The journey from Mendoza to Bariloche was completed by bus taking 18 hours, it went pretty quick as there were plenty of DVDs to watch and it was comfortable to sleep. We were hoping to get some skiing in Bariloche but as the bus drew closer it became apparent that we would be disappointed as the sun was strong and there were no signs of snow on the surrounding mountains. More worryingly there appeared to be lots of ash covering the roads from the volcano erupting over the border in Chile recently.

Bariloche appeared to be a ghost town and when we arrived at our hostel there were only 3 other residents staying there. It turned out that the volcanic ash had caused the airport to close which meant the majority of tourist couldn´t get here, coupled with the lack of snow delaying the start of the ski season further reduced reasons for people to visit. The volcanic eruptions had hit the town really badly (in terms of the reduced tourism) and many of the shops had posters in their windows campaigning for Bariloche to be declared an economic disaster zone.

This far south in the South American winter meant it was very cold with temperatures ranging from no more than 3⁰C during the day and dropping to -5⁰C at night. Bariloche lies tantalising on a large lake, Largo Nahuel Haupi, while in the bright sunshine it looked beautiful, it was far too cold to enjoy any water based activities. The town itself is very attractive and there are plenty of bars, restaurants and chocolate shops. We especially enjoyed eating the ´bife de lomo´ (tenderloin steak) with mash and drinking lots of Malbec (at around £4 a bottle!) at the El Boliche de Alberto - it was fantastic and we ended up eating there most nights.

We probably should have moved on from Bariloche straight away due to the ash and not being able to ski but we really enjoyed having the hostel to ourselves and the food was excellent so we spent 4 relaxing days visiting the town and its various delicious chocolate shops, and lots of eating and drinking. Our only excursion being a trip up to Cerro Campanario to admire the jaw-dropping 360⁰ panoramic views of the surrounding lakes and mountains of Argentina´s lake district.

It turns out we had been lucky with the weather during our time in Bariloche, although cold, it was clear and sunny everyday. On our last morning we were on our way to the bus stop and the wind had really picked up blowing ash all about the town making it very uncomfortable to walk around, we felt it was definitely the right time for us to be leaving.