need permit, but under the urgency of the situation made off a memo that gets me past the Bolivian guard into Argentina. 10 minutes to go. an Argentine guard escorts me to the Argentino customs, where we wait until the argentino cabrona shows up for work at 9:30. So we sit and watch my train pull out. That's all right says the guard, there will be another train day after tomorrow. Three days to travel 1 mile. At 3 p.m. found a truck load of coca leaving for Jujuy and got a ride on top. The road from La Quiaca to Abra Pampa is wide open with mountains in the distance to the left and right, sometimes sandy, lots of tree droppings. An Argentine passenger called them "tojo", not trees-trees. Abra Pampa is flat punpa, short grass, many rae-punpa, tola, some tuvel grass, and some rocky hills 1/2 mile SW of town. These are the first hills close to road and look fine for Ph. darmini. Flight turn here for Casabindo. From Abapampa to Tres Oveces is more hilly, good altiplano, OK for darmini. Park at Tres Oveces but 3/4 moon enabled me to get an idea of the vegetation. Quite a stretch of tola and of good altiplano, then descent into a thorn zone. Thorn brush and Saguaro appear a little above Humahuaca, The Saguaro cactus being especially dense for a while. Then a more arid stretch between Humahuaca and Tilcara. Humahuaca, despite size of letter on map, is much larger than Tilcara and quite charming, with old colored street lights etc. No really brushy zone seen, except the thorn tree zone.