I didn't do too much today, just slept wonderfully in the comfy bed, had breakfast and packed my bags, which needed to be stored as checkout was at two.

I took the metro to the city centre, and read my book for a while on the Plaza de Armas. I strolled on to Bellavista and walked to the funicular, where there was a whole busload of Dutch waiting to go up, as well as lots of Chileans with kids waiting to go to the zoo.

Once I got to the top, it was a lot busier than when I went last time, but the view was also a bit better. Sat in the garden at the Virgin Mary's feet and enjoyed my book, the sunshine and a coca cola light.

As it's Sunday, nearly all the shops are closed, so all there was to do was to watch the street artists work their magic. I got a bit bored and at about 5.30 I headed back to the hotel. We're meeting up for dinner soon, and afterwards we are catching the overnight bus to Pucón, so I figured I'd better abuse the free internet access a bit more!

I'm glad to get out of Santiago, I want to see some mountains! And perhaps climb one or two. Heather was saying she'd also like to do some horseriding so more sore asses in the make!

Part II

We had dinner near the hotel, I had fettuccini with chicken and another (because free) pisco sour. Afterwards, we took three minibuses to the bus station (this time all of them arrived). Tour leader Duncan had disappeared again (he seems to do that a lot, in fact at every crucial point in the trip he's gone!) and none of 18 English + one Polish persons manage to speak a word of Spanish, so I talked to the bus driver who basically just told me to put our bags in the bus as it was all ours, no other passengers.

The bus was more luxurious then most of the hotels I've stayed in: reclining seats, a thing to put your feet on and loads of room. So even though I woke up a few times, I slept reasonably well.