thing left to sort out after that was our trip down South on Ruta 40, a two day bus trip down a dirt road which follows the Andes all the way down to El Chalten, the trekking capital of Argentina, and the gateway to Los Glaciers National Park. Luckily we were able to book this at the travel agents in the hostel, so that was it, everything was planned. Our next destination was San Martin de los Andes, a four hour bus ride away via the very rustic “Siete Lagos”, or seven lakes route.

The next morning after nipping to the bank to pay the deposit for the cabana in El Bolson we went to catch our bus. The bus was quite small, and once we stated out on the Siete Lagos road we realised why. This road was basically a mud track that went through a forest, with great views of the seven lakes on the way. I can only describe the road as like something you would see on a rally in the Welsh forests, it

was very mad that a normal public bus should use this route, but after about an hour and a half of bumping around, we reached a paved road once again to drop down into beautiful San Martin de los Andes. San Martin is a fairly small and quaint town set in a valley next to a very picturesque lake. We’d booked into a hostel there which we’d found in Lonely Planet, and it turned out to be absolutely lovely. The room was very small, but the common areas were great, and the kitchen was one of the best we’d seen in a hostel. We had a bit of a wander around the town, and started to get a feel for the Argentinean Lake District. The towns here are like a cross between an English Lake District town and a Swiss village, complete with loads of chocolate shops and log cabin style bars and restaurants! We were getting hungry at this stage so we headed to the supermarket and took advantage of the great kitchen to cook up a delicious dinner!!