We had a wonderful time in Bariloche. This small city is situated along the shore of giant lake with snow capped mountians surrounding the lake and city. We wandered the streets that were lined little shops (sort of like a little banff). I have never seen so many little chocolate shops before...there must have been over 20! We wandered into most of them when we realized that many of them give you a free sample. The temperture was not too bad, but the strong ´lethbridge´ wind made it quite cold. We spent a few days just relaxing and wandering around town as Dennis came down with a cold so we took it pretty easy.

We then ventured down along the lake navigating the bus system to a place (llau llau) to do some hiking. We enjoyed a beautiful trail up to a view point of the mountians and lake. It was pretty frosty and icy near the top. It was the first clear day we had since we arrived so we took in the wonderful view. It felt so good to get out and do some hiking as the past several weeks we did not have the opprituity. We were feeling a bit ancy and also a bit out of shape.

We decided that since we were 20km from the biggest ski hill in south america that we should experience it. So we found a place to rent snowboards and snowpants. They are quite prepared for all the essentials for all the unprepared tourists and many visiting south americans coming to try it for the first time (brazil). We took the bus that was packed full with standing room only with all of our equipment. We made it to the hill for much cheaper then our tourist guide at our hostel had offered to arrange. Although when we arrived to buy our tickets we were a bit taken back as it was double then what we had been told. We were a bit disappointed as we could see the mountian was not very big, and the bottom half was completely bare of snow! But we had our equipment and we had made it to the hill so we bit the bullet not wanting to miss the expereince. So up we went on up the first chair lift walking on through the mud and carrying our boards. We then saw some snow and ventured up again another chair lift hoping for some better snow...well from the chair lift we could see the sheets of ice on the hill and were quite disappointed. We started out and found the snow was pretty wet and was not quite as icy as it had appeared so that helped lift our sour attitudes! I had the oppritunity to work on my skills although the snow conditions were not so good and we were on a more advanced run as the easier runs had no snow. I took a good tumble and even got my board so stuck in the snow due to the deep wet snow that Dennis had to come and reef on my board to get me out! We enjoyed a short day of snowboarding as we had to catch a bus out late that afternoon.

We made it back in plenty of time to drop off rentals, change out of our wet clothes and get back on the bus to the bus station. While we were sitting and waiting we actually ran into a couple that we had spent some time with when we were in Bolivia (the ones that are actually from Lethbridge too), so that was neat. We took a deep breath and stepped onto the bus not sure we were ready for the next 25 hours of sitting....

We survived and are now in Buenos Aires. We met a grandma on the bus who spoke english and she walked us the whole way to where we were to catch the subway to get to our hostel. Just outside the bus terminal I had someone grabbing at my arm and I just ignored her and when she persisted I just shouldered her out of the way. She was trying to tell me something and I just kept going and then Dennis said that I had stuff all over me...squirted all down my backpack and down my pants. Then appeared another lady all ready with kleenex and they wanted me to go into the resturant to try and ´help¨ me clean off (and then probably disappear with our bag...although I am not sure they would be able to carry ours anyways as they are so heavy). We were on a mission and we had heard about these sort of scams before and just kept going with no concerns. Although a bit frustrated with all the stares as I was covered in some sort of white goo. Anyways we made it on the subway with no concerns and found our hostel. We grabbed a bit to eat with a great huge banana smoothie and now we are off to shower and get a good sleep before exploring this city.