Cold walks in the lake district

We were starting to get use to the buses and, despite the iritating and over-exaggerated yawns coming from the man next to Guy, our journey west to Bariloche went pretty smoothly. From the top of the bus, we got to see incredible views of the lake district (as it is known) and the huge snowy Andean mountains that line the border with Chile. In fact, this area is also coined the Switzerland of Argentina and you can see why. Bariloche itself was full of alpine log cabins, chocolate shops and fondu restaurants! The area is popular with the Argentines for skiing but we were here to do some walking around the stunning lakes that are scattered through Nahuel Huapi National Park.

We checked into a hostel that was, thankfully, lovely and warm and headed into town for some food and some maps of the area. Because it was winter, a lot of the hiking trails weren´t open but we found a couple of walks we could reach on the local public bus that took us to some good view points and planned to do one the next day. In the meantime we got to know the town better. It was the nicest provincial town so far with a friendly atmosphere, good shops and reasonable restaurants. And thanks to the ski season, it was also a lot more bustling than the rest of Patagonia we´d seen. Tourism was the main order of the day, yet underneath the tourist friendly surface, signs of Argentina´s troubled history kept emerging. The best example of this was the town square. Around the square, touts were offering to take your picture while you posed with a giant St Bernard dog. Yet the pavements they were standing on were covered with the memorial paintings of the Madres, mothers whose children had disappeared under the Proceso dictatorship in the Seventies. As a country, Argentina is doing very well from tourism and it makes you wonder if the less savoury parts of their past are being trodden underfoot...

Thanks to a torrential downpour, our walk round the lakes was postponed by one day. So instead we sheltered in a cafe and read. The next morning was freezing but dry so we layered up and headed for the bus stop. On the bus with us were some fellow walkers and even some rock climbers, complete with ropes and crampons. We got off at the Lago Lopez and cheekily snuck into a hotel to grab a cup of coffee from their breakfast buffet! Once we got going, the walk took us round the lakes and through Alpine forests. It was nice to stretch our legs again, as we hadn´t done a proper walk since Peru and had sat on enough long bus rides since. Rather than catch the bus back, we decided to keep walking to the Cerro Campanario which has amazing views of Nahuel Huapi and Perito Moreno lakes. Most people reach the top via the chairlift but we decided to climb up. Despite the cold, rain and clouds, it really was worth it and the views were pretty spectacular. We didn´t quite see as far as Chile but we knew it was there! The view was sweeten even more with a slice of sweet lemon pie and a cup of tea!

Back at the bottom we caught the bus back and headed back to the hostel to dry off and warm up. We spent the night in watching TV and chilling out at the hostel - one of the nicest we´ve stayed at so far. The next day we were off to San Rafael in the Mendoza region. Only another 14 hour bus ride to get there...