41:29.36S 72:18.14W

Up at 6am, we got to the bus station with plenty of time to spare to catch the 7:50 to Puerto Montt. The time printed on our tickets arrived but the bus didn't. Franco made enquiries at the company's counter. "It's been cancelled ... I mean, it broke down." "But we've got tickets!" exclaimed Franco. The lady looked a bit surprised, "don't worry, you can catch the 9:30 one".

In Puerto Montt, we wandered around the bus terminal looking for something to eat and settled for a smoothie. Usually, in Chile, they are made from fresh fruit and are called 'batido' but at the USA-styled 'Patagonia donut' joint the menu was entirely in English. "Two smoothies please", "moothie?" the waitress checked "raspberry, peach or chocolate?". Chileans are forever dropping the 's' but I'd never heard it dropped at the beginning of the word before. We paid and Franco was handed a tray with a couple of muffins. It seemed odd but maybe they were giving away their stale ones. As we tucked in, we noticed the waitresses chatting and nobody was preparing our smoothies. The till receipt confirmed that we had bought two muffins.

"It was smoothies we ordered, not muffins!" "Ah" she said, "I couldn't understand your accent!"

Our Spanish is improving but, clearly, our English has gone down the pan!

Patagonia donuts in Puerto Montt bus station

A couple of hours later the bus pulled up outside Ciro and Ida's home in Cochamó. As nobody was in, we relaxed under the sun shade admiring Volcano Yate in the distance. Ciro arrived a few minutes later with a couple of the horses. "When you get to Bariloche ..." "But Ciro, we aren't going to Bariloche, once we've renewed our visas, we are coming back with you." Ciro had read the first line of our email and got excited, it meant good money and fun company, he hadn't bothered to read the rest. Luckily it wasn't a problem, he needed to return with the horses anyway.