Zelma’s Trip

On the Sunday I made a decision to head to one of the places in a hostel guide I had picked up at some point when traveling with Mum and Dad.  Originally I was going to head South to Pucon where there was an opportunity to stay on a ranch, do lots of riding and learn Spanish.  However, I decided that Pucon was a little far to go for the time I had prior to my flight and that heading that far South might make the temperature drop further than I wanted it to.

So, having decided on a place called, “Chez L´Habitant”, on Lago Colbun I called them up to reserve a room and check that they could collect me from the bus station prior to getting a bus down there.  I´m not sure why I felt the need to explain that, perhaps as it´s quite unusual for me to display such forward planning I thought it was interesting or worthy of note.  Although my planning was something of an exception the bus journey was not in that there was another moronic midget with uncontrollable legs sitting behind me.  This one took the form of a small girl.  Again the “responsible adult” with her proved to be anything but.  I sat there wondering if, and when, she would stop and also why guides to Spanish tell you how to say things like, “No I don´t want sugar”, rather than, “if you don´t stop that irritating little brat from kicking the crap out of my back I will”, and then promptly realised why they don´t!

After another irritating bus ride I finally arrived at the bus station in Linares.  I tried to use several phones in the bus station which didn´t seem to like me, sat down and had a cigarette and then wandered about for a bit looking redundant.  It obviously did the trick as someone asked if I was Zelma.  It was the guy from the accommodation and we headed to his car.  He turned out to be really friendly which was fortunate as the drive was around forty minutes or so.  Once out of the town it was a gravel road and a little while along I screeched with glee and asked him to stop as a positively huge tarantula type spider ran across the road.  He did stop but could we find it?  I thought he may think that I had imagined the whole thing but apparently they´re very common in the area so he believed me.

When we got to “Chez L´Habitant” I instantly liked the place.  It was a small family business with mother, father and son with a few rooms, a cabana and a bed and breakfast setup.  Christian´s parents proved to be as we lcoming and friendly as he was and I had a view of the lake from my bedroom window.

After unpacking and getting settled for literally a few minutes there was a voice at the door saying that a, “beautiful lady” was wanted for a video.  My first thought was to give them some comedy one-liner back like, “I think you´re at the wrong door mate”, but then I thought better of it as my comedy genius might get lost in translation.  I was a bit confused and, having asked a couple of questions, rather unconvincingly agreed.  With lots of questions running through my head I went and looked in the bathroom mirror to see what kind of state I was in.  It was at this point that the same voice appeared and asked if I had a bikini!  Actually I think the question involved, “two piece suit for hot tub”, or something rather than bikini.  Now at this point I was seriously wondering what I had gotten myself into.  After all I was very much in an isolated place, with no-one else staying there and a strange man asking me to put something on for a video in the hot tub!  After a couple of questions which didn´t massively dispel my fears I willingly obliged and headed out in my bikini.  When I got towards the hot tub I was pleased to see that both Christian and his mother were there, along with a professional and very non-dodgy looking couple of film guys.  So there I was, sat in a hot tub, sipping Chilean wine, whilst Christian did pieces to camera about why you should visit Colbun lake.  I did draw the line when asked to do my own piece to camera though it has to be said.  So, you never know, one day you might see a very confused looking Zelma in a camo bikini, in a hot tub in Chile drinking red wine.  Or maybe not!

After the hot tub, wine and welcome I headed to bed and had an early night.  Actually it would have been much earlier if I hadn´t managed to get into the most ridiculous book.  When my parents went back they left two books with me.  This was partly so that I could exchange them at a book exchange but largely as they thought they were both crap and didn´t want to carry dead weight home and display it on their bookshelf.  With this knowledge I still picked one of them up and managed to get drawn into it.  I refuse to even mention the title as I don´t want it promoted in any way.  All I will say is that it was a predictable crime type thriller with dubious, unbelievable characters and an irritating principal protagonist.  Wow, now I know why I´ve never been asked to write one of those snippets for the back of someone´s novel!