Birthday in Bariloche

Depleted to just two members (Bee having flown off to see her family in Canada for skiing), Elle and I took a lovely long bus ride down south to Bariloche. I say 'lovely long' because Argentinian buses are out of this world- tea, coffee, meals, films, music, blankets etc etc- and all this on just the most basic 'semi-cama' seats. On the Royal Cama Suites services there is champagne and whisky before bed, where the seats go fully horizontal and another part flips up to make an actual bed...so with all this luxury, you end up not wanting to get off at the final destination! This particular bus ride was about 20 hours (nowhere near long enough) down into Patagonia.
Our first thoughts on arrival in Bariloche was its resemblance to Switzerland- not only in the snow-capped mountains surrounding a curved lake (leading to the most incredible panoramic photos of sunset and sunrise with all the reflections and silhouettes)- but also in the alpine-lodge-like buildings, the numerous chocolate shops, ski shops and fleeces on display (felt a little out of place still in flip-flops with everyone else bundled up in thermals- clearly the coldness was a state of mind).
I celebrated my 19th birthday with some exhilirating white water rafting; we felt incredibly intrepid even when informed that the course was only a level 3 and the hardest level is a 5. Either way it was great fun- at one point we jumped out and floated feet first down the rapid- hard to breath with the coldness of the water and each surge of water coming milliseconds after the previous. Returning that evening, exhausted, probably resembling to some extent drowned rats, we indulged in dinner at a nice restaurant, which turned out to be owned by the brother of the Argentinian princess!
So, delicious food, good wine, complimentary champagne- what was our favourite part of the meal? The salad for starter. Our diets have become really terrible- too many carbs and not enough fresh fruit or vegetables (if any). On the plus side we now know that cooking with rice and pasta has limitless potential- plain, butter, salt, chicken stock, vegetable stock, noodle soups, garlic and oil......and all this generally free by taking full advantage of hostel kitchens (if you can withstand the horror of the other travellers!) It can get rather intimidating when somebody next to you is cooking an incredible stir-fry whilst you stir your rice cooked in chicken stock and optimistically call it 'risotto'....