Start of Epic 34 hr, 1666 Miles in 3 Days Journey!

Bus from San Pedro to La Serena

So I need to get to Santiago. Only because I need to then get to Puerto Montt cos I have an overnight mini cruise thing booked for thu. I booked it on Wed when I was in Arica (Ist town in Chile), thinking that'll be loads of time. So San Pedro to Santiago is MILES away! Look at a map...you wouldn't believe it! So I looked at what seemed half way and bought a bus ticket. I asked what time it got there. 9pm he said. He showed me the screen so I could double check. Nobody here speaks English just to put you in the picture so even the simple things like booking a bus ticket become really hard. So I went away thinking, that's strange. And a bit of a b*****. Only 4 hours? I hoped to get further before my 2nd half of the journey. So at 830pm I put my shoes back on and got ready for my stop. At 930pm I asked the conductor guy what time do we get to La Serena. 5am he said. What? I'm now more confused. I could have sworn I saw the time correctly when booking. Oh well, great. I'm getting further, as I originally hoped. 5am came and went. I thought I'd actually missed my stop. Oh well I thought.....knowing the bus actually goes all the way to Santiago, and settled back down to sleep. I woke up properly with the sun streaming in through the windows and the conductor shouting LA SERENA!!! It was 9AM and we were there. So my 4 hour bus journey actually turned out to be 16 hours!!