From Pucon I caught a bus 6 hours further south to Puerto Montt which is the main jumping off point for boats around Patagonia. I'm going to have to come back here another time to go further south through the lakes to the Tierra del Fuego and the Perito Moreno glacier as I'd love to see more of Patagonia. However, it requires a number of things I don't have right now (time, money and thermals being the most important).

So, from Puerto Montt I took the trip across 3 lakes to Bariloche in Argentina. This involved 4 short bus journeys and 3 boat trips over 13 hours through some stunning mountain scenery. The snow topped volcanoes (and there are many) looked just like the ones you used to draw as a child, and the lakes were all bright blues or emerald greens due to the mineral content of the waters. The surrounding hillsides were all very green and alpine-like, so it was no great surprise to find that my destination - Bariloche has a history of Swiss migration.

The buildings in the main square are all made of logs and with the backdrop of Lago Nahuel Huapi and snow peaked mountains it certainly looked more Swiss than Argentinian. The Swiss influence has also extended to food, with many fondue restaurants and more chocolate shops than I've ever seen on one street. By the time I left I was suffering slightly from chocolate overdose. Why don't we have cafes in Britain where you can get proper hot chocolate and choose as many chocolates as you like, of whichever flavour you like from a menu?

I had spent ages dithering about where to go next as I wanted to go across to the Atlantic coast to the Welsh villages and go whale watching but from there it would have taken me 2 buses and 39 hours to get to my next point. I tried booking a flight at what seemed a reasonable price, only to find out (after a number of increasingly annoying emails and phone calls) that Aerolineas Argentinas charge more if you're not Argentinian and I wasn't prepared to pay what they were asking. In the end I decided to go to a beach resort called Mar del Plata mid-way up the Atlantic coast (18 hours - which, if it's overnight and it's a decent bus, can actually go quite fast).