La Cumbre, Friday

1153 On bus. One turned up at 1110 and departed 1115 (time on my ticket) but driver wouldn't let me on. Too disturbed and unconfident to understand why, but fortunately two guys ahead of me seemed to get the same treatment. Hung around and was allowed on this one, which is just leaving. Managed to get bag into overhead rack and have an aisle seat, in fact a double though I don't expect that to last.

People kept asking me questions about where to get their bus or where this and that went. Well, OK, it happened about three times. Do I not look like a tourist all of a sudden?

1350 La Falda bus terminal. Lots of people got off and I nearly did but fortunately asked some guys sat behind me where we were. Think we are nearly there. Mind running heavily on food...

1425 Here. Been to tourist office and got map and some paragliding leaflets, now getting bife de chorizo and chips (was going to have a scrambled egg too but I got tangled up in unintelligible discussion with the waitress on the point) at some restaurant opposite bus terminal (quite nice though). Will go find the hotel after but don't want to miss out on lunch.

Bit odd in tourist office, woman perfectly friendly but somehow I seemed to be expecting her to say stuff and she didn't.

Juan Luis Guerra song about 'te regalo una rosa' on, and - oddly, to me - a Spanish language version of Living La Vida Loca before this.

1505 Now that was a good steak. About an inch thick and amazingly tender. The portion of french fries was microscopic but still. Going to have another diet coke and then head over to hotel, which on a close look is shown on the map I got at the tourist office. (Guide book doesn't have a map of La Cumbre itself.)

Only ARS62, made it 80 with tip.

1741 Sweated balls off walking to hotel. It is large and deserted; I seem to have been shown to my room by the cleaner. Attempted to walk over to the Aero Club as 'recommended' by the guide book to book paragliding but it's fucking miles and I gave up after half an hour. Went back to tourist information and asked if they could call to book for me. They sort of tried but in the end they told me to go to the call booth across the road and call some guy's mobile (they can only call landlines). Apparently he speaks English but when I spoke to him he said in Spanish he was flying. (I trust not literally at that moment!) I said I'd call back in an hour but not overly optimistic. Consequently having a beer (a 354ml can, FFS) while I wait.

1823 Sat here after finishing it. ARS12, 17 with tip. Can't say I'm keen to call and the bloke from the newsagent cum call office has been stood outside his door with a mate for the last twenty minutes. And fuck, I am now down to a small handful of change, an ARS2 note and a 100 note. Just have to chance it and up the bill with a bottle of water or the like if the guy kicks.

2012 At La Recova (?, odd font) having beer. Spoke to the guy or some friend he was with, he said it might be possible tomorrow depending on weather. I need to be ready between 9-9:30 and his friend will pick me up if weather OK. All seems a bit casual but still. Shall have to be up early to call Trailfinders and spend the extra £15 (called this morning and what a shock, it is a one-shot fee rather than a general extension to the policy). Feeling a bit jittery to be frank but I guess that's just me.

Town very pleasant but infested with dogs barking their fucking heads off in the evening, which I probably should have expected. I got yanked out of the bath (the water was an unpleasant brown colour but at least it was hot) to fill in a card with my details on and took the opportunity to ask what I assume to be the owner about taxis. I can apparently get a remise from one of the offices in the centre (have seen several) which are open late or all night. I walked over to town since it was daylight.

Was tempted to stay at hotel tonight but room while large is very dingy and hence a bit grim, even if there is wifi (good job, as I need it to call TF tomorrow on Skype) and I think might be too depressing. Did fight down minor burst of panic as I was getting in the bath but not feeling too bad now. It is mainly the landing that worries me but I guess it's OK and you are probably looking at breaking something which will mend in time rather than dying. Sod it. Alea iacta est or whatever. If the guy turns up I'm doing it and if he doesn't I'm not. Lap of the gods stuff.

Obviously need to take it a little easy tonight.

If it happens, I guess it will all be over by midday. Plan then is to go treat myself to a steak at Mateo's (where I had lunch today) then go take a look at that statue of Cristo Redentor and climb the hill (350m!?) if I can. I will then be all done here and can leave Sunday (checkout is at 10am!!) with a clear conscience, head back to Cordoba, lunch there and book an overnight bus to wherever. I will decide on where tomorrow afternoon/evening, but it will probably be Salta.

