Zip-a-dee-doo-dah...my oh my what a wonderful day.

We milked our time at Llao Llao to the max and only checked in to the Design Suites Hotel at 10PM yesterday. Zach had stayed there on his way through Bariloche and told us he'd been upgraded to the jacuzzi suite. Guille couldn't resist checking if we could have the same. Fantastic! We made good use of it as you can see. We ate the empanadas we'd had delivered (!) and a bottle of wine in the tub!

One of Guille's dreams as a golfer was to play a round a Llao Llao. Since our laziness yesterday eliminated that as an option, we headed back today to tick that off her list.

While she played nine holes, I went for a hike nearby. It took just under an hour up and down through a forest to get to the beach. I found a nice spot to sit, dip my toes, have a bite to eat and take some photos.

As I headed back a funny looking 'puddle' on the beach caught my eye. There was an area back from the water line that had a pool of water with floating pebbles on it. They were volcanic rocks from Chile. I sat and played with them for a good while. If I dipped my hands the little groupings would break apart and float away to make new groups. If I threw a rock in the middle of the highest concentration of them, it would leave a hole but then they'd drift back together in a matter of seconds, effectively healing the hole. Very cool!

Next we drove around a scenic loop called the Circuito Chico. There were a lot of cyclists on the hilly route and little shoulder on the road so we were alternating between looking at scenery and watching out for cyclists. A slight detour off the circuit took us to this small, dusty little Swiss settlement where we stopped for a coffee and a snoop around.

In the evening we went in to Bariloche town. So far we'd been outside of the town centre along the banks of Lago Nahuel Huapi. The town of Bailoche is a lot like Banff only bigger. It's a mountaineer and tourist mecca. It's also famous for chocolate. Who knew?! We couldn't resist buying a few samples but we had to hold off sampling them as we were off for a cheese fondue for dinner which was delicious!