I stayed in the oasis of San Pedro de Atacama/Chile for a couple of days to see the surrounding marvelous landscape, especially the "Valle de la Luna" with the vulcanos of the Andes ( the dominating "Licancabur") as a beautyful background and the amazing sky filled with stars at night. I crossed over to Argentina, to a city called Salta, strolling over the main plaza with nice cafes and restaurants certainly made you feel a bit shabby in your old backpacker clothes. The nearby city of Cafayate is surrounded by wineyards, I certainly eared a new pair of shoes there, walking a lot. I went to see the Ruinas de Quilmes ( and the wide land filled with cactuses), I started early in the morning, and it was a nice walk while the sun rose, I saw some birds flying over my head that somehow reminded me of the macaws that I saw in Peru, cows were staring at the "early" visitor (me) as I was passing by, a big hairy spider crossed the dusty street right in front of me - the way back with the sun further up in the sky was a bit more sweaty. In the afternoon I walked to some nearby river to cool off a bit, but getting there took quite a while, and I felt relieved when I finally got there and could put my feet in the cold stream. Another bustrip brought me to Cordoba while the heat was increasing. From there I made a daytrip to the little town of "Alta Gracia" to see the "Museo de Che", and one evening we went to "Jesus Maria" for the Festival of "Doma y Forklore", nice to see all the gaucho dressed up in smashing clothes, there were bands playing music while gauchos struggled with wild horses, even staying on their backs when they went down to the ground.... not to forget the awesome smell of grilled meat from countless BBQ's stands everywhere and other traditional food.