We had a couple of days in Puerto Varas before our overnight bus to Santiago. We visited a local market and a church which from afar looked stunning in red and white, up close it was wood and a corregated roof painted red. There was very little English spoken even in the tourist information. This became a bigger problem at the bus station where no English was spoken at all. We did manage to get our vouchers changed for actual tickets and waited for our bus. There were buses every 5 minutes with various layouts inside all double storey, our bus came and Tony gave the driver the luggage and got a ticket back, we were on the lower deck which consisted of 2 double seats and 3 singles the other side of the aisle. We did 2 stops before midnight and at the last stop found that the existing passengers, us and another English girl were in the wrong seats, the tickets had seat numbers but we didn't know. Conductor got us moved and helped bed us down. Thea lay flat and went to sleep, I had to raise the chair as my head felt lower than my feet making me feel sick. We were given breakfast in a bag the same as supper, a juice ,sandwich and a cake.

Completed the bus trip overnight to Santiago 1000kms in 12hrs very comfortable with the seat converting to a bed. The hotel in Santiago is in the richer part of town and near a large shopping Mall. We went downtown but found it uninteresting and not for tourists at all, no cafes or tourist desks. Did climb Cerro Cristobal for a look at the city but glad to be back to the hotel. Today Friday we have walked around the hotel ditrict and have been impressed with the area and the shops and cafes. Still we will be glad to get on our way to Easter Island in the morning.

The weather is still very hot and we spent ages looking for a bank to ascertain if there was a bank on Easter Island, as we have been told to take plenty of cash and not rely on getting any on the island. We were unsuccessful no one seemed to have heard of the Island, we later found out we should have used its local name.