Despite being travel weary, Joan was up by 4am and Kevin by 6am. There was a near full moon and its light reflected over Lago Llanquihue. We ate breakfast on the balcony before walking from Playa Chico where we are staying into Puerto Varas proper. The beach and roads were quiet. We have been to Lago Llanquihue twice before. Once on our honeymoon and again in 2009. On both occasions it was cloudy and we could not see the two famous volcanoes here, the conical Os...

A real roller coaster of a day. We arrived a little earlier than expected at Santiago but after 1 in the morning. With five hours to wait, Joan had the idea of trying to book into the Holiday Inn on the basis of a missed booking three days ago when we were meant to arrive. Somehow we were given a room which meant we could rest for a few hours and shower before making the next stage of our journey. The hotel is just across the road, literally, and we were in the ...

Our final day on Easter Island…. Honest! On the whole the day was uneventful. The plane flew to Santiago in the early evening so we kind of felt that we were hanging about. There had been some heavy rain showers overnight and the air smelt of the damp earth. After breakfast we walked in to town and visited an internet café where we emailed our next cabanas and the car hire company about our arrival times. We walked down to the front and we pleased to...

After breakfast we told Javiera that we would be leaving and explained that she was fantastic but we had not liked the owne'rs attitude. We also gave her a bottle of wine to show there were no hard feelings. She said we could stay an extra night azs there were no extra bookings or even at her house if we liked. She gave us her email so that if we ever visited the island again, she would put us up. Similarly we said that if she had ever the opportunity to come to ...

Thank God for Joan's sister and Facebook. We awoke to a notification from Christine that the strike was over. Javiera, the administrator at the cabana, advised us to go to the LAN office. We did so but in our own time. On the way we stopped at the bank to collect a card Joan had left in the cash machine. The lady behind the desk pulled out a whole pile of them so it seems it's a common enough mistake. At the LAN office there was a queue of about a hundred people....