What luck we had on this bus ride. Dain completely jinxed the entire operation. As soon as he sat down on the bus he sarcastically crossed himself, by the time we were in El Bolson the bus had broke down. The passengers waited together and here we met our actuary friends from England, Chloe and Phil. As well as some students, not unlike ourselves, from California, Tasha and Morgan. While the bus was getting a belt replaced we all went out to lunch to a restaurant that serves trout ravioli and Argentinian famous ice cream! Another 6-8 hours of an unpaved road led us to the town Perito Moreno. We stayed the night here and almost missed our bus the following morning because we abandoned our pick-up point in sacrifice for some delicious pastries. After chasing ... read more

By far this was the most challenging and most rewarding hike I have accomplished in my very immature trekking experience. From Lake Ilon we descened quickly back to the trail head, Pampa Linda, and took a recovery break to refill water bottles, snack on granola and get out of the sun. Before long we were heading up to the 'Cloud Pass' hike. It was more popular than the very steep Lake Ilon. At the first stopping point Dain and I were easily distracted by a nearby waterfall, (cascada.) We dropped our packs and shimmied on up to see this site. It was a fun side show, but my legs got scraped and bloodied by all the sharp vegetation overgrown onto the path. Dain tried his best to find a path to get closer and closer to ... read more

A long and bumpy bus ride, that started out 3 hours late, finally dropped us off in the town of Bariloche. Both green in the face with bus sickness, Dain and I found our way to the Centro Civico of the town. In this plaza my favorite feature of the town exsits. Usually, there are several great, fluffy St. Bernard dogs sitting pretty with their puppies. Of course, the owners charge a great amount of pesos for pictures with the adorable couple and the vast Lake Nauhuel Huapi set as the background. With much resistance I did not succumb to a photo with the dogs...but I did pet them until the owners shooed me away! More great features of this town include the DELICIOUS chocolate, fondue, free music in the Plaza and in the parks and ... read more