THE most picturesque place we have been by far! Snow capped mountains of the Andes, wonderful blue stretching lakes, cute little wooden hutted chocolate shops, tea rooms and restaurants and lots of posing St Bernards! It was quite touristy but we did really love it there, it felt more like Switzerland than Argentina though!

The only negative about the place was our hostel. We picked it because it was a smaller hostel and Sven (like the grandad he is!) likes the smaller more homely places! But it was a bit of a mecca for snow boarders who were all there for the season and we´re staying their long term which resulted in quite a ´clicky´group of people and once they knew we didnt/couldnt snowboard they didnt seem to have much of a conversation for us!

We managed to parttake in a few activites whilst there. We didnt want to do another organised tour so we hopped on the local bus out to some look out points and took a cable car up to the top of a mountain for some pretty spectacular views of the national park we were staying in!

The following day was quite an adventure! Sven in all his uber fit wisdom decided a 24km cycle ride was in order, so we hired bikes and off we peddled only to be faced with THE MOST horrific hills you have ever seen and, I might add, there only seemed to be token downhill parts! I dont think Sven has actually heard me moan quite as much as i did... but by half way when the hills took a dramatic turn on the mountainous side i lost the will to complain (hard to believe i know!) and quietly sobbed as we slowly pushed our bikes up mount ´whatever-it-was´ only to go down and come back up a steeper hill. I think I could have coped better with day, (as the views were worth it) had it not been for the 7 coach fulls of Argentinian school kids who turned up at every place we did and completely took over, and not only that but they were the same stupid coaches that spluttered past us on EVERY up hill struggle... the envy was rife! In hindsight it was a funny day and the views were something else, plus we polished off a bad day by visiting our favourite cafe to have some more English Tea and a Chocolate Fondue!!!

All tea, caked and chocolated out we headed to Mendoza - the red wine capital of Argentina!