Bariloche

We had another comfortable overnight bus to Bariloche from Buenos Aires.  We woke to the most beautiful scenery and brilliant sunshine as we neared Bariloche, which is near the Chilean border and right on the edge of Patagonia.  As we arrived at the bus station and onwards to our hostel, we were greeted with a fantastic view of the lake and the snow-peaked mountains that suround it.

Our hostel was a very homely place and probably our favorite hostal in Argentina so far.  There are a lot of people who seemed to intend to stay there for a day or two and are still there weeks later!

Our first walk into the centre Bariloche was like walking into an architypical Swiss lakeside village - in terms of architecture as well as setting.

  The main strip was thronged by numerous chocolate shops of the most amazing quality (and it is pretty cheap as well!) - we did our very best of the couple of days to try and test-out them all for quality purposes, but we are fortunate enough to be coming back this way so any untested shops will be visited then!

Sadly, weather affected our original plans for the next day - it rained terribly for quite a time, so our 60km cycle trip had to be put on the back burner until next time - much to Erica´s relief!  We will also be spending some time on the lake - hopefully in a boat rather than having to swim because it is still very cold here when the wind comes-down from the mountains!

Our next stop is Puerto Madryn and the Peninsular Valdes-  We are hopefully going to make it there to see the hatching of the Magellenic Penguin chicks, but certainly will be able to go whale watching and see a cornocopia of southern hemisphere wildlife!