28th-29th

Our next stop was only a short 5 hour bus journey to the archipelago, Chiloe Island. The book talks of wonderment, tranquillity and beauty so when we arrived it was not what we were expecting. There are some pretty (ish) towns that are now very run down. Some of the scenery is quite nice but after our amazing day yesterday it is hard to compete and Chiloe is not keeping up with the pace. I was suspicious that it wasn't that great as no other travellers had talked about going or having come from there. Sometimes there is a reason that it isn't that popular. It probably didn't help that we couldn't find the hostel that was recommended in the book and chose a very cheap but disgusting hostel as we just couldn't keep wandering with all our stuff. It wasn't all bad as we had the day to walk around the town and eventually found the hostel we had originally wanted to stay in. We asked about the price and it was £55 so we were kind of pleased we hadn't found it. Our hostel was £10, with en suite! It was a shame that we visited on a Sunday as everything was shut and one of the must sees, a brightly painted church, was currently being refurbished so instead of purple and yellow it was a drab grey! We did make friends with two guys who showed us around for a bit, slightly random but good. I don't think they see many tourists!

The next morning we got an early bus to Puerto Montt where we had to stay in another pretty grotty hostel as the one we had found in the book was fully booked. It smelt like a gross old ladies house and men were sniffing glue just outside asking us for money as we came in and out! Not the best two days we've had so far but we counted the trip to Chiloe as just a cheap, very average, day trip down to Patagonia. We are now in beautiful Bariloche staying in one of the nicest hostels so far. It is about time. I can finally have a shower and not sleep in all my clothes!