Following my first few busy days in San Pedro it was now onto the lazy days! San Pedro is an easy place to relax in, as it is a quiet and has lovely weather. Although it gets cold at night, during the day it is hot and sunny (apart from the 2 afternoon sandstorms!) and so it's almost too easy to find yourself lying in the hammock in the sun with a book, enjoying doing nothing! I am feeling a bit tired at the moment, lethargic is perhaps more the word, but after 8.5 months of being on my travels I think I just needed to stop for a few days- I know some of you will be reading this thinking "she stops places all the time!" and I agree, I do! But I don't think I usually stop and do as little as I have the past few days! Ha ha.

I was lucky to be able to meet up with previous travel companion Henny, who I spent a few days travelling with after the Navimag ferry- it's always nice to see a familiar face and catch up. I went on the geysers tour with Henny and her friend Diana and the three of us managed to while away the Sunday afternoon before she left wandering around the town, looking in the shops and had a nice meal. Annet who I met in Santiago is also now here and we bumped into each other yesterday.

I also met some lovely Chilean people, brother and sister Alejandro and Rosario. After chatting at the hostel, they invited me to join them for dinner, which was a lovely meal- I had prawns in a really tasty sauce (pil pil)- I think it was the best meal I have had in a while! (muchas gracias Alejandro y Rosario por la invitacion!) I gave pisco sour another try here but discovered I still don't like the taste. I tried Merlot and can now add that to my list of reds I seem able to drink these days! The restaurant had a big open fire where we could stand for a bit after finishing the meal whilst finishing the drinks. Then we went to one of the bars and I found perfectly mixed vodka, coke and lime- nice! I went for dinner with them the next night too which was also a nice meal and they introduced me to a typical Chilean drink a little like shandy called 'michelada'- beer, lemon juice and salt around the rim of the glass- the salt was a bit too salty for me! Also gave me lots of opportunity to practise understanding Chilean Spanish, which at times just seems too fast to understand!

I also got to experience more football excitement as the streets of San Pedro on Sunday afternoon emptied as most of the people were in the bars and resturants watching another big match, another local (Santiago) derby I believe- Colo-Colo and another Santiago team (different to the match I watched). You could hear the match from all the TVs in town and of course you could hear the fans! It was almost like being at the game in the stadium. The winning side won 5-0, understandably they were very happy and they piled out into the streets after, singing and dancing! Sadly for the Colo-Colo suppprters, like Alejandro, it wasn't such a good day and apparently one of their biggest losses ever!

This afternoon (Wednesday) I have been a bit more productive and got my blog up to date- that took a while since I was quite far behind! As much as it's nice to spend this time relaxing I guess I can't/won't stay here forever……I will be moving on soon!