Cake or Death. Che?

Our border crossing into Argentina was fortunately uneventful-no x-rays, foot swabs or expired visas. Chilean Patagonia has the towers and the mountains, Argentina got the glaciers. So off to El Chalten and the busiest hostel in the world ready for our glacier tour. A 12 hour walk including a zip line to cross a river and 3 hours walking on the glacier (avoiding the holes) with crampons-long day but absolutely worth it. We even got to try ice climbing with picks and all. Ari scaled to the top with his acute feline agility, I wavered around the middle and then my shoe fell off.

And so we started the long journey on the so-called "Ruta 40" one road, one bus, really how hard could that be? Well I could go into detail but then you would all be as bored as we were on the day we got stuck in Perito Moreno, a town somewhere in the middle (of nowhere) with nothing to offer except mediocre dial up internet with the promise of "yeah there might be a bus in the next few days. Maybe." A little initiative and exploring and we found an alternative-a night bus that would arrive in Bariloche at 7.30am and actually rocked in at about 11. But at any rate we were back in the land of civilisation with paved roads, functioning buses and broad band. The chocolate capital of Argentina and a plaza with 4 cute St. bernards and their puppies as permanent residents. A few hours of wandering the streets and sampling the local delicacies and it was time to skip town. We rented ourselves a nice little car (a great improvement on the last one) and hopped back on the road to El Bolsón. 130km of the most beautiful scenery-mountains, lakes offset by gorgeous yellow/purple and pink flowers. We are no botanists but they were very pretty. We stayed in a gorgeous cabin just outside the centre where horses grazed in the fields and hippy travellers hung out their dreads to dry in the sun. We easily filled the day with the hippy market-a great artesan market selling all sorts of random hand made stuff, the carved forest (10km drive down the worst road in the world-under duress Ari remembered how to drive a manual) random pieces of modern art carved out of trees, and a great brewery where we sampled various fruit beers of the region with an eclectic bunch from the hostel.

And today, the piece de resistance. After a hard morning of erm well sitting in the car visiting various view points and waterfalls, we decided we deserved a treat and drove up to Llao Llao, Argentina´s most famous hotel which we had heard did an excellent afternoon tea (darling). The hotel has an amazing location, like a castle in the clouds with its own private lake. On arrival, however, we were informed that we would be permitted only with a reservation. So we drove 100 metres down the road to the nearest payphone and we were back. And ready to eat. And it was worth every cent of the $10. Unlimited hot drinks, juice, sandwiches (with the crusts cut off, of course) and the cakes, scones, pies... well it was good, and the service was excellent. We vaguely toyed with the idea of spending the night there but then realised we didnt have our tooth brushes. next time.