We took Minks to the airport in Puerto Montt first thing after breakfast and saw her safely off homeward bound. We returned to the house to do our final preparations for our bus trip to Castro. We finished our visit with Bruno and Alexandra at an eensy-weensy little coffee shop that served the best coffee and hot chocolate. The bus ride to Castro was nothing exciting. I stayed at the bus terminal with our luggage while Graeme went off to find a hostel for us. A very colourful place it was. We dropped our luggage and hit the town.

First visit was to the bright yellow and purple church on the town square (or pentagon really) that was built in 1576 entirely from wood. Stunning building. We then did the local market and walked the streets of a really colourful and rustic town. We went to bed while the sun was still up at 22h00. Old year's day was spent in a little lakeside town called Dalcahue. We spent a quiet day simply strolling the streets, the market and the miniscule museum and then finding the only coffee shop in town. The only coffee shop with the bestest and biggest coffees and hot chocolates. We stayed there for a while catching up on correspondence on Wi-Fi and then went to the local supermarket to get supplies for our 28 hour ferry trip to Coyaique. Back to Castro and then on to catch the bus to Quellon where the ferry awaited our company. We arrived 3 hours before boarding time and decided to find a coffee shop....yeah right. Not a single eatery establishment was open for business and as Graeme pointed out on more than one occasion, the town felt like a ghost town. No-one and nothing was going to miss the celebration of seeing the year out and welcoming the new year in. Boarding went smoothly and we were assured by the ticket office that we would not need blankets since the cabin is heated beyond bearing. And so, after having the faithful empanadas for dinner, and waiting for the moment to wish the 20 odd passengers a feliz ano nuevo, we settled across the seats to sleep the night away. Yeah, like that happened!!!!! The vessel chopped across the waters, the heating did not happen and a very uncontrolled, brattish little boy joined the company at the next stop. However, the scenery has proved to be beautiful, even with overcast conditions, and we have watched dolphins slice through the mirrored waters as part of the on board entertainment. Seals also joined the journey at times and birds of course were there to accompany us. The waters tilled during the day and the scenery only improved as the trip progressed. A really stunning way to cover the distance we did.

The second night was a better night in terms of comfort and sleep. More children boarded ship along the way and that is all I will say about them. We arrived in port bright and early and caught the local bus to the terminal in Aysen to catch the bus to and join our couch surfer host in Coyaique.