Hotel Antartida San Carlos de Bariloche

... and abseiling.

Its very laid back place, we even worked up the courage to have a "dirty burger" - a dirty burger is a burger that costs between $1 - $2, sold by a street vendor. The ingredients come out of boxes behind him - to get maximum enjoyment out of dirty burgers, you must divert your eyes!! Happy to report we both came out alive and the burgers were excellent.

Next stop Mendoza, Argentina's wine country!

... mountains, the forest and lakes from up there.

We also went on a little hike yesterday to a waterfall and viewpoint. It was cloudy and really cold all morning but the moment we got up to the viewpoint it started clearing up and after 5 minutes we started seeing all these huge mountains all around us and the sky turned bright blue, it was really, really cool and there was no one there except us!

We had been thinking ...

... Huapi was the first national park founded in Argentina by the godfather of nature, Perito Moreno. As I have previously mentioned, this environmentalist and surveyor is akin to John Muir in his nation. I took the cheap (less than USD1) local bus along the road that runs parallel to Lago Nahuel Huapi into the depths of the park, with the final destination of Llao Llao. All around me were beautiful mountains, lush and colored forests (it is ...

... Although I am a bit tired after two days of nonstop action. I finally made it to see some of the lakes in the Lake Disctrict and they are extraordinary. If this was the beginning of my travels I could easily stay here in Bariloche for a week or two. There is really so much to do- and I am a bit torn about leaving tomorrow... but then I look at the calendar and I become anxious to keep moving. I really want to see as ...

... off, resulting in us riding straight into some very cool breezes, and our photos ending up less than perfect with very obvious looming clouds dulling the scenery. Nevertheless, our caramel and chocolate for the day was burned off, and our rear ends were oh so sore, and we made it back to the hostel to again wolf down our less than tasty provided meal, which we consequently washed down with some more dulce de leche, and managed to get another nights solid sleep.

... This 3.5 hour detour doesn't really help our cause. We start the walk again. It's now 4pm, we have 1200 vertical metres to climb, and it gets dark around 9:30. Miraculously (and painfully), we make it just before dark. It's getting pretty chilly, then it starts to rain. But we'll continue with the original plan, won't we...? Problem: It snows. A LOT. Something like 10-15cm came down overnight. Visibility gets down to about 30m, and we haven't even seen the ...

... ever since but never been in the same place at the same time. It felt right that we would spend our last week with people we met in our first week! We had a very boring and lazy couple of days wandering around town and passing time in the hostel. The hostel was one of the strangest we´ve stayed in. It was a wooden chalet-style building which was like a tardis, it was so much bigger than it seemed. There were random holes to rooms everywhere, I´ll never forget when I was on the ...

... a bottle from the carefully chosen wine list on Sebastian´s recommendation. Ed slaved in the kitchen all evening and then they all joined us for a glass of the most delicious dessert wine as we finished. At this point we had the restaurant to ourselves as it only seats 12 guests and the other diners had left. I could write so much more but I´ll just let the photos speak for the food, and say if you ever get the chance, Butterfly in Bariloche is worth the visit.

... ve ever had....but I swear if I eat another piece of meat I might explode. After dinner, we taught our friends ´liar´s dice´ over a few beers. and yes, Derek won :( Today we had a nice chill day and went for a 4 hour walk/hike. Again, the scenery of the mountains and the lakes is breathtaking. a few pics for ya. Chill dinner in the hostel tonight (NO STEAK!!!!) and tomorrow we head to El Calafate to see the glaciers! I can´t wait! We´ll talk to you from there! oxox

... We went with a group and a couple of guides (you´re not allowed to climb it on your own) and I had quite a hard time getting up there, it was so tiring! A large part of the hike was walking over glaciers, amazing ´rivers´ of ice and snow, lifting up ´islands´ of rocks with their huge force, on which we could sit to have breaks once in a while. Upon reaching the top my airway was almost blocked by the acid sulphur smoke coming from the crater. The crater was just a m ...