Road trip through the Argentine.

This is a 7 days road trip itinerary through Northeast Argentina, taking you from Posadas to Iguazú Falls, to the Mocona falls and Esteros del Ibera.

David wants to see the true Argentinian countryside. I'm not so sure. Although we have done road trips here before they have been mostly on our way to and from Chile, never in the vastness of the country's interior. We know very little about the condition of the roads. We do know there are many unpaved roads, even on reasonably well travelled routes. We also know that suicidal over-takes are common and directional signs range from average to very poor. It is not uncommon to arrive at an…

David has a cold. As a result we are taking it slowly in Salta - probably not a bad thing. We often make the mistake of spending too much time on excursions away from the place we are staying in and never seeing the immediate neighbourhood. There are lots of excusions from Salta. One of the most famous is the The Train to the Clouds a 16 hour round trip into the Andes to a high point of 4,220 metres. The line traverses tunnels and viaducts as well as zigzagging up what is said to be…

Many years ago, when we were young, David and I travelled through the French countryside staying in 'one star' hotels. They had rustic charm by the bucket load. They also had intermittent plumbing, bed-bugs, and bathrooms down the hall - but they were cheap and we were young. We quickly out-grew them. For the next few days we are staying at the House of Jasmines, an Estancia just outside Salta, once owned by Robert Duvall. Like the 'one-star' French countryside hotels it has loads of rustic…

In 1599 the Jesuits arrived in Cordoba. They came south from Alto Peru, present day Bolivia, in a wave of proselytising, empire-building and farming. Their reign lasted until 1767 when they were expelled from all the Americas during a world-wide suppression of the order. The Argentinian Jesuits have their revenge now though with one of their own on the Papal Throne. Apart from a predominantly Catholic continent the Priests left a legacy of churches, cathedrals and estancias, many of which…

This is our second visit to Cordoba. We came the first time because we wanted to see the real Argentina, away from the tourist trail. This time we have been drawn back by the city's charm. Don't get me wrong - it is a run down, chaotic, stress-inducing charm - but a charm nevertheless. We head out from the hotel on foot. We know better than to tangle with the problem of parking in the inner-city and we have discovered that the spare tyre in our rental car is flat. The car company has…

It is not that I have anything against the back row of aeroplanes. We have spent a lot of time in them. Up the back, on bumpy flights, I tend to get airsick. I've only actually thrown-up a couple of times - usually over David - but I can get pretty distressed and that tends to make the people around me nervous. I accept that everyone should take their turn in the cheap seats. The problem is; David and I have had far too many turns. We have done our time and paid our dues. Let somebody else…

We are on QF28 approaching Santiago, Chile. At 1:15 pm this afternoon we left Sydney. We flew for more than 12 hours and arrived half way across the world three hours before we left home. We have a five hour layover before we connect to Córdoba, Argentina - what a waste of those extra hours. AND there is trouble brewing over our bags. In Sydney, the QANTAS check-in lady would not check them through to Cordoba, notwithstanding that our flight to Cordoba is with LAN, a partner airline to…