We stayed in Bariloche for five nights in total. We weren´t sure how long to stay but our hostel had a deal on: stay four nights and get fifth free so that settled it for us. Bariloche was the first place we stayed in Argentina and we didn´t really know what to expect. It is a ski town in the mountains on the shore of a lake. Nice scenery. There was a terrible icy biting wind, coldest of the trip so far I´d say. It certainly was nippy. It is a pretty town full of speciality chocolate and fancy ski shops, overall like some kind of fake Switzerland.

Our hostel was really good. We met an Aussie couple, an American couple and another English couple and it was pretty sociable. Most nights we stayed in the hostel drinking cheap wine and playing cards, or watching films. One night we headed into town into Bariloche´s premium Irish bar until the early hours. It was a good night. We also ate out a couple of times, and had our first experience of Argentine steak. One restaurant was excellent, we had fillet steaks nice and bloody for a couple of quid. The restaurant only served various types of grilled meat, and they also had pictures of cute farmyard animals you are eating on the walls: a fluffy lamb, pink piglet etc. They don´t cater for vegetarians at all, we met one and she had to have a rubbish side salad and that was it. (They always serve cheap cheese and ham sandwiches on the buses and if you´re a veggie they just tell you to take the ham out, haha.)

During the day we explored the town. It was really cold and windy down by the lake. We stopped for a hot chocolate in one of the fancy chocolate shops to warm up, I had chilli in mine it was really good. One day we went on a bit of a hike up to one of the hills overlooking the town. The first bit of the walk was quite boring as it was a slow uphill slope right through the trees, you couldn´t see much. At the top we got some great views and it only took a couple of hours. We enjoyed a coffee in the naff revolving restaurant before catching the gondola back down to the town.

One night we cooked in, buying some steaks over the counter and marinading it in some local chummichurri sauce (spicy). It was excellent, everyone else in the hostel was jealous. Also while we were in Bariloche, Argentina were playing two important fooball games which they needed to win in order to qualify for the world cup. We were walking through town when they scored a crucial goal at the last minute and they all went mad. We could hear everyone shouting and honking their honks for about half an hour afterwards. We watched the games in the hostel.

We had a really good time in Baricloche and were excited about moving on to our next destination, Puerto Madryn, even though it involved another overnight bus ride...