Barriloche itself is a beautiful town situated on the South shore of Lago Nahuel Huapi. Although somewhat quirky with its strong Swiss influence with log cabins, home-made chocolate shops on every corner and restaurants serving up fondue, in someway strange way this just added to the wonderful feel that Barriloche exuded.

Whilst in Barriloche we got recommended for an ultimate experience and the best way to see some of Barriloche´s exquisite scenery, was to test out white-water rafting with Aqua Blanca's. I was a little nervous to say the least, especially when I discovered we would be doing the more intense course, with level 4 rapids. The rafting took place down the Rio Manso River; our course would take approx 2 hours, starting in Argentina and we paddled so far we ended up in Chile, meaning a bus has to come and collect us all and take us back to the rafting camp. The actual rafting was the most exhilarating experience I have ever encountered; all kitted out in wetsuits we headed off down the river. At the time there seemed like a lot to take in, as we tried to follow the Spanish directions being shouted at you whilst also trying to wedge you feet wherever you could on the raft so that when we hit the rapids at full speed we didn't fall out. For those 2 hours we were perched on the edge of the raft, paddling away, constantly fearing falling in and being consumed by the rapids. However, your mind would be distracted by all of that when you looked around you at the clear blue river, the crisp green forest and the rocky Mountains peeking up behind the trees...beautiful!

Although I tried to avoid ending up in the cold river I managed to be floating down the rapids twice. The first was when we hit a calm part of the river, whereby the rapids were small and gentle. The instructor told us this would be a nice spot to jump in and experience letting the current and rapids take you down stream for a short while. I wasn't too sure but once everybody else had leapt in I thought well if you can't beat them join them. The water was so cold initially it took your breath away but you soon found yourself giggling by being swirled around by the current. The only problem came when you then had to fight against the current and swim back to the raft before the faster and much bigger rapids got to us. The second time I went in the water was not by choice but in fact the instructor had told us we were practicing a move for the next big approaching rapid, whereby everyone had to move to one side of the raft. we should have really twigged at what was going to happen but instead we did what he said and ended up capsizing the raft and flipping it upside down, and my worst fear became reality because I managed to become stuck underneath it. However with a lot of kicking and thrashing about I managed to wangle myself out, but the instructor was certainly not favorable with me after that, not to mention I lost my paddle down stream. Nevertheless we tackled 5 big rapids, each time celebrating after we had made it through by putting our paddles in the middle of the boat and after the count of 3 raising them up with a cheer followed by head butting each other with our helmets...craziness!! But in the midst of the adrenaline you just joined in!

After a few days rest, recovering from the white-water rafting we decided to explore some of the 7 lakes that Barriloche had to offer, which were tucked away within the pine tree mountains. Our cycle consisted of 31km around 5 of the 7 lakes. On our chosen route we passed Lago Nahuel Huapi, Lago Esconaldo, Bahia Lopez, Lago Moreno Oeste and Lago Moreno Este. Also stopping along the way to see the port (Puerto Panuelo), Villa Tacul (where we stopped for lunch), a local ranch, the cementerio del Montanes; pit stopping to rest our weary bones at Assol Lopez, which was a rocky stream hidden in the mountains, perfect for topping up your water bottles and soaking your feet in the icy water. Along the way I think I must have eaten a few flies because my mouth seemed to be constantly open from observing the amazing scenery as we rode by.

However, the cycle was no mean feet; it was 6 hours of hardcore mountain cycling. The roads were gravely and dusty and were steep of an incline up as they were down, although there was far more up hills than there were down. Not to mention the very aggressive mountain wasps that pestered you until you swatted it. Plus the intensity of the sun that beat down upon my back was making the journey even more difficult and exhausting.

Although there was an immense sense of achievement and satisfaction of seeing such exquisite landscape and being able to cycle through it, my mind was too distracted by my bruised bottom to absorb the achievement just yet. The mountain roads were so bumpy to say the least, meaning they were very unkind on the dairy-heir. You would think I had enough padding to take the impact of the constant pot holes, gravely paths and rocks, but after 6 hours it had become too much and I found it extremely painful to sit down for the rest of the evening.

Once we returned from our cycles we discovered a Welsh tea room next door and decided to celebrate our days challenge with rewarding ourselves with some tea and cakes. Although I'm not sure what made it a Welsh tea room because the menu was more like English afternoon tea and in the background they played Irish gig music. Nonetheless, it was exactly what we needed.

Our stay at Barriloche was nearly at an end but before we left we managed to do some shopping, eat some local cheese fondue and chocolates. It had been a lovely 6 night stay and I found myself reluctant to leave. Barriloche had become my favourite place out of the entire trip so far, however, we had to keep moving and San Rafael was our next destination.