Hotel Bella Vista San Carlos de Bariloche

... Diaries was filmed, we found pure beauty. Sweet family. I plan to return the following evening to sit in on one of Karen's classes. She teaches English. But 1st I go horseback riding.

My horseback riding experience is cold and peaceful. My horse is Camarillo (meaning carmel) and he might be as stubborn as I am. We enjoy each other on our stroll (and little trot) around the lake and up the ...

... way we came we took a longer and scenic route so we could see other views on the way back. It was really cool...the terrain changes a lot out here in a short ammount of time. Iīm surprised how well we did driving this little VW Golf up and down the dirt roads and little passes we had to go over. Of course almost every car out here is a mini hatchback. We got back to Villa la Angostura in the afternoon and debated on staying ...

... the dirt track westward, encountering some of the other lakes as the mountains gave way to forests, and eventually reached the junction to head back south. The dirt track turned back into highway as we made our return journey back eastward via Villa La Angostura. This town is a staging point for boat trips out to islets in the middle of Lake Nahuel Huapi, but we couldnīt escape the overly touristy feeling of the place coupled with the high boat prices to and from the islet ...

... of the local specialities - just to be polite that is! We stayed here for four nights in a Fawlty Towers style motel with the lovliest host ever - Celia - who couldnīt speak a word of English but would talk at us for 10 minutes everytime we passed knowing that we couldnīt speak Spanish. Weīre pretty sure she was saying nice things - we just nodded and smiled! Argentina is very much like Chile, with ...

After a marathon bus effort starting from Ushuaia at 5am, stopping for 5 hours in Rio Gallegos, where we had a pizza, then spending the next 24 hours on a bus full of Israelis we arrived in Bariloche. The first bus was a big of a drag coz we had to cross from Argentina into Chile for part of the journey, then back into Argentina. This involved lots of bag inspections and paperwork, and took up precious pages in our passports with 4 new stamps! Bariloche ...

... south of San Martin de los Andes Lodging: Rio Hermoso Hotel http://www.riohermoso.com 1 night: Nahuel Huapi National Park, Villa Traful area Lodging: Marinas Puerto Traful http://www.marinaspuertotraful.com.ar/ Where we stay is as important a decision as where we choose to go. We view our lodging as more than a place to sleep at night, but an integral part of our ...

... big way), tastes like cough medicine and Dr. pepper in one. Itīs an aperatif, but was served to me in a pint glass. Rough. Michael finished it for me.. Early the next morning we set off to Mount Tronador and Alerces Waterfall with an organised tour. Mr. Grech was not well and cursed fernet at the back of the bus. The tour however, was really good! It lasted a day and involved three treks. On the bus, there was lots of info by the ...

... fresh homemade bread and Dulce de Leche for breakfast. Then we got kitted out in the rather attractive wetsuit-lifejacket combo and were driven to the start of the rapids. We spent about half an hour on the river going through the safety stuff but there was no need to worry as the water level in the river was pretty low and it all seemed a bit tame in the end! Only 2 out of the 10 rapids felt like the boat could capsize and we could even ...

... not the only one looking back at ridges we had scaled the day before and saying ' I can't believe we came over that'. We cheated on the first day by taking a chairlift to the almost top of the range from where there were splendid views of massive Monte Tronador, Volcan Puntiagudo ('sharp point') and the lake. A short ascent, traverse and steep descent had us at our camp-site below the bizarre spikes of Cerro Catedral. Day two was a steep ascent, a very long and steep descent ...

... into a food coma (aka nap in the sun) before we jumped back on our bikes to continue the ride. The bike ride had some nice hills so we were pretty tired towards the end of the day. We are usually pretty good with directions however due to a few distractions at just the right time in the ride, we missed a key turn that would take us back to the bike rental place and we ended up riding in the wrong direction...for 5 miles! Oops. This is one of the most ...