More than 24 hours over two days on a bus travelling up alongside the Andes on the bone rattling, mostly unpaved ruta 40 bought us to our next destination, the hippy town of El Bolson.

On the recommendation of Josh and Zoe we headed for a little hostel called El Pueblito, 4km outside of town. To my credit I (Jamie) managed to speak to our coach driver in Spanish and have him drop us at the hostel door. Unfortunately, it wasn´t quite that simple. After 20mins of curb crawling the driver finally kicked us off and told us to find the place ourselves. It turned out we were now further away than when we started and none of the campsites we went into were able to give us proper directions. Finally, after nearly an hour and a half of walking alongside the main road, with heavy bags on our backs and dusk fast approaching, we finally found the place.

From that moment on our mood changed and we had permanent smiles on our faces until we left. Our room turned out to be a little log cabin in the grounds which, although pretty chilly in the evenings, was really lovely and, once we´d managed to get under several layers of blankets, incredibly cozy. Having only just arrived, we weren´t too thrilled at the prospect of going back into the town for dinner so were delighted to be presented with a pizza evening in the hostel where delicious home made pizzas kept on coming and the home made beer kept on flowing!

After dinner, we started to get a better feel for the place and found out that several guests had been there for months on end - it was just that sort of place. It was one such guy´s birthday so we all headed out to a barn come bar in the grounds for drinks, silly hats and VERY competitive table football before retiring to our little hut for the night.

Following an amazing home made breakfast we set off into El Bolson itself to visit the famous hippy market. The town seems to attract chilled out, alternative people from all over Argentina who were all selling their handmade crafts, food and beers in the town centre. A few purchases and a delicious ice cream later we decided we´d had enough excitement for one day and headed back to the hostel for some quality chill out time in the hammocks and a fab barbecue.

The peak of our activity whilst at El Bolson was a trip out to Lago Pueblo where after a short walk and paddle we sat down for a picnic and to watch the world go by. The more adventurous English members of our party couldn´t resist a bit of cold water swimming, much to the amusement and bewilderment of the Americans and a group of passing Argentinians. Liz can confirm it was pretty chilly!

So after 3 brilliant nights at El Pueblito it was time to leave, but we made sure to take the friends we made up to Bariloche in time for my big birthday bash (stories and photos to come soon)!