12TH - 23RD DECEMBER

After our luxurious bus from Buenos Aires we’d booked another cama bus to Bariloche, but were disappointed to find that the seats didn’t recline as much on this one. We still managed to sleep ok though, the seats were very wide and comfy, so we couldn’t really complain too much! We had booked a room at the Tango Inn hostel for three nights, the room was pretty nice, but we didn’t really like the hostel. There always seemed to be a battle for volume between the TV and the stereo, both producing an awful racket, even first thing in the morning!! Still, it was only for three nights, and our main reason for staying here was to sort out accommodation for Christmas and New Year, and they had wifi internet which made it easier. There were lots of apartments and cabins in the area, and we’d decided that after a fairly hectic travelling schedule that we’d had over the past few weeks it would be nice to treat ourselves to a couple of weeks in nice accommodation for the

festive period. We got a list of places from the tourist office, did a little searching on the internet, and emailed a load of places using Google to translate into Spanish!! The next day we got a reply from one place and reserved it for Christmas. We had to pay a deposit, and rather than pay it through the bank we decided to hire bikes from the hostel and pay in person. It was about 7km out of town on the lakeside, and after a fairly hectic bike ride we arrived and checked the place out. It was almost perfect, the only downside being that it only had a two ring stove, so Christmas dinner was going to be a little limited, but I reckoned that with a little imagination I’d be able to approximate a roast dinner! We then went for a ride around the local area, and had a pleasant lunch of empanadas next to the lake. When we arrive back a the hostel a little saddle-sore we found that we’d had another email from a place in El Bolson, where we would spend New Year, and so all the accommodation was sorted. The only