After a fab few days we were quite sad to be leaving El Pueblito and El Bolson but we had managed to persuade quite a few of our friends there to come and join us in Barilcoche so a group of us set off on the bus and arrived at our new pentouse hostel on the 10th floor of a large commercial building in the centre of town. Bariloche is next to a huge lake and the hostel had a terrace overlooking the lake and mountains beyond; a view that we were also lucky enough to have from our bedroom window!

After a quick wander round to acquaint ourselves with Bariloche´s many chocolate shops we decided that it was time to get active again and started planning a big walk for the next day. Catedral is a short bus ride out of town and is a ski resort during the winter but has plenty of good walking outside of ski season so we got an early start and set off with James, a friend we met in El Bolson.

It was very bizarre being in a ski resort with no snow and with almost everything shut down. It turned out that we´d been slightly over enthusiastic and arrived before the cable car we needed to get up the mountain to the starting point for our walk had even started running. But eventually after sitting around for half an hour or so we managed to get ourselves on the first cable car of the day and set off up to the top of Cerro Catedral. Unfortunately we still weren´t at the top and had to catch a chair lift (much easier when you don´t have any skis to worry about) until we were finally at the top and ready to get going.

After a short climb up even further with beautiful views of all the area´s lakes and mountains we started to struggle to find the path we were meant to be taing. We met another couple doing the same walk and so set off following them and scrambling across rocks vaguely following a series of poles stuck in the ground. Then things started to get really interesting... We reached a huge sign warning you in English and in Spanish that from that point on you were proceeding at your own risk and encouraging you to make sure that you had a mobile phone in case of emergencies as this was a very dangerous path. Undaunted we carried on and soon found ourselves walking along a very narrow pathway running along the ridge on the side of the mountain with nothing but a very sheer gravel drop to our right and the top of the mountain on our left. Added to the fun of a very slippery narrow path were the places where you had to climb over rocks to get past.

We carried on like this for a while and then, I´m ashamed to admit, vertigo got the better of both of us. We stopped for a while to take a look at the map and realised that a whole section that we had been told would take around four hours was along the side of this ridge and so the terrain wouldn´t be improving any time soon. Discretion being the better part of valour we admitted defeat and decided to turn back, leaving James and the other, braver walkers we had met on the way to carry on with the rest of the walk... That evening we realised we had made the right decision when we saw James´pictures of the drop and even he admitted that parts of it had been pretty hairy so for two wimps like ourselves it would have been terrifying!

The next day was the big one - Jamie´s 26th birthday. After writing off quite a lot of the day before, we had planned to rent bikes and go around the lake on what is meant to be a beautiful circuit. Sadly the weather had other ideas and we were woken up early in the morning by howling winds and rain lashing against our window. We had nothing else to do but go for a big birthday fondue and then start planning the evening´s festivities. Tyrone, another friend from El Bolson, had very kindly (alhtough a bit drunkenly) offered to cook a Greek meal for everyone to celebrate and was as good as his word, even after braving the weather and getting soaked on the same bike ride we had chickened out of. So that evening we were presented with a feast and numerous bottles of red wine and vodka to enjoy in the hostel with a group of about 15 of us. Like so many great evenings, one thing led to another and we were soon playing drinking games, dancing to cheesy music in Wilkenny´s Irish bar and getting back to the hostel at about 4.30 to polish off the leftovers from dinner...

Unsurprisingly the next day left us feeling slightly fragile and that afternoon we waved goodbye to Bariloche and all our friends to take yet another overnight bus to Mendoza, hoping that 18 hours sleep might help the hangovers!