Bariloche and around

Stayed in a gorgeous hostel in Bariloche, a couple of minutes walk from Lake Napuel Huapi. It was out of town, very relaxing, and couldn´t have been more different from Buenos Aires. We really enjoyed our time here, meeting lots of very interesting people over numerous bottles of wine!! We managed to practice our Spanish quite a bit and got lots of help from other travellers there who are fluent already - very jealous!!

We went on a tour of some the lakes in the area, including Nahuel Huapi and Gutierrez, on the way to Mount Tronador which is on the border with Chile. We spent most of the day on the coach (on a very bumpy, unpaved road) between short stops for photos which was a shame, but some of the views were fantastic and we also got to see a couple of woodpeckers!

We finally managed to drag ourselves away after four nights and headed south to El Bolson. We had heard that it was meant to be less touristy and full of hippies but other than a fantastic steak meal it was quite disappointing and quiet. We only stayed for the one night and after visiting a craft market, with a fantastic coffee table with a map of the world carved into it (unfortunately no room for it in our backpack!), we headed back to Bariloche so we could catch a bus over the Andes to Chile the following day.