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Bariloche

During my stay in Chiloe I was able to meet some Argentineans who were visiting their neighbours. Despite the Chileans' rave reviews of Chiloe these gauchos gave disappointed reports of the island and told me that across the mountains, in Argentina, paradise waits. So I was off to Bariloche, Argentina.

When you arrive in Bariloche one of the first things you notice is the large lake the city sits beside and the dramatic snowcapped mountains that cradle Bariloche. Some of these mountains meet the sky in needle-like spires, other are vast plains of white snow.

You start getting the idea of this place... the most interesting attractions lie outside of the city, in the wilderness. Many people, especially bonaerenses (people from Buenos Aires) travel to Bariloche to camp. When I arrived I found most campers indoors, in the hostals, regretting their decision to leave their tent's water-proof shell at home. The weather was especially poor the second day I was there, the day I decided was laundry day. I had handed all my clothes in to wash except for a pair of swimming shorts and a shirt. I wore these clothes with a water proof shell on my visit to the city. That's when the sky decided to pour and heavy winds picked up. So I returned to my hostal soaked, to find out that my laundry wasn't dry yet and on top of that I had somehow lost my towel in Ancud. Rats.

That's about all I did in Bariloche. I spent the entire rest of my time in bed trying to fight off back pain that had already been developing for days.

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