Pichilemu

To begin where I finished, the party was great.

At said party I met a guy, later that night the guy said, "Come to the beach with me."

"Okay," I replied, "why not?!"

So, the next day we set off to Rancagua to meet the guy's friend and because it was in the right direction for Pichilemu. This was of course quite a change to my plan, but the guy seemed like fun and it's always good to be open to changes of plan.

Rancagua is in the area that was most affected by the earthquake a year ago and the signs are still very apparent in the buildings and area.

We spent the night there where we enjoyed the great Chilean tradition of a barbecue and then the next day we all drove to Pichilemu. Juan, the guy's friend was really sweet and kept insisting that they spoke in English so that I could understand. Chilean Spanish is soo difficult!

The boys wanted to surf - I considered it as Juan hadn't surfed before either, therefore I wouldn't be the only newbie. However I decided against when I saw the waves and felt how cold the water was. I amused myself taking photos and running through songs in my head. Also sitting in the car and staying nice and warm!

When the boys returned they asked how long they'd been gone - no idea I told them and explained I was perfectly capable of keeping myself amused.

That night we sampled some Chilean Pisco and retired fairly early.

Saturday was much the same apart from me being even more prepared to entertain myself and not become a 'surf widow'. I made sure my laptop was fully charged; listened to music and worked on the website that I have been playing with for sometime. Afraid it's not ready yet as I keep changing my mind - but it's a good activity to have on the back burner!

In the evening we ended up at the local disco. Juan settled for an early night, but we danced till 3am.

It was a great weekend and Juan kindly drove us back to Santiago in Sunday night. I really enjoyed the company of both of them. Spending the weekend with the guy would probably have been much harder without Juan, his kindness, and his willingness to speak English.

It was fun to spend a few days with a guy, it's been a while since I've allowed anyone of the male variety to have so much of my time. However after the few days we spent together I knew he would not necessarily be a great person to spend lots of time with. Luckily I can now spot the men who whilst they love the person I am, will try to chip at my confidence and that personality. I'm not going prepared to return to my past. Somewhere out there will be the guy who is pleased with me as I am. Plus this guy was a little too Latino - whilst I'm happy to cook, don't expect me to clean up afterwards. I think I put it fairly succinctly when I told him I will do whatever I want and he needed to learn that quickly!

So a great time, but not enough to make me change my plan to fly from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas on the Tuesday!

A note about Pichilemu:

A great town for surfing, in many ways it reminded me of Cornwall, particularly when we sat on the headland at sunset watching the surfers. Would recommend it to anyone who is into that surf lifestyle. Personally I think it would not have held my attention for long, but I'm glad I visited it as it's beautiful!