Not quite knowing what to expect when we arrived, but with a reservation somewhere, we decided to play it by ear. We had no plans, a whole lot of time, a little bit of money and a whole lot of gumph and wonder and a desire to extract as much experience as we could! Perfect!

Once we had decided that we were heading west, then Bariloche was the logical place to head for. It is the capital of the Lake District after all, but it was the place where we could hunker down for a bit, save the pennies, do some treks that would take us to interesting places and be far off the beaten track.

The town is billed as the Switzerland of Argentina with alpine chalets, sweets and chocolate shops, St Bernard dogs (complete with barrel of rum and a handler...get your photo for just 5 pesos!) and pine clad mountains that leap up from the lake that provides the waterfront. But it seems that a rush of blood has been, permanently, going to the town planners' heads because the town has grown in leaps and boundswith no thought to aesthetics! Maybe the heavy winter snowfalls hide the poor planning and everybody gushes about how beautiful it is.....you can almost see the egos swelling!

Here and there, in the town itself, there are some bright spots, but they are slowly being dwarfed by whatever they are surrounded by. And these architects belong to the hugely inspiring Soviet bloc school of drag and functional! But head out of town, along the lakeshore toward Hotel Llao Llao (reputedly Argentinean's most expensive, and therefore, best hotel) and the reputation of a Swiss town bears some justice. Quaint, sweet and alpine certainly, but the houses are not what this part of the world is about.

Bariloche is the centre of the outdoor world here. The town is surrounded by rugged mountains that offer some pretty fine summer trekking and mountain biking and some, apparently, world class skiing in winter. The mountains here are spectacular and coated in thick pine forests lending a air of mystery when away from the populated centres. But most spectacular of all the scenery here are the lakes that give the region its name of the Lake District.

Yes, there are plenty of them here. But it is the state that you find them. The water here is so clear that when you open your eyes underwater, it is like a very very clean swimming pool. If you didn't know you were underwater, then you might well be tempted to try and breathe! Pure, utterly pure is what the lake water is here. Crystal clear and a marvel to behold! Clearly the Argies we found at the easily accessible beaches seem to think so too!

But just as there are plenty of Argies travelling and holidaying here, there are still others making a living. One was Manuel and his second wife who let out their front room of their already small house smelling of freshly polished floors and oozing warmth and hospitality! And the fact it was a double bed and a warm shower after two weeks of mats, tents and cold showers, it seemed like a castle.

The fact that it was located right on the outskirts of town and it was a 5km uphill walk was a good thing! To get into town and enjoy the chocolate shop window shopping (Argies have massive sweet tooths....since they don't eat vegetables, sugar is their only source of carbohydrate, it seems!) and stretch to an ice-cream (or two) was made all the more worthwhile!

But we were not there to get fatter than we were already, but keen to get out of town and into the mountains and see for ourselves what was supposed to be up there!