Not exactly Carnival style accomodation!

The most basic hostel we could find at the last minute... not too easy on the eye, but then we were only in it for 4 hours!

Shaking your thing at Carnival

Gualeguychu carnival.

Argentina's answer to Rio is the Gualeguychu carnivals that run every weekend from Jan to Feb. Thousands of people lining the parade route. Amazing costumes, dancing... generally everything!

Tela injuries...

One almighty building shaking fall from roof height... and this is what I had to show for it!

The cycle tour.

Back on the Orange bikes for a well crafted tour. This time we managed to break our previous record, and even get to the Recoleta cemetery before it closed! Picnicing by the lake, oggling at the gross coy carp in the Japanese garden, the planetarium.. all in one day!

Welcome to Buenos Aires Zoë and Simon!

A visit to the holy land.

Some people wait a lifetime to make the trip to the Holy Land. Fortunately for us, Tierra Santa is just outside the city centre of Buenos Aires, and for the princely sum of 20 pesos, you can relive the whole thing. (Unfortunately it was too windy for the resurrection though... gutted!)

Palermo racetrack.

With 500m of slot machines below the racetrack, we had a busy few hours. Losing peso after peso... (up to 4 pesos!)

Back out in Buenos Aires. Happy Birthday Tomy!!!

After a 21 hour bus journey, a night out was in order. Off to Milion to celebrate Tomy's birthday. Finally getting into a club at 3.30am... A musical highlight being half a Shania Twain song!

The seven lakes road to San Martin de Los Andes.

Amazing scenery all the way. We hired a VW Gol and headed north along dust tracks. We lost count of the number of lakes, but I think we saw them all!

Las Balsas at Villa de Angostura.

Not in time for tea unfortunately, but good to see all the same.

The cabana at La Justina

Our happy home for a week.

Picture perfect views from the Cerro Campanario

The Malbec test

4 bottles in the running. One 6 pesos, One 13 pesos, One 40 pesos, and the final one 3 day old 13 peso wines. Which would prevail in the cabana taste test?
We all managed to get it wrong. Edel correctly guessed the expensive one though (there's a girl with taste...) Henry appeared to favour the old and past his best wine. Emily the cheap one, and I plumped for the mid range option. Amazing how similar they all tasted though. And everyone knows wine clearly tastes better when drunk out of mugs!

Beer tasting at the cervecerias

Disappointing results, but good fun tasting. The 2 for 1 beers clearly tasted the best...

Cycling the Circuito Chico, Bariloche.

Henry clearly decided sunning himself was a more interesting option than listening to my babble with the map... All the hard work was definitely worth it though. Stunning views everywhere you looked - including a Hulk-esque green crucifix. Definitely novel if nothing else.