La Serena to Santiago. 2340 - 0530.

The bus price was £11.00 for a semi cama (goes half way back, as previously described. VERY comfortable, but as I discovered yesterday, not for 16 hours perhaps), or £17 for premium (completely flat! An actual bed. On a bus!!) I settled down and closed my eyes. 2 mins later we were there! So guess what I've booked again for my next 12 hour journey??? I didn't fancy venturing out anywhere at 0530 in the morning in a strange city so I hung around in the bus station for a couple of hours till the sun came up. Then wandered out. Santiago is massively colder than La Serena. Only 6 hours away. Like Scotland and England. It was cloudy all day and even Scottish drizzled for a couple hours! There are homeless people lying around on every corner, next to the dogs. Still millions of stray dogs. It's also like London. But not quite so diverse. I hate London. There is no cute main plaza with a fountain in it. The whole place is main. It's massive so I did what I like to do best. Find a hill and climb it! San Cristobal. Only a wee tiny one but a lovely walk. It's 880m and about 300 m above the rest of Santiago. What a find though! Obviously there was the huge Jesus at the top but apart from that, on the way down I discovered secret paths which led me to the most gorgeous gardens and picnic areas. And flowers! The most gorgeous smelling flowers. I took no pics cos the weather was so crap so you'll just need to take my word for it. Hindsight alert. DO NOT BOOK SOMETHING SO FAR IN ADVANCE. I hate all these mega long bus journeys just to get to Puerto Montt for my mini cruise. After I've done that I will slow right down and enjoy some of these lovely places. Right let's make the most of this BED ON A BUS!! Can you believe it???