Barriloche

Barriloche, if you`ve never heard of it, is in the lake district of Argentina. Its great. We`re chilling out here for a while, its been hard going for the last month - well, ok, sitting on a boat isn`t exactly hard but the sheer culture shock of doing 5000 miles of differing locales in the last month adds up.

Barriloche is famous for its chocolate (start the day with chocolate con churros, go to one of the many chocolaterias for lunch, Jauja for the best chocolate icecream in the siesta, you get the idea), its lake (Nuael Haupi if I`ve spelt that right), its nightlife, restaurants and general scenery. There`s a excellent free newspaper which just happens to have 10 pages on all the activities here, so much better than the lonely planet. Tonight there`s a barbeque at this great hostal (they`re not bribing me honest, just giving me free internet acces) La Bolsa, tomorrow there`s mountain biking round the circuito chico, there`s hikes up several nearby mountains, kayaking on the lake, white water rafting, tons of stuff.

As much as I shouldn`t enjoy entire populations being put through financial ruin as their life savings are thirded, the gbp is going really far out here. Argentina`s just defaulted on a huge loan, the comment was that if you owe the bank $2000 and you can`t pay, you`ve got a problem, if you owe the bank $2000m and can`t pay, the bank`s got a problem. Its weird looking at the people, their clothes, obvious wealth etc - compared to Chile, which is traditionally poorer but more expensive right now. We think we have financial uncertainty?