After a mediocre meal and an early night we booked an afternoon bus tour around the circuto chico so had an explore of the town before this left.

Bariloche is a bit like a Disney version of Switzerland with bits of England thrown in. We resisted having our photos taken with one of the Saint Bernards - until the next day at least! The town is geared to tourism but has not benefited from any apparent planning laws so there is a real mismatch of architectural styles - many of the bad!

The afternoon tour was lazy but good - we could have cycled the route but that seemed like hard work! We went up the chairlift to the top of Cerro Campanero - apprently National Geographic has rated this the seventh best view in the world. As our guide said it might not be the 7th but it was very good. Lakes and mountains as far as you could see - you could see where the Swiss idea came from.

We continued to drive around the route stopping at various view points, including the hotel ar Llao Llao where Obama was staying in about 10 days time. We learnt a lot from our guide - about the area and Argentina and South America in general.

That evening we went to Alto en Fuego for food - a massive step up from the previous night's meal. Very shabby chic and great meat and service - good for our last evening meal together :(

Next day we walked around the bits of town we hadn't seen including the very English looking catherdral before returning to the hostel where I watched the rugby while Helen caught some last sun before her journey home. Her journey home turned into a bit of an epic as when she arrived in Buenos Aires her flight was cancelled foe 48 hours - not a happy bunny.

That evening I went for food alone - scoping out Manuash as potential destination with Grace the next day. Lazy morning/day again -did try to arrange kayaking but no one got back to me so stayed in the hostel during the afternoon watching the French rugby match with the French hostel staff member! I also booked and printed our bus tickets and arranged our hostels for the next two nights.

Grace arrived and we had a great catch up of what we had been doing since we last saw each other - Grace's trip to the Antartic was apparently life changing - another thing I now have to save up for!

We went to Manuash and ate and drink our way through the evening before retiring ready for our bus trip the next day. We headed off the next morning through some gorgeous scenery across the Andes and through another dog sniffing border crossing into Chile.

That night was spent in Temuco - not a town I would recommend for a visit as it is very much a transport hub but we had a good meal and early night ready to find our bus to Pucon the next day.