Then onto a delightful Estancia near Salta in the northwest of Argentina, right up at the Andes. It was certainly beautiful but the Estancia was in a small area that had it's own microclimate and the three days we were there it rained so horseriding wasn't possible (phew!). We had a 30 minute dirt road to get to the Estancia and we thought this was awful (we didn't know there was worse to come). On the first day we managed to get the hire car (a tiny Vauxhall Corsa) stuck in a particularly wet and slippy patch of gravel. A family in a four wheel drive passed us and stopped to watch to see what we would do next. There was only one thing for it, one of us would have to get out and push... so out I got. Fortunately, I have good upper body strength and J is a good driver and so we got out of it... much to the surprise of the watching family. We were pleased to have cut our teeth on this road when we started up the mountain passes in the area!