We drive for 2 days on Ruta 40, breaking journey at a small town called Perito Merino to reach Bariloche. Ruta 40 is one of those legendary stretches of highway here. It is popular with cyclists and is the road that Che Guevara travelled through as a young man on his motor cycle and we came to know through The Motorcycle Diaries.
The Route, parallels the Andes & stretches for 5000 km through the remotest parts of Patagonia, in Argentina, starting from Cancha Carrera near the southern border with Chile, to La Quiaca the northern border with Bolivia. While these miles of nothingness is quite incredible to travellers from Europe, they remind me of of drives in outback Australia. Just like driving the Oodnadatta or similar tracks, one has to plan a road trip between petrol stations, which are very sparsely spaced.
Pit stops are behind a bush if you can find it and we stop along the way to chop up a salad and make a quick burrito for a picnic lunch. The cars, lined up at the petrol station, remind us of the fuel price protests in southern Chile. One of the Chilean borders we crossed was closed just days after we passed through due to the unrest caused by protestors, so we feel lucky to be here!
Along the way, we pass shrines to Gaucho Gil, the 
patron saint of travellers. The shrines look like a Bower bird’s nest, except the offerings are all red.
There are many legends attached to this man, and Ally shares her favourite with us. Gaucho Gil found himself on the run due to being on the wrong side of the military. He was a wanted man and when he was caught, he was up for execution. He looks his executioner in the eyes and while begging for his life, predicts the executioner’s son will get so ill, he will be lucky to survive the night. The executioner pays him no attention, executes him and leaves his body where it fell. He then goes home to find his son very sick & struggling for his life. Mortified, he comes back to Guacho Gil’s body and gives it a decent burial. When he gets home, he finds that his son is recovering. He spreads the word about this man, who then becomes a South American legend!
As we go north, the scenery changes from flat land that stretches for miles to mountainous terrain. After driving for most of the day, we arrive in Bariloche, the centre for the Argentinean Lake District. 
The city appears to be a small slice of Switzerland, with log cabins, wooden chalets, St Bernard dogs (with a barrels of whiskey around their necks) and amazing chocolate! I love this city, which surprisingly is much larger than I expected, and has a population of 100,000! Many of the first settlers in these parts were Swiss, Germans and Northern Italians, hence the European feel to this place. Today, rich Argentineans, Brazilians and foreign film stars, holiday here. I love the unique architectural style of housing here and the wooden houses blending into the natural environment remind me of my own home in the bush!
The area is a paradise for hikers, climbers and outdoor enthusiasts. If you love the outdoors, this is a place you could happily spend lots of time in. 
We spend our free day in Bariloche by taking a chair lift up to Cerro Campanario. It is a lovely view at the top and we sit on the rocks up there to enjoy the sunshine and spend a lazy day together. I’ve come here with my friends Katie, Sarah, Rose and Dave. It is Katie’s last day with us as she leaves the tour to visit her boyfriend on an impulsive visit to Colombia, planned just a few days ago! She has mixed emotions today, feeling both excited about her impending travel and sad at leaving the tour.
Soon, we are joined by Bob and Diane who have also made their way up here, as have the rest of our group. We chat and laze around for hours, before our stomachs remind us it is time to go in search of lunch.
We catch the bus to the rather posh Hotel Llao Llao, a landmark in these parts. We notice the well dressed security guard, give us a strange look, as we walk up to the entrance. We are questioned by the doorman, who kindly informs us that we can’t walk in for coffee without a reservation! We wondered later if we could have bluffed our way in, pretending to be guests, but Diane feels we don’t even come close to fitting the profile of guests at these digs and it would have been a waste of time! 
We spend time in the garden, take pictures of the place and then go looking for lunch. We are starving and I wish out loud for a lunch of hamburgers and focacias. I spot a sign that says restaurant and as we walk down the road we come across a cafe in a converted service station. This certainly looks more our style, and as we settle in to the sheepskin padded furniture and turn the pages of the menu, I find that hamburgers and focacias are on the menu! The Universe has delivered once again!
We make the bus trip back to town, feeling satisfied but there is one more thing to do, on this our chilled out day. Try the hot chocolate in this chocolate heaven!
We walk around the square to find a place that appeals. Earlier we had purchased a great assortment of chocolates so we feel we did this town justice. We are now equipped with the requisite snacks for the long bus trip the following day.
We find a hot chocolate cafe, grab some couches and settle down with large mugs of hot chocolate & cream, feeling very decadent as we sip what seems to be pure melted chocolate. This is pure bliss or..chocolate heaven!
"At night, after the exhausting games of canasta, we would look out over the immense sea, full of white-flecked and green reflections, the two of us leaning side by side on the railing, each of us far away, flying his own aircraft to the stratospheric regions of his own dreams. There we understood that our vocation, our true vocation, was to move for eternity along the roads and seas of the world. Always curious, looking into everything that came before our eyes, sniffing out each corner but only very faintly – not setting down roots in any land or staying long enough to see the substratum of things; the outer limits would suffice."
— Guevara aboard a ship in the Pacific Ocean
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