We checked in yesterday at this perfect spot for writing on the blog. It is in El Bolson (a tiny town in the lake district) 10 km from the city center - so literally in the middle of nowhere. The hostel has a huge garden with tons of hammocks, nice people and yogaclasses. Sitting out here with the sound of the water stream running through the garden is so peaceful and so far away from the busy lives we lead at home.

So how did we get here? When I left of, we were about to go on a tour to the glacier Perito Moreno in El Calafate (Patagonia in Argentina). That glacier is absolutely amazing - 5km wide, 60m high and 30km long and in constant advance causing huge ice blocks to break from its surface. The sound when a piece of ice breaks of is so incredibly loud and the glacier is just impressive from every angle you look at it (cover photo on FB). We took a bus to the viewpoint, walked around for a few hours, took a boat to the actual glacier and went on a mini icetrek. The trek was quite touristy and also too short but it was still fun to try and walk on this amazing natural wonder - also you end up getting a shot of whiskey with glacier ice, which it quite cool if you ask me.

We met for dinner with our new friends that we had met on the W trek in a local microbrewery pub in the city which resulted in a full night out with shots, dancing, "I have never" and getting home at 3am. Really fun to have our first real night out since we got here - but of course also with the side effects of hangovers the next day. Luckily our plan for "the day after" was to sleep in and get on a bus to El Chalten (3 hours North of El Calafate) at 1pm, check-in to our new hostel, have pizza for dinner and go to bed early so all in all a very relaxing "hangover day".

We planned to stay in El Chalten for 3 nights which we did not regret since the city is so cute and different. It is located in the centre of the national park Los Glaciares, has only existed since 1985 and has a population of 1.600 people. So yes: very small. The city is just there to accommodate and feed nature-loving travellers so safe to say we loved it. We went trekking both days we were there - both treks around 25 km round trip. The first took us to a viewpoint of the two mountains the park is famous for - Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy (3405m). It was a steep hike but again - worth it. Mr. and Mrs. Crazy here then decided that since we had made the trek in good time that we would go for a run to a waterfall "just" 4 km away, so after having done a 25km trek we ran 8 km with very very tired legs - go figure. We had a well-deserved nice dinner at a tapas place and again went to bed early. We woke up well rested and ready for our (even harder) hike the next day to Laguna de los Tres which ends with a 45minute extremely steep zig zag trail that brings you in close view of Fitz Roy and the glaciers lagoon. The entire hike was so beautiful and sitting up there with that view eating our homemade salad was - yes you guessed it - absolutely incredible. This time we decided that there was no need to go for an extra run so we went out for coffee and chocolate and then had our last dinner in Chalten at a cute local brewery mentally preparing ourselves for a 3 hour busride back to El Calafate (short lunch break here) and then 28 hours to Bariloche - I know… WTF right?!

Everything went smoothly though, we slept well, had the entire first season of the Wire on our laptop and all our electronic devices were fully charged. So we left El Chalten at 10.30AM on the 11th of February and arrived in Bariloche at 8.30PM on the 12th. We checked in at the hostel 5km out of the city recommended to us by a cool English couple we had met in Pucon National Park and ended the long day with the best steak for dinner in the city - Alto del Fuego if anyone is interested J

The next day we went to this gorgeous look out point a 20 minute busride from our hostel - we of course hiked up since we were to cheap to pay for the skilift that also takes you up there - but hiking to the top just makes the view even better (pics will of course follow as usual). Originally, we had planned to go to the city and look around but with my newly acquired spontaneous travel personality we decided to rent bikes and do the Cirquito Chico instead which is a 28km bike ride around the lake district including a small hike to a tiny beach were we went for a swim in the refreshing cold water. Back at our very hip hostel run by three too-cool-for-school hiphop guys I spent my time booking our next destinations while Andreas went to the city to find US dollars so that we could save some money due to the exchange rate thing I wrote about earlier (thanks again for all your time Thomas). Again, it did not work so we finally decided to give up and just pay the price with only 9 days left in Argentina. In the evening, we had dinner at a restaurant close by run by a Brazilian couple - food, wine and service was absolutely fantastic.

The next day (yesterday) we went running and swimming in the lake before we got on the 2 hour bus to El Bolson (with some more "the Wire") - this time almost everything went smoothly apart from the fact that Andreas got car sick and thank god that the busdriver kept making personal stops to say hi to friends, get food etc. so that Andreas could get out and get some fresh air.

We arrived in El Bolson around 4.30pm and after a short taxi ride we were at THE hostel, which "the Bible" (aka the Lonely Planet) describes as the best hostel in Argentina (Casona del Odine). And yes it is gorgeous here. I guess it's mostly the hippie atmosphere that makes the place so unique. I know that we are really not hippie types but sometimes it's fun to pretend and they do have a very nice lifestyle J

Since it was Valentine's Day yesterday, and I have the most romantic husband in the world, Andreas had arranged for a private yoga class when we got here which was just what we needed after hours on the bus and hundreds of kilometres hiking, running and biking. Much better than chocolate and flowers. We had a nice and simple dinner at the hostel's restaurant with 14 other people staying here and again met some very nice and open people. We have three nights here in total and the plan is simple: relax, relax, relax. How lucky are we?! After that we are heading back to Bariloche for a couple of nights before we fly out to Foz de Iguazu on the 19th and then we are of to Brazil.

We miss you guys back home and wish that we would bring you all here with us (we do NOT, however, miss the cold weather and the long nights).

Also, we just heard about the awful shooting episode in Østerbro - sometimes things get too close, we were really really shocked. We hope that everyone is ok and we send our love to everyone.

To be continued…