Today we went on a tour to Chiloe island. We've mainly found that it's just as easy to do things ourselves than pay a guide, however we'd been told public transport on the island was sporadic at best!

We set off at 8.30 and got a ferry over, and when on the island we saw some black necked swans. It is the wrong time of year for penguins, so we went to the East side of the island, first to a little village called Chacao, then down to the capital, Castro, the third oldest city in South America. It had amazing stilt houses built on the sea, which we could see really well as it was low tide. We then went over to Nercon, a pretty village where they were having a farmers' market.

Lastly, we spent the afternoon in Dalcahue, an artisanal village on the coast, with a lovely handicraft market that stocked loads of baskets and knitted things. We then got the bus home.

The countryside was lovely, although it was very like being in England. The houses however were the big difference, loads of them made in painted wooden slats.

Overalll we liked Chiloe island but weren't impressed with the tour - they'd made a big deal of seeing an amazing church in each of the four places, including a UNESCO one in Nercon, but all but one (castro) were shut. They also left out the museum, so it felt like a lot of just driving and looking. We complained and they gave us half our money back, so in the end it wasn't so bad, especially as we used that to buy the nicest looking chocolate cake ever!!!

We spent the evening wandering a little more around puerto varas.