We bypass the rather commercial Bariloche town with its long queue of tourist coaches for the cable car, apart from a visit to a pharmacy to get more paracetamol for Martin's back. The pharmacist is reluctant to sell us much, at a premium, claiming they are the last 2 boxes in town as there is a shortage of supply in the country, along with cotton wool of all things. I begin to wonder if I have understood her properly, if she is having me on to justify the price, but she has a genuinely sad air and if it wasn't packed in the cases I would have offered her some of the cotton wool pads I have collected from various hotels. It occurs to me that we may be responsible for the shortage of both items.

A scenic tour of the beautiful Nahuel Huapi lake takes us to the small but refined town of Villa la Angostura on the northern shore. Our hotel is a kilometre down a twisty dirt road which is not well signed, so we stop at a cafe to ask directions and have a snack but somehow end up with a pizza so large that even Martin can't finish it. Hotel Las Balsas has a stunning and restful view of a quiet part of the lake and surrounding hills, turns out to be a Relais et Chateaux member, more relais than chateau, with a gourmet restaurant which makes us regret the pizza even more, but has a spa with sauna and an indoor/outdoor pool with that perfect mix of heated water and cool breezes so we can swim away the pizza before dinner.

We do a stiff hike to work up an appetite for dinner the second day climbing into the hills for a panoramic view of the lake and a waterfall. We realise that what we thought was a fine sandy path is in fact covered with a thick layer of ash from the Chilean volcano eruption 3-4 years earlier, piles of ash have been swept to the side to clear the path and are also to be seen on the sides of the roads once we know what to look for.

Sheer heaven for 2 days, but I could happily have stayed swimming languidly in the pool and gazing at the beautiful and ever-changing lake indefinitely.