Valentine’s Day

Friday, February 13

I hopped in Nati’s red Toyota pick-up with Lily and we drove to Frutillar to check out an entrepreneur products fair. I love Nati’s truck. It looks just like the truck Marty McFly got at the end of Back to Future only red. Also, the Toyota truck model down here is called the Hilux instead of the Tundra or Tacoma. Anyway, at the fair we saw a little bit of everything, but most products were homegrown and homemade items like honey products, marmalades, meats, veggies, & wines. One interesting product was sod that grows without soil as the roots intertwine to produce a connective mat along the bottom. The purpose of this sod is to place it in areas where grass can’t grow like on concrete & indoors for parties and things. It is quite amazing, but also a weird concept, like why would you need grass in your house?

After a quick lunch, I rode my bike back to the apartment, but first I snipped a rose from one of the many rose bushes lining the streets of Puerto Varas. I’m pretty sure it’s not allowed, but they were perfect for Lily’s Valentine’s present. They were 3 pink roses off of a single stem. I got home and immediately got to work on the card. I bought all kinds of construction paper & red see through wrapping and put together a very nice card if I do say so myself. Inside I wrote a little note on one side and a poem on the other.

While I was making the card I experienced one of the scarier moments in my life when an older man unlocked the door and walked into the apartment. I thought it was Lily and had glue and construction paper everywhere & didn’t want her to see her gift prematurely, so as the door swung open I was yelling, “Don’t come in, don’t come in.” An old man entered and was just as shocked at my presence as I was at his entrance, so he quickly shut the door and rang the doorbell. I was mortified, but went and answered the door only to find out that he was a broker and was showing the apartment to a prospective renter. Lily and I had just informed the landlord that we would be moving out in April because the rent was too expensive and apparently he already put the apartment on the market. Now that I had scared the crap out of both men and most likely ended the possible sale of the apartment they did a quick tour and scurried out….how bizarre.

Lily came home a few hours later, and we made our first batch of homemade pisco sours. We had a martini shaker in the apartment and the drinks came out perfectly with a little meringue foam on top. After the drinks we got changed and headed to A Fuego Lento for our Valentine’s meal. The restaurant was amazing and very reasonably priced. It was buffet style with high quality food and great service. Unfortunately, we were so excited about the all-you-can-eat that we both over-stuffed ourselves. Luckily, the restaurant is next door to our apartment so the walk home wasn’t bad. At home I set up Lily’s gift on the bed with a plate of chocolates and hearts along with her card and the flowers. She loved it. And for me she gave the most thoughtful gift ever. A fishing rod! I have been wanting to go fishing down here, and had even been invited by many friends, but couldn’t go because I didn’t have a rod. Lily fixed that problem with the best Valentine’s gift…a fishing rod with love.

Chile Trivia: Pichilemu, CL is internationally known for it’s waves and surfers from all around the world flock to its beach Punta de Lobos.