As mentioned, Bariloche is a very cute town ~20 hours by bus Southwest of Buenos Aires. The town has a very European lodge feel to it and it was swarmed by tourists at this time of year. It is also a great place to do some outdoor activities such as hiking and rafting (two of my favourites - kidding, but I am changing to really enjoy the outdoors!).
We arrived in Bariloche on Wednesday morning, checked into our really nice gay friendly hotel and immediately realized that... we needed a car in Bariloche. Thank goodness Ariel can drive standard so we rented a car and proceeded to the first viewpoint, Cerro Otto by gondola (or teleferia in Spanish).See photo above of Ariel and I in the gondola... and then this one up at the viewpoint where we realized it gets a little chilly in Bariloche. Look at the beautiful view behind us, especially the blue water and lakes!!! Looking at the mountains and lakes in Bariloche reminded us quite a bit of Western Canada, and our road trip through the Rockies in 2003.
We then decided to take a scenic drive around the Short Circuit, which really had magnificent views of the town and the blue waters.Here is a great picture we took on the drive, which has the very posh Llau Llau hotel (I called it Fam Fam hotel since I couldn't remember the name properly). It really was quite beautiful.
Here is an even better picture of the scenery with the 2 cute Canadians in it... Yes I realize I have worn that grey hoodie in 80% of my photos here in Argentina - but I love it. I also love my shoes which are holding up nicely, my plaid baseball cap (a.k.a latino thug cap)!!
We then went for a very touristy dinner at an Austrian/German restaurant complete with an accordian player. He kinda reminded me of a retired version of Super Mario....I was quite nervous in this picture because I had agreed to go White Water Rafting on day 4 of our trip and I was kinda pooing my pants a bit. But I promised myself I would try new things so I was going to do it!!
We went back to our hotel after dinner, and woke up early the next day to start our road trip towards San Martin de los Andes. Our first mandatory stop on the trip was to visit a chocolate shop. Did I mention that the chocolate in Bariloche was fantastic!!!
Our driving tour went by some beautiful sights (see bridge on right), but it was really dusty. We opted for the no a/c car so we were faced with either overheating or inhaling dust. We opted to inhale the dust...
We stopped at a cute remote lake and it was so peaceful there. Here is a photo of Ariel thinking on a log... It was also nice to take a break as parts of the drive were slightly treacherous... 
We finally arrived at San Martin de los Andes and immediately fell in love with the cute town. We only had one night to spend there and wished we could have stayed longer. It was very quaint with cute inns/lodges, remote beaches and just an relaxing feel. Here is a picture of Ariel and I on the beach in San Martin with a cute dog in the background...
We had a nice lunch overlooking the water and then decided to stop for some manly strawberry dacquiris before heading back to our hotel.
Our hotel, La Raqulette, was one of the best we have stayed in during our time in South America. It was a cute old house with cozy rooms, comfy beds and even a jacuzzi tub! We really enjoyed our time here. Here is a photo of us enjoying our breakfast the next morning at the hotel...
Before leaving San Martin, we stopped for massages at the spa down the street. It was a funny experience to receive a massage in Spanish. Of course, I had a funny experience as I didn't follow the directions properly. When the masseuse came back into the room I had to get out of the blanket and rearrange myself on top of the blanket for the massage. Luckily I heard the instruction for keeping my underwear on or else it would have been really embarrassing! Here is a photo of us with Ariel's masseuse and me playing with some Chinese balls - that was another option for the massage which we didn't take... My massage was nice but I wanted a deeper massage from the lady. I thought I should keep my mouth shut though since I was worried it could be misinterpreted upon translation.
We had a nice lunch overlooking this beautiful scenery. I love this photo... imagine us eating hamburguesas and papas fritas while looking out on the lake!!
We then drove back to Bariloche (about 3.5 hours) along the dusty roads. Ariel even taught me to drive standard along the way, which was pretty fun... We had an amazing meal in Bariloche that night-- sort of a tapas style meal and every course they brought out was delicious! Best part was the price of everything which was about $40 Canadian for the entire meal including a bottle of wine!!! I love Argentina!!!
When we got back, it was beginning to really set in that I was going White Water Rafting the next day!!! Yikes!!!
TO BE CONTINUED....
Miguel
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