Bariloche

Patagonia's largest city is an "ideal place to shop and run errands"....Bariloche didn't really sound too appealling in our travel guide. The same guidebook bible, whose name I need not mention, then led us to a hostel that was closed for the season. Normally after a 21hr bus this may try your patience a little.

And then, with a huge stroke of luck, we stumbled upon what would be one of our favorite hostels in the world so far, the Bariloche Hostel Inn. We entered a warm, cozy and modern chalet that felt like home immediately. Perched up on the hill, it has plenty of balconies that overlook the lake and mountains. The living rooms have a flat screen and wood fired stove. The bedrooms and bathrooms even had heated floors.

We later found the Swiss had left behind a rich number of choclate shops, our favorite being the mint, pistachio and raspberry varieties at Mamoushka.

We dropped our bags and decided to have a quick look for ourselves at this city built up by Swiss and German immigrants. You couldn't help but feel like you were in a French alpine village or even Lausanne as we approached the lake. There are wooden chalets everywhere and Steph was already eying chocolate shops galore. My first impressions of our gateway to Patagonia were much more inspiring than what we were led to believe. I think when you can find a perfectly comfortable home away from home, this can make all the difference in these kind of towns.

We soon realized the full benefit of the 7eur to stay there was not just the free breakfast, where a little lady toasts your bread, it was the free dinner at the bar the sister hostel a few doors down. This basically paid for all our food too.

The meal was a mystery every night but the benches were packed with traveller's from both hostels. We met other travellers who had made the long detour, and one who was crossing Argentina on his bike! How could we complain about long bus rides?

The staff at Hostel Inn always called us by first name, even in such a large hostel.

The Bad News > I asked Marco at reception how exactly we could get down to El Calafate and unfortunately the only real option was a bus that would detour to the coast and pretty much around the whole southern half of the country, taking 28 hours. And so we struggled again to lock down a future plan and ways we could get to southern Patagonia. Large stretches of the famous Ruta 40 that we arrived on were closed further south. The off-season uncertainty and lack of a solid plan had us a little demorilized. We needed to remember that these last few months were to be enjoyed before returning to real life. After a few days of moping and feeling a little homesick, Steph and I got our acts together and now have a solid and very exciting plan which is all booked and ready to go!

The Good News > We have booked ourselves onto a cargo ship, the Evangelista, which will take us through fjords and to glaciers and to (almost) the southern tip of the world! This will be a three night/four day adventure and we will be sleeping in bunks in a 42 bed cabin below decks... let´s put it this way, we´d better not hit an iceberg!!

We are very excited about this slow lane travel. The boat only leaves once a week and we obviously missed yesterday´s so we´re now going to stay put here this week - luckily there is enough to keep us busy here. Public buses run all the way out to the foot of trails, lakes and mountains. I must say I just enjoyed putting our feet up with all the comforts of hot chocolate and books to read. What's more, we now had plenty of time to make excursions further into the lake district. I think a road trip is on the cards... our new friend and roomate, Abdel, is keen to do the famous seven lakes drive.