Couldn't sleep kept thinking about what to do about getting away from here. At 3am loads of protesters in cars went past all with their car horns blaring away, they looked in good spirits following the generous offer that they turned down. Some were running around on foot waving the strike flag (a simple black rubbish bag). Most people think that the price rise was the spark after years of being the forgotten state. This part of Chile has no roads connecting it to the rest of the country it has it's own identity bourne out of it's isolation. Heating is required here all year round especially during the bitter cold winters. They are willing to fight hard for their warmth.

At about 4am I managed to get to sleep but was woken at 7am by people moving around - it was the group walking to the border. I got up to request an email from them when they got out of Chile. The group was pretty much the entire hostel. Liz didn't like the sound of being alone here, she decided at that moment to join them.

In 10 minutes we were dressed and getting rid of non essential items to reduce weight. The excess items were given to the hostel to store for a month just incase we decided to come back through here.

The group headed out to the church, chosen as a meeting point for others wanting to walk out. Although we were going to head out as a group we were warned to arrive at the barricades in small numbers to avoid inflaming an already delicate situation. We followed the group out soon afterwards catching them at the church.

There was some news - apparently the towns governor had seen them and requested for them not to walk, he was on his way to the school to make an announcement giving plans for an emergency evacuation today.

We were pretty much the first people down at the school where the Red Cross had set up a soup kitchen and mattresses for the backpackers too poor to pay for extra nights here. Definate plans were indeed in place and we were assured that everyone would be evacuated today.

The plan obviously depends on the burning barricades coming down, though the governor has a lot of weight so this didn't seem to be an issue much talked about. We then had to register for one of two destinations: we chose El Calafate in Argentina (with reservation number 46 out of hundreds here). An emergency migration office was set up to stamp us out of Chile. A few people liked the idea of being officially out of the country but of course we weren't there yet.

There is a lot of confusion especially when word got out and the masses turned up. The original number system was scrapped so we had to rejoin a long queue with the priority being given to the old and sick. For most people this is their only experience of an evacuation, some people were in tears whilst others such as the Germans were complaining about queuing twice.

The plan detailed to us was to get on some Red Cross marked buses that will take us to the airport where army planes had been arranged for the evacuation. They had to reassure some people here that the Red Cross wouldn't get attacked at the numerous barricades around the town (heared that there are three on the road to the border).

The day turned out quite nice, it was sunny so we sat on the grass with a large bottle of beer. People were in little groups playing the guitar and meeting people that had been trapped in the national park.

At about 5pm buses came and very slowly were filled from a list of priority people going to Punta Arenas. The army then casually strolled in and positioned themselves between the crowd and the buses.

Apparently the buses that are going to take us out are now going to drive us all the way to Argentina. Argentina didn't want Chilean army planes in their air space. It is a 5 hour trip so it looks like we will be saving on a nights accomodation. Typically we bought some gas for the stove that we had just given away before this news.

Don't assume anything in South America it took all day to compile some lists of priority persons to go and then get them on the two coaches and three mini buses that turned up to take the thousand or so people away. In addition the coach that left for the border was turned back by the baricades, the prior agreement was to remove the baricades to the airport not to the border.

We were tired from waiting 12 hours at the school sitting in corridors or on the grass when it was dry. Despite the under staffed Red Cross doing their best, even in emergency situations any food offered had to contain meat. All day the only thing we had to eat was some fruit, onion, pepper and some bread. We broke the onion and pepper up with our hands and put the chunks between two slices of bread with some mayonnaise.

At 8pm the last 8 names were called for the last bus to the border, there weren't any other buses tonight. We weren't lucky, we went back to the hostel wondering if the bus would get through - perhaps we were lucky not to get on.