Wednesday 1 November 1995

Today we went by bus back to Puerto Montt. We had a late departure because of repairs on one of the buses. The weather was again very good and we had some good views of the lake. Once again we had to line up in order at the Argentine customs. Colin took a look at one of the long distance scheduled buses at the Chilean customs. They look to be pretty good and we would have no problems using them. The Argentinian customs confiscated a salami from one of the party but failed to find ours. Since ours was a Chilean salami, we figured the sniffer dog deliberately let it through.
We took a look around Puerto Montt but it did not seem very interesting although we found a good restaurant where we had calamari and octopus.

Thursday 2 November 1995

A bus took us to Orsorno where most of the group went with a steam train for a short distance. There was a small reception for us at the station where we had complimentary Crystal beer and looked at a couple of traditional dancers who waved white handkerchiefs while they danced around each other.

We also took a look around the town which seemed to be typical for southern Chile. It was dingy and not very colorful although there was a good selection of goods in the stores. We went to into a wine store and bought a bottle of their most expensive wine (USD11.00). It turned out to be excellent and we regretted that we had only bought one bottle.

Broad Gauge Shovel Nose Diesel at Osorno

We found our sleeping compartment and left Osorno around 13:20. This first section was very slow indeed because the rain and the tall grass made things very slippery for the diesel locomotive #D16005. We enjoyed the scenery and at Antillhue we purchased some fried potato fritters filled with meat, egg and chopped green stuff - Mary called them torpedo shaped; we won't mention what Colin called them. There was a pause at Temuco where a restaurant car and other coaches were attached by the electric locomotive, #3229, which pulled us to Santiago. By this time Colin had run out of Operation Lifesaver pins much to the chagrin of the station jefe who would have liked one. We also unloaded the remains of our supply of granola bars which we had brought from Canada as emergency rations. Colin gave them to small kids on the platform.

Friday 3 November 1995

The overnight trip was quite an eventful and we were well rested. The train arrived about an hour late. We decided to leave the group at the station and took a taxi to the Crowne Plaza Holiday Inn where, after waiting, we managed to get a day room.
We walked around Santiago and climbed a hill which was covered in greenery. Very pleasant indeed, and it gave good views of Santiago and the surrounding mountains. Our last meal in Chile was a good one at a restaurant called The Prime Minister. This was very much of a men's club and the only other woman was a mistress while the only men without ties, other than Colin, seemed to be bodyguards. Nevertheless the service was impeccable if a little stiff.
We rested up in the hotel and then took a taxi to the airport, only to learn from some of the group that the return to the airport from Los Andes had been hair raising. This is what we had expected, and one reason why we opted out of that day's scheduled activities. Overall, we were pleased with the decisions we had made throughout the trip to opt out of some of the activities.
The flight back to Miami was uneventful and we had plenty of time to catch the Air Canada plane to Toronto. This had only 19 passengers and the crew were bored, they constantly interrupted us to ask if we wanted a pillow, a paper, something more to drink, and kept bumping into each other in the aisles. We had a very quick trip through customs in Toronto and were able to catch a flight which was two hours ahead of the plan. Unfortunately they loaded us into the wrong plane so there was a bit of a delay while they found the right one for us.
It was cold when we got back to Ottawa but we decided to get into town on OC Transpo. There was a little problem in finding room for our bags and the bus was quite full but we felt very proud as we walked into the apartment to have started our journey to Paraguay on the bus and to have finished the trip from Patagonia in the same way. Clementine and Persephone seems more interested in our hiking boots and dirty laundry than us, but by the next day they were back into their regular routines with us. All was forgiven.