Bariloche was our next stop and was luckily only a quick two hours ride north. Again, using my legendary parents' membersip to our advantage, we had booked ourselves into a nice hotel on a lake outside of town. When we arrived, we were a little shocked as the hotel turned out to be a LONG way out of town. Although, it was set next to a beautiful lake with not a real lot else around apart from the beautiful mountains and pine tree forrests that we had become used to. Unfortunately, the weather turned a little sad as we left El Bolson and it was cold, wet and very windy when we arrived in Bariloche. We settled into our hotel, finding that we were loners there being the only guests in the whole hotel. It was low season and we later found out that the hotel had officially closed for a month whilst we were still there!

As we arrived in the early afternoon and there wasn't anything to eat anywhere even close to our hotel, we had to catch a bus into town to find a supermarket and stocked up for the week. We spent our first day relaxing and enjoying each other's company (we hadn't seen each other for a while... uh huh... haha). We had heard that there were some artesenal markets on Saturdays in town, so we headed in and wandered around, checking out the town, only to find a few market stalls with gimmicky, touristy souveniers and not a lot of great things to buy. A little miffed, we checked out the main drag and quickly found out that the chocolate and craft beer theme from the other towns in this area continued here. We stopped into a chocolate store that was HUGE! Kate had a little fit in the centre of it all and was only calmed with a couple of pieces of the good stuff. (We're trying to be healthy, otherwise she would have been one of the kids from Willy Wonka I'm sure of it!)

We planned to meet up with some guys we met in El Bolson for a drink that night. But seeing as the Argentinians are crazy and don't go out until 2am or later, we were forced to do the same. We headed back to our hotel and had a few drinks, then later struggled to find a taxi to come get us but finally made it back in a little early at 1am to start the night... We met up with our mates and had a good laugh, got a little tipsy, bought hamburgers on the street (I think), ended up at some nightclub where Kate wasn't going to take being ignored at the bar and let the bartender know that Aussies aren't to be messed with! and made our way home at about 5:30am. It was a fun night but Argentinians need to get some sense talked into them and go out a little early as we were recked! A hangover day followed, with some good R&R at the hotel and the next day saw much the same in activities, yet a trip into town made it lively for some groceries!

We'd been looking into hiring a car for a bit of freedom for the last 3 months but the opportunity had never arisen or it was just too expensive or complicated with borders to cross. Finally, Bariloche brought cheaper prices, the perfect setting of beautiful lakes to explore and finally a day of good weather! After going through the paperwork etc., we were let loose in a car for the first time in almost eight months on the wrong side of the road in a country where road rules aren't exactly enforced. Mistake?

Driving through town was a nightmare and my confidence went right out the window. There were no lines on the roads, what appeared to be one lane was suddenly two and they swerve between "lanes" or just drive in the middle. They had all the one-way streets that were not signed and speedbumps in the middle of nowhere to take out the bottom of the car. I can honestly say I freaked out a litttle bit but as soon as we got out of town it got a lot easier. I calmed down and began enjoying the experience of driving again... They are lunatics though...

We drove around to the other side of the lake that Bariloche sits on and drove along a quiet road right on the waterfront. We were headed to an area called, Seven Lakes, and it is exactly that... Seven lakes. The road wound between these massive lakes with turquoise blue water, random little beaches tucked into hidden corners, and amazing viewpoints atop mountains that looked over the whole area. We stopped whenever we saw something beautiful, took photos and just took in what you can only glimpse at when passing in a bus. It was so good to have the freedom of stopping when you wanted to and making our own tour.

We pulled into a ski village town called Villa Angostura. It was a quaint little place with great boutique restaurants and shopping and all the buildings were built out of pine wood and it looked like it would be a high class destination during the winter for the elite fo Argentina. It was a great little town and we only wish we could see it in Winter and visit the ski resort only a few kilometres away.

We drove on and had lunch by the lakes, drove through really pretty and desserted roads and later, around sunset (due to my bad directions...), we got lost, but thankfully Kate bruised my ego and found the way out and back home. It was a massive day and we were tired as hell but it was well worth the effort and we loved every bit of the lakes (not the driving in town though).

We decided to take the car again the next day, as there was so much more to check out.The bad weather returned and heavy rain kept us in the hotel until after lunch when it slowed a little. The visibility was really bad and not worth going out early and our rented car just sat there which was frustrating. We drove to an area a lot closer to Bariloche this time called Llao Llao. It was a beautiful, scenic drive through more lakes and lush green forrest. It was raining still so we limited getting out of the car but we're definately glad we did. We found some viewpoints with amazing views, despite the rain, and the areas beauty was really obvious. After a few stops we stumbled on a waterfall and we hiked a short way up the bottom part of it. It was the home of fairies (as Kate put it) with beautiful trees, rocks and the gushing water running through. We only wish we could have hiked up to the top of the mountain to follow the water along further, but because of the rain we turned back.

We grudgingly returned the car and headed back to the hotel for our last night in Bariloche and the Lakes District of Argentina. The weather wasn't the greatest for our time in Bariloche but we could still see that it is definately worth visiting and to come back here in winter would definately be an unreal time!