Argentina, Bariloche

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Very excited about coming here as meeting up with Shona and Nathan, two of my best friends from home. They've been travelling round South America in the opposite direction to us and this is our cross over point. We've got about a week together, which includes Shona's birthday. So excited been bouncing around for days. Poor Tom. Bariloche itself is in the Patagonian Lake District and is, unsurprisingly, surrounded by lakes. It's in a bit of an identity crisis as seems to think it's Switzerland. There's St Bernard dogs with brandy barrels round their necks, chocolate shops and even a few Swiss flags. Quite strange in the middle of the Argentine Andes. Our hostel is amazing, a little wooden ski shack with fantastic views, the nicest place we've stayed so far. We go white water rafting on Shona's birthday, which was great fun until the guide flipped the raft and I got trapped between the raft and a rock. Luckily Shona was there to hold my head above water until I got dragged to safety. Tom was oblivious to it all. In the evening we treated ourselves to a Mexican, I'm still drooling over the burritos. Over the next couple of days we fit in a bit of hiking and a trip to see a black glacier. Bit disappointing as I was expecting a nice shiny Fox's liquorice glacier mint type thing, instead it just looked dirty. Oh well, can't win them all. [Clare]