El Casco Art Hotel San Carlos de Bariloche

... people, good wine, and tasty food. We have had an awesome five weeks in which we have seen some completely different parts of the country - from sophisticated Buenos Aires to wet Iguazu, dry and remote Quebrada de Humahuaca to historic student town Cordoba, wine capital Mendoza to scenic Bariloche. We hope you have enjoyed following our travels online. Photos to follow soon...<br> <br><br>

... A month from now, the Southern Hemisphere´s largest ski resort opens and the city booms again. Now, it seems like a mere ghost town. I did get to see the city's Patagonia museum as rain keeps us travelers indoors. I did break my personal vow to never watch a Jennifer Lopez movie, as our hostel played Maid in Manhattan on Thursday. To say this is depressing is an understatement. The few hours of sunshine since Santiago consists of me running outside to snap pictures ...

... shops and alpine inspired buildings. We have travelled all this way and it feels like we could still be in Europe - very weird! That is the end of our visit to Patagonia and our next stop is to the wine region of Mendoza! Patagonia has been a wonderful experience - huge unspoilt landscapes, often very barren but dotted with the most incredible natural landmarks - well worth the visit and a place that we will return to one day.

... comme "El Arroyo Lopez". Selon la légende que m'ont racontée 2 Argentines, si on boit 3 gorgées d'eau dans ce ruisseau, on est sûr de revenir à Bariloche. Moi, par contre, comme j'étais sûr de ne pas vouloir attraper la tourista, j'ai préféré ne pas m'y risquer et cela ne m'empêchera pas de retourner à Bariloche. Je traverse la réserve naturelle du Llao Llao et passe devant l'hôtel du même nom qui est un palace 5 étoiles avec club de golf où descendent hommes ...

... out to be a bit harder than we thought. About a third of it was on dirtpaths. I could only remember falling off a bike on the Moors when i was 16 going downhill on a dirtpath. It was hot and sunny and we were sweating, and it was quite up and down. I lamed out on some of the uphills and walked up with my bike. We stopped along the way to paddle in the water of the lake. It was bloody freezing but i suppose it would be being melted snow and all, but it ...

... standing outside the place that she'd suggested, which seemed ok. <br><br>It was nowhere near as nice as where we'd come from but it was a bit cheaper and absolutely full of REALLY noisy young Israelis. It was like they were all drunk, or had severe A.D.D. or something.<br><br>By now tonight's Champions League games were now underway, so we ...

Our ninth overnight bus journey safely delivered us to Bariloche, over 1200km from where we started the night before! Bariloche is set in a beautiful national park, the first that was created in Argentina I believe. The city sits on the side of a huge glacial lake, surrounded by mountains which still had a few flecks of snow on top, despite being the end of the summer ...

... name) is a super nice dude but a bit dull, but we manage to have a good time trekking up the mountain. The oddest thing is that he is married and he just left for SA for 3 months without his wife. He says they like to do their own things once in awhile and I find this astonishing but maybe that`s why 50% of marriages in the US end in divorce, married couples simply spend way too much time together. According to Vonnegut, marriages end ...

... 2 times a day :)))... sometimes people ask me to say some phrases in Romanian... like this, the latin-languages speakers can see that they can understand a word or two... but that indeed, our pronuntiation does not help them a lot... :) Well... as the conversation was going very well and with a lot of loughters, I told them also about my plans of getting an early bus and get to Villa la Angostura and maybe San Martin de los Andes, willing ...

... variety of tiny cars and pickups. One of the most enlightening of hitches came in the form of a small, beaten up, red van directed by a kindly gent and his son. From the back in amongst skis and other gear I learnt that he was a self styled Supertramp who had been going where the wind does for the past years only stopping briefly to gain a son/ traveling companion by an agreeable lady ...