2140 Must admit developing jitters right now. But I guess that's just me. I've done it before and it was totally cool and once you're in the air it's absolutely fine. The landing was just such a non-issue last time when it came down to it (no pun intended) as well, plus once you're in the air the landing is inevitable and you can hardly bottle it. ;-) I suspect there will be other people up there at the launch point too and that has got to help. I mean, the bus could have crashed today and I could have been seriously injured or killed but you just don't think about it, and I guess life is about taking risks. This also really isn't that big a risk I guess, it just looks and feels like one. FFS, I broke my arm in about the most boring way possible, despite having done loads of more risky things on the same trip. (Scrambling about on those rock formations on the Salar de Uyuni trip springs to mind, as do the Potosi mines. Fuck me, I don't know if I'd have the balls to go down there again.)

I just hope there's no glitch with the internet and/or Skype tomorrow morning when I have to call Trailfinders to make the payment for the insurance. It's all so early morning that it could be tricky to get in touch otherwise. (I did check when I spoke to them this morning that they'd be around to take the payment over the weekend, the issue is just with me making the phone call to them.)

I am glad I didn't spend the evening at the hotel, it would just have been worse sat there on my own. Feeling quite a lot calmer just for having written this.

I am a little embarassed but I have to admit when I did the paragliding in Iquique, after about 20 minutes I started to feel very slightly sick, though not too badly and I think it eased off fairly quickly. I guess that's just one of those things and in any case nothing to worry about; I won't have eaten and even if I were to puke my guts up it would be a minor embarassment at worst, not threatening life or limb. (I had a similar thing flying over the Nazca lines. I was smugly unaffected during the actual flight over the lines, despite two or three of the other passengers being physically sick, but presumably the same delayed action kicked in and I felt midly queasy as we were doing the plain and simple flight back to the airport.)

Just ordered a second litre; may not finish it but it's only 2158 and four pints isn't going to leave me hungover. I am planning to get up about 8 but I may actually try for 7 - the three hour time difference means I can call the UK no problem then - even if I then go back to bed (as if).

No doubt it won't actually happen now due to bad weather. ;-)

Paragliding aside, coming here was a good idea anyway. I quite look forward to toiling up the hill to the Cristo Redentor statue (which I haven't yet noticed on the skyline, though maybe I haven't been paying much attention). The place feels a little off the beaten track and makes a welcome change from BA and Cordoba. Once I got on the thing even the little (quite comfortable, actually, though the roads were just bad enough to make it hard to read a book on my phone a lot of the time with the vibrations) bus here felt right and different from the long-distance coaches. It's weird the way the hotel appears deserted too, reminds me a bit of the hostel in Valparaiso in November. I do wonder if I overdid the idea that it would be heaving here due to it being peak season. The bus was almost empty by the time it got into La Cumbre and I also didn't get the impression there were (m)any foreign tourists on it. San Pedro de Atacama this is not, by a long chalk.

Wow, amazingly fluffy big dog just walked past.

Should say my problem with the dogs, as always, is when they start barking at passersby. During the day at least in the more central areas they are totally unoffensive. This evening the sound of distant barking was seldom absent on the walk over here, even in daylight, but I do think a lot of it is caused by dogs in house gardens, not street dogs. (However, I did see three dogs getting worked up at a guy in an invalid carriage tooling down a quiet street near the hotel. He didn't seem too fussed about it.)

2308 Nearly done. Just paid, 40, 50 with tip. Damn well hope I can get a cab back as don't fancy the walk. Should be fine though.

2324 Sorted, respect due. No problem at all and there was even a friendly cat in the hotel grounds when I got back.

At the bar a little girl came up to me and said hello, we exchanged greetings and it was an awkward silence before she wandered off. A bit later on she turned up and said something I didn't understand, but I sort of got the impression she was lost. I said she should talk to the waitress and when she seemed reluctant I offered to go with her. Of course her mother was just inside. I explained what had happened. All totally fine but I do wonder what she actually said to me.

Not too jittery right now at all but give it time. Shall maybe have a bath, break my arm and avoid the situation. ;-)

Cricket or what have you in the room as far as I can tell. Might be outside. Lots of those sort of noises. Not a problem. I have been reading some Mark Twain and at one point a character observes the impossibility of locating the source of these noises, which is bang on.