It appears I´m a bit of a local hero around here.One of the orderlies at the hospital is the wife of the Customs man at the border who looked after the wreck until Patricio collected it for me, and apparently they get so fed up with treating tourists with twisted ankles and broken fingernails that I was the biggest excitement since they finished the road to the airport. Francisco has a bit of a reputation for refusing to speak English or French to a tourist unless they´re really hurt. I´m flattered.

Anyone living here who has an ordinary car is just showing off. It means they have it just for getting around town, because if you want to go further than that you have to have a 4x4. Everywhere is within walking distance here - if you drive it takes twice as long as most of the roads are one-way because they´re so narrow and everyone drives the aforementioned 4x4s. The central square (the Plaza de Armas, as everywhere else in Chile) is actually pentagonal, which is confusing because there are 10 roads leading from it.

Anyway, looks like Jess fancies a working holiday in Patagonia, which is really helpful as it means we can do the bulk of the dismantling before Reg and the bits arrive, and we can sort any gotchas if I´ve missed any broken bits.

So, I´m still feeling rather sore and have to move carefully, but consumption of plenty of medicinal fluid is helping.