I arrived in Bariloche mid afternoon, after another long bus journey. The drive through Patagonia, especially on the outskirts of the town was amazing. Bariloche is surrounded by beautiful blue lakes, and forest covered mountains. After leaving my bag at the hostel, I set off to explore the town. The first stop was Centro Civico, the main square overlooking a beautiful lake, with mountains behind. The buildings here, all designed by a local architect, are built entirely out of local Patagonian pine and local stone. It would be easy to image you were somewhere in the Swiss Alps, rather than Argentina. The whole town has a real 'chocolate box' feel, which is perhgaps ironic as chocolate is what it is famous for. After spending a few hours in the town I returned to the hostel, where I met a couple of English girls who'd also arrived that afternoon. The folowing day the three of us caught a bus out of town, toward the national park. There we caught a ski lift up into the mountains (there's no snow now, as it's the wrong time of the year, but the lifts still operate). The views from the top were amazing, if a little chilly and windy. After admiring the lakes and mountains we stopped in the cafe for aq te ingles (English tea) and headed back to the town to visit the chocolate shop. We finaly found Mamushka's, supposedly the best in town, and then spent the rest of the afternoon carefully chosing a small boxfull from the hundreds of gorgeous handmade chocolates on offer. That night we went to a traditional resteraunt, where we tried trout- the local speciality. The follow day we headed into the national park again, for a hike through beautiful woodland, eventually emerging in a clearing where a huge blue lake stretched out to the mountains behind. We then returned to the bus station, where we caught our bus back to Buenos Aires.