Paihuen Villa De Montana San Martin de los Andes

We decided it was time for another adventure and as we really enjoyed our wee cycle in Bariloche, so we thought it was time to strike a deal with Daniel (bike man)and hire some mountain bikes to cycle the famous seven lakes road from Bariloche to San Martin de Los Andes. This road is well known on the tourist trail as it has amazing scenary, plenty of lakes but it is a cyclist nightmare as the road surface is total gravel, mountain climbs ...

... Time for a subliminal message - sell your car and rent one for life from Budget, El Calafate. For those of you who find traveling with the kids a bit much, turn away now. Walking back from our successful tyre purchasing expedition we see a gigantic Winnebago camper in the main street, with an additional 20ft trailer towed behind it. It's all painted up and stickered to denote that a grand voyage around the world is taking place, with South America being just one of 5 continents ...

... are also guests this evening. We immediately hit it off with them, they are an Israeli couple living in London. After some lively laughing and joking, we make it back to our room. We turn off the lights and end our last day at the Rio Hermoso Hotel! Our Rio Hermoso hotel review is at the end of the journal entries for the Lake District. Today's photos! http://www.margieswebgallery.com/galler ies/argentina/Day20%2012-22-08/

... get frustrated or discouraged? At the gas station, we have learned that they are full service, meaning that a person will pump your gas for you. Today, we have an offer from a young boy who offers to wash our windows. Harvey agrees and asks the man pumping how much to give the boy and we learn that 1 - 2 pesos is right. With all the dusty gravel roads, we get to start out with a clean windshield and the boy gets some cash. Win, win! From Villa La ...

... right out of a book.  With wide streets lined with trees and chocolate box houses in the style of wood and natural local rocks surrounded by mountains and of course with the lake to complete the setting, chocolate box is the best way to sum it up.  As November is the quietest month of the year there wasn't a lot happening so we spent our two days there wandering around every street enjoying the sunshine and picnicking down by the lake sampling some of the local produce which is ...

... an excursion with a tour agency along the route but it was nearly five times as expensive as taking the public bus which goes exactly the same way .... making it an expensive option for a few stops & photo opportunities. As it turned out the route was nice enough but certainly not a real "wow" or anything like as spectacularly nice as it´s built up to be so I was actually a little bit disappointed again ... a case of over-inflated ...

... starlight Stevie Wonder belted out Happy Birthday To Ya! As John brought out the biggest, most elaborately decorated, amazing looking Mamuschka chocolate cake! Mamuschka is the most lusted after chocolate in Argentina, http://www.mamuschka.com/ just to get one bombones from there is enough to make a tongue die in sweet ecstasy and here we were with a whole massive cake. Emma looked fit to explode with giddiness and excitement, I just hoped she would exploded after I ...

... unos montañ**os vascos bastante conocidos. Comenzamos la ascension de noche, con dificultades ya que la furgoneta que nos ac**ca al punto de partida se queda atrapada en la nieve. P**o llegamos y comenzamos, en la oscuridad. Vemos amanec** mientras caminamos, precioso, y lo llevamos bastante bien, aunque poco a poco se va notando la dureza y que hay mucha nieve nueva (el dia ant**ior nevo mucho en el volcan) y tenemos que abrir camino. Es duro, y la parte final mas ...

... point he stayed in the shop to help me get the whole thing settled. That nioght we camped by the river that went through the town, but we had to walk across some crazy scarey unsafe bridges to get there, and since i have such balance to begin with, i decided it was safer to take off my sandals and wade through the icy cold water, rather than risking falling off one of the ´bridges´´, which was really just a guard rail placed over the water.

... meal. The best chivo asado (goat BBQ, pronounced chibo) we had while at Ranquilco. These people are incredibly welcoming, sharing and happy. We played futball or soccer with the kids while waiting for supper to appear. Their existence is simple by our standards, but they are happy. 3. Our trip to Buta Mallin. Here 4 of us elected to stay with the gauchos for spanish emmersion 101. We had lots of fun, using a spanish phrase book and dictionary. The gauchos spent ...