queue with all their luggage and then searched. It took forever both times, and we were convinced we were going to miss our connection. It turns out, however, that these searches, along with all the other various holdups, are worked into the schedules. They just assume everything will go a bit slowly.

Salta, our first stop in Argentina, was flippin' lovely. We stayed in a great hostel, although some Irish people seemed to have followed us there all the way from Uyuni. The time in Salta was spent chillaxing: hopping between cafés, shops and ice-creameries, and generally doing very little (the city basically closes between 1pm and 5pm).

Next was another overnight bus to Córdoba, the 2006 Cultural Capital of the Americas. Things started badly when we arrived at 9am on a Sunday to find every hotel full. We spent a couple of hours running around the centre (with all our crap) trying to find anywhere with a room, but all we managed was overpriced hostels. We picked one at random and stayed there for a few days. That afternoon there was an amazing arts and crafts fair where we managed to pick up some proper cheap and very la-dee-da paintings of some orange stuff, as well as a chess set carved entirely from wine corks and some crockery. All very practical when you're already having to lug 25kg of crap around a continent in a backpack. I also tried the local spirit, fernet. Bloody awful.

That evening we popped into a supermarket where I managed to knock over half of a big wine display. That was fun. Unfortunately Vic didn't get any photos to entertain you lot with. I'm still picking bits of glass out of my feet.

We've done very little over the last couple of days. More ice-cream and shopping, mainly. We've decided that we're taking a couple of weeks off from all the hard work stuff, for Christmas. I think that's fair. Incidentally, it's the 19th December and it's 27ºC outside (forecast to rise to 36ºC).

Bye then.
Love, Nick and Vic