Lake District - Argentina

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So we made it to Argentina finally but no buses for 9 hours. The next town is 42km. The guards told us there was somewhere we could get something to eat about 1km away so we headed there. We grabbed a bite to eat and once again it was time to put on the rucksacks and start walking. A sense of humour at this stage seemed as hard to find as transport!!

After about 2km in the blazing sun a car stopped and picked us up. He dropped us down the road a little and told us it was a futher 30km into town. We started walking again...... (with my thumb firmly stuck out)until another timber wagon came to our rescue. This guy spoke english and was an ex downhill skier. Really friendly guy and once we finally arrived in the town (which took about an hour by car so can you imagine if we had had to walk) gave us tour of the his home town San Martin de los Andes (which was stunning) a small town lined with shops and houses all in wooden chalet style. He then took us to a few hostels but they were fully booked so he showed us to his house before dropping us off at tourist information and told us to go back if we couldn´t find anywhere to stay. Guess what....... there was nowhere to stay, town was fully booked. A 2 day hike and no room in the inn. We had decided not to impose on our friendly driver and take the next bus out of town to a place called Bariloche.

It was late by the time we arrived in Bariloche and once again hard to find a room. We had to settle for an expensive hotel (not even that nice) and agree to a minimum of 2 nights. Bariloche was not the small tranquil place we had imagined it was more a tourist mecca so after our 2 nights we headed to El Bolson.

El Bolson more what we were looking for a bit overly hippy if anything but again hard to find somewhere to stay. We ended up in the most surreal place ever. A house in the middle of nowhere (stunning setting) over looking snowy peaks and by the river but we had to stay in a dorm and it was full of Argentinians on holiday trying to be all hippy with guitars and funny clothes as Dean would say. They didn´t eat till late (after 11) then sat outside playing the guitar till 4-5am....all very surreal and hard to describe. So once again we headed off after 2 days. I tried to paraglide but weather not good enough too windy so we went mountain biking instead and on the last day the town has a food and craft market.. Next it was onto Trevelin a small Welsh settlement in Patagonia.

GREAT the place we had spent a week looking for. Fantastic accomodation in amazing setting, not full of argentinians on holiday and lots to do. So we based ourselves here for 4 days. Trevelin is where the welsh came in 1885. There is a Welsh flag and tea shops everywhere so our first port of call was Welsh tea and cakes. Very strange and welsh speaking too. We then mountain biked to the national park and found a lake where there was no one else just the 2 of us and had a swim. Fantastic!! Next day white water rafting, which was brilliant fun. On the last day we had a welsh day, more tea and cakes and visited the museums and found out more about why the welsh came here, very interesting and somewhat surreal even for me being English!! After a great few days realxing time to head over to the Atlantic coast to make our way to Buenos Aires.

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