Travelling is tiring…exhausting sometimes! I know most of you consider it as a holiday, but it is not at all the same. Travelling is like a full time job: each day you have to plan for the next one (what to do where, means of transportation, accommodation, groceries, cooking…, pack/ unpack, meet new people/ forget some others…never sleep in one bed for more than 2-3 nights in a row! In fact, it is a real test of your resistance to change! Everything changes (from the landscape, hostel, supermarket position, friends, language, food, etc.) each day! And sometimes your only wish is to have a little bit of stability in your life.

So after 10 months of intense travelling we decided to stop for a week. We rented a nice cabana near the Naguel Huapi Lake in Bariloche (Argentina) and we just relaxed, being able to take ALL our “life” out of the backpack. We had more time to read a book while overlooking the lake, or just cook at home and enjoy a nice botle of wine. What a luxury!!!

Bariloche was the best we could choose in terms of perfect location for a “vacation”. Situated on the foothills of the Andes, surrounded by lakes and mountains, it’s the Switzerland of South America and…in our opinion…more beautiful than that. It’s also the biggest and most exclusive sky resort in South America, but in October it’s already spring there so we couldn’t test the slopes this time, only admire the blossoming trees. The town in itself is small, having a nice civic center, an impressive Neo-Gothic Cathedral, lots of Swiss-like chocolate boutiques and few St. Bernard dogs on display for tourists. We loved to walk around! But the best part was given by the surrounding mountains and lakes which we’ve visited during the week.

Cerro Otto, the closest one, has a rotating restaurant on the top that offers breath-taking views of the region. We took a cable car up, had a hot coffee and a cake admiring the landscape and then did a small walk in the forest.

After few days, our Romanian friends that we met in Atacama arrived in Bariloche as well. So we rented a car together and went on the scenic route of the Siete Lagos. It was incredibly beautiful! The next day we drove to Cerro Tronador, home to no less than 7 glaciers, one of which has an amazing black color and stops in a greenish lake between mountains. Just wow!

Last, but not least, we hiked up the Cerro Campanario which gave us one of the best vistas we have ever seen: mountains (covered or not in snow), volcanoes, blueish lakes, small islands…a piece of paradise!

It was a well-deserved stop, with the same “home” for a week, amazing scenery and relaxation in the middle of the nature. Oh, it’s so good to feel homey!