The new New Years Day is the 2nd of January

New Year was definitely a game of two halves for us.

Half Time score: Wine (1) - Abby & Raine (0)

For New Years Eve we'd booked a lovely restaurant called Butterfly which was only a short walk from our hostel. We arrived just before 9pm and had champagne and canapés by the side of Lake Nahuel Huapi. It's still light and very warm in Bariloche after 9pm which gave the evening a 'height of British summer' feel not a Happy New Year feel - this time last year it was freezing cold and dark outside and I was drinking cocktails with Caroline, Marc and John.

Dinner was excellent, a seven course meal paired with some very good Argentinian wines, though to be honest I can only confidently say that the first three courses were paired with very good wine, the glasses of wine were very big and regularly topped up hence my slightly foggier recollection of courses four to seven.... Booking a table at such a small restaurant I was sure that we would be back at the hostel by 12:30 but no, a small and intimate restaurant it transpires, means that you start talking to and very possibly (though I can't swear to it) singing with the other guests, and getting home at 3:30am.

No sooner had I fallen asleep than Abby was asking me if I was awake, turns out that it was 8:45 the same 8:45 that we were being picked up by a tour company to take us on a tour of the seven lakes!

All seven lakes are beautiful but I have to say that after the third I was beginning to feel a bit 'Wat-ed out' which is the term I used in Thailand after visiting about 173 temples (Wats), without wanting to suggest that if you've seen one you've seen them all but they are pretty similar.

One of the seven.... 

The scenery here really is stunning and not just the hills, there are lupins lining the sides of every road, white through every shade of purple from a pale lilac similar to wisteria to a deep indigo colour, a striking difference to the kerbsides of Ecuador which you'll remember were lined with Eucalyptus trees - this floral border frames the backdrop of the hills beautifully.

Full Time score: Wine (1) - Abby & Raine (lots)
For me, New Year really began on the 2nd when our hangovers had gone, we'd commited to drinking less, agreed not to mention New Years Eve again and we caught the number 20 bus along Bustillo which is the road that hugs lago (lake) Nahuel Huapi and in one direction takes you to Bariloche city centre and in the other takes you to some of the most beautiful countryside that I have ever seen and to Cerro Campinario.



The city has a really good way of marking the streets and maps which make it fantastically tourist friendly; the street signs are all marked by the km that they are on on the road, for example the first hostel we stayed at, Alaska was at 7.4km the second hostel Green House was at 4.7km, with the City at 0km, this was an easy place to navigate by bus. At 17.5km we got off the bus and took the chairlift up Cerro (hill) Campinario, named by National Geographic as one of the top 10 best views in the world, the scenery is breathtaking.

Snow capped despite 27C at the viewpoint...

It's just soooooo beautiful

After taking in the views at Cerro Campinario and on the advice of our hostel owner we visited Colonia Suiza (at 21.2km); to date the first real disappointment of the trip and keeping it in perspective it was only five hours out of a six month trip and so it's easily forgotten. Its history is that it was the first Swiss settlement in Patagonia but the present day experience is that it's a pretty poor tourist offering of a small market selling tourist tat, admittedly it's set in some beautiful scenery, but in the same way that all of the steak in Argentina is 'the best I've ever tasted' the scenery here is the best I've ever seen I just would have preferred to have been walking in it than shopping in it!

On Thursday 3rd any disappointment that I felt from our trip to the Swiss Village disappeared as soon as I got off the number 50 bus at Llao Llao (unlike the rest of SA where a double L is pronounced 'Ly' in Argentina it's pronounced as a J or Zh), and went for a three hour walk which was rewarded in the evening by a few halves of artisanal beer which is very popular in Bariloche due to it's Swiss/German heritage.

It's enough to make me want to take up golf....

Breathtaking

Having had such a great walk on Thursday we wanted more of the same on Friday and asked the manager of our hostel if he could recommend a walk and he came up trumps. We walked to Refugio Frey; all in all about 25km, much of it uphill through beautiful woodland and although it was tiring it was a wonderful and rewarding walk - though I have to say I felt a little bit ripped off at the cost of the two cans of coke and one luncheon meat and cheese sandwich that we had at the top which cost $70 Argentinian pesos (£10!). A dinner of steak (yes, the best I've ever tasted!) and salad at El Boliche de Alberto was a good end to a hard day and indeed our stay in Bariloche, tomorrow we will travel south and for a second time cross from Argentina in to Chile.

Refugio Frey is in sight after 2.5 hours

The reward when you arrive at Refugio Frey

See you there.

Raine x