Sat 19th Sep: Its now eight fifteen and I've been kept awake all night by music on this campsite at El Carmen, sixty kilometres north of Salta.

Later: Before going any further though, my friend Arena did eventually turn up. She sent me an email saying she'd been in Buenos Aires visiting family and could we meet Thursday evening at seven on the steps of the cathedral. We met and had a coffee in Time Life, a place where it takes a while to attract the waiter's attention and then a quarter of an hour for the waiter to come back with the coffee. But when the coffee does come it's accompaniated with those delicious media lunas. She told me about her work as a social worker and voluntary work with underprivileged children. And we talked about Ireland where she'd been a childminder for a year.

Back to thoughts on the booming bass and chatter which deprieved me of my sleep. When I emerge from the tent at eight twenty, I saw over by the trees the cause; a pickup with speakers and two tents and half a dozen teenage boys stood around talking loud above the music. Not much of a party. Maybe it was their first time camping and didn't understand respect for others peace and quiet during the night.

Therefore Is feeling tired today and the heat in the afternoon mean I dozed after lunch. It was an uneventful ride of ninety kilometres to Pumamarca, a couple of kilometres in on the road to "Paso de Jama" and Chile where I've resolved to aim for.

I met two French cyclists on the last tiresome uphill stretch into town who may be company tomorrow as far as Salinas Grandes, as there they'll be following "Ruta 40" south. They'd a map for the whole of Argentina which didn't show much detail other than parallel lines for roads and circles for locations, so were unaware that after Mining town San Antonio, Ruta 40 climbs and crosses a pass close to five thousand metres called Arba de Rey or something. And the road in that section is reputed to be extremely poor. But the veiws are suppose to be superb.

Sun 20th Sep: The French cyclists mentioned a German cyclist they'd met that had come via Paso de Jama. And the guy on the Campsite in Pumamarca met him too, mentioning that he stayed four days such was his need for rest.

The French cyclists had checked into a hospidaje and I didn't see them this morning so cycled on alone. It took most of the day to climb to an altitude of four thousand two hundred metres. The way up to the altoplano. Is feeling short of breathe, forcing me to stop often. Though the worse hinderance was the sharp cold wind blowing down the mountainside. It caugh me rounding each hairpin bend in a strong gust which brough me to a standstill. From the aforementioned height, I descended for around ten kilometres as the sun hovered low and set, when luckily Is passing an old stone hut which looked to be the perfect place to pass the night.

Mon 21th Sep: It was an extremely cold start and it took the sun a long time to reach my hut. Even with the sun well up when I broke camp, I wore gloves and most of my clothes, but still froze as the first stretch went all downhill into the basin of Salinas Grandes. After veering right the road continued straight as a die: a dark line across the white salina towards purple-fawn hills in the distance.

It was noon when I was nearing those hills and as luck would have it, there was a small settlement to the right of the road. A scattering of houses which included a shop. I bough bread, a can of corn beef and a bottle of coke. At a sit by the roadside lunch a little further, I found eating the whole can of corn beef a bit sicking: the yuchy stuff put in to preverve it was off putting.

It was a challenging afternoon riding up through the hills, a place wonderfully called "Quebrache Mal Paso"; approperately name as Mal means bad in Spanish, and it was on the Mal Paso that the wind picked up. The remainder of the day was a hard slog into headwind and being pushed sideways by crosswind depending on which way the road veered. I reached Susques fed-up just as the sun sank behind the ridge above town.

I found a hospidaje and a homely restaurant; a family with a large kitchen and dinning room. The woman of the house told me there's a village at the limit with Chile, so I suppose I've got sivilisation to look forward to at the end of tomorrow. That's if I can cover the hundred and twenty kilometres there. She said onwards into Chile there's nothing until San Pedro. Not even a house; a distance she reckoned to be a hundred and fifty kilometres.

Tue 22th Sep: The first twenty kilometres west from Susques was through barren brown hills typical of the altoplano, then the road descended to a huge salt basin called Salinas Olaraz. At this point the wind which had been picking up during the morning got serious. It was a struggle with gusts pushing me sideways as the road swung South to avoid the salina which was an emmence white plain down the slope on the right, with a range of purple-fawn hills on the far margen. After thirty kilometres riding south the road curved around to the right, down towards a lenghty causeway across the open bleak salina where a duststorm had whirred up and a great plume crossed over the road.

I stopped for lunch before going further, climbing down the rocky base of the causeway approach and sheltered at the bottom in amoungst giant boulders where I'd a veiw out over the white expanse while eating a sandwich. But the wind even got in here too. Airborne sand and grit covered everything and I'd to use stones as paperweights on anything light.

The whole afternoon was a slow tiresome battle with the wind. And I'd only covered another forty kilometres by sundown at seven thirty when Is in the middle of a plain, far short of the village. I rolled the bike down the side of the road to the mouth of a channel underneath and unrolled my sleeping-bag to bivac. After dark the wind eased and it became completely calm. I could have looked up at the stars but there wasn't much mood for doing so as I sank deep into the sleeping-bag, curled up and zipped the hood up around my face against the cold. The night was freezing. In the morning all my water bottles were frozen solid, so I'd to start without breakfast.