Bariloche & San Martín de los Andes

We zoomed through the Lakes District at high speed, stopping for just one night each in Bariloche and San Martín. Both are similar: touristy towns on the shores of a lake, full of Argentinian and European travellers. They're both perfectly nice: in the former we looked at the traditional Lakes architecture and did a spot of shopping; in the latter we did a little 1.5 hour hike up to the Mirador to look down at views of the town and lake, and paddled in the lake for a bit.

The scenery is considerably better than it has been for a while, and the climate is getting much, much warmer. No need for fleeces any more: we're drinking rosé now (we got a bottle of our favourite Concha y Toro for US$1).

The bus companies are also getting better. We got two films on the journey from San Martín to Neuquén (where we changed buses). Then the Andesmar trip from Neuquén to Mendoza was particularly exciting, as we served a meal - gnocchi (ñoquis in Spanish!) in a beef and carrot sauce (for obvious reasons, I got two!), with crème caramel and a glass of Sprite. How they managed to heat the ñoquis up on a bus is beyond me - these things must be pretty well-equipped. And, because this is Argentina, we had it at 22.30!