We made a sign to LlaiLlay in the hope that we would be taken there and have the same luck as before and maybe taken all the way to Santiago. Within minutes of holding up the sign, we were picked up by a mini van, inside was a couple with their four year old daughter, the woman was driving, they had driven all the way to La Serena from Casa Blanca to pick up the van that they said they had just bought. The were going back to Casa Blanca this evening and could give us a lift to where they turn off the Pan American or take us to Casa Blanca with them and then we hitch hike from there. Part way into the journey, the man asked if we wanted to go back to his to sleep as it was late now and very dark so we agreed, a free bed for the night as well, even more of a result. We were a little confused as to what the man said he did for a living; firstly he said he cultivated the vines and a vine yard close to his house, also he said that tomorrow morning is the start of the 2010 harvest and we were welcomed to come and pick some grapes with him. After a while the story began to change and he didn't cultivate the vines, he didn't even have anything to do with the vine yard, he was just going to make a little bit of extra cash I think he said that you get about $900 pesos per bucket which is approximately 5kg. Doesn't sound like much but the vine yards were vast and they would be picking all day so could easily do many more bucket loads. We stopped off at a service station, as we had missed the turning to get off the Pan American, also they were hungry and it gave us a break to walk around and get some food and drinks. They had their hot dogs, burgers and coffee that was according to the them really disgusting, so we left. We got off the Pan American and were on the home straight, about another 70km to get to Casa Blanca via Viña Del Mar, this area at night looked really fancy with all the palm trees and glowing street lamps dotted along the streets and the houses in the hills. The only reason we had gone via Viña Del Mar was because the road they wanted to take had been closed and we had to go on a diversion. About forty five minutes later we arrived in Casa Blanca, it looked like a bigger version of all the other Chilean towns, we were taken to his mothers house, then to his house where he realised he had left the house keys in the van, which had been taken to his girlfriends family house across town. We got in his car and went to get the keys, on the way he said that we could only stay for one night and that his girlfriend and daughter were going to stay at he mothers house. We got to his house, opened the door, sat down and were made to feel very at home and comfortable, soon after his girlfriend arrived, we were very confused. Maybe he didn't know what he was saying or we misunderstood him, whatever we had no real idea what was actually going on. He went out and got us a beer, we drank beer and watched TV until midnight when his girlfriend went to bed then he soon followed her, his daughter was going to sleep in their bed so it freed up a bed and the sofa for us to sleep on, Dries choose the sofa, leaving me the bed, I certainly was not about to complain about that. We thought we might have to get up really early to go and pick some grapes, but the plan had changed once again, we were going to get up around 9.00, have breakfast then he was going to drop us off at the highway on his way into Valparaiso. Dries was chatting to him whist I was having a shower, his profession had changed once again, this time he was a construction worker, very confusing but whatever I didn't really care about what he did too much. Something a little strange about his house was that he had electrical appliances everywhere, he had a massive TV and a huge surround sound speaker system, there must have been about thirteen speakers in all. We went to bed, I got a really good nights sleep apart from time to time their kittens would be fighting, scratching at the door or falling asleep on my feet or legs. I tried really hard to get them out but whatever I did they kept coming back in. Dries on the other hand wasn't so fortunate, he slept on the sofa that looked comfortable but was far from and was also plagued by the kittens all night, looks like he drew the short straw even though he decided to sleep on the sofa. For breakfast the next morning, our host had gone out and bought some freshly baked bread, and had just crushed some avocados to spread on it, he made us some tea and set the table, then we ate. Good start to the day, for me at least. After we had eaten he drove us to the highway and we got out ready to hitch hike back to Santiago, it was a lot closer now, as we were smack bang inbetween Valparaiso and Santiago, it was about 70km either way.
We were probably only waiting for about half an hour when a lorry pulled over to pick us up, he was heading for Santiago, what luck. This was moments after I had been saying that I'm not going to bother trying to hail lorries as they never seem to stop, I was eating my words when this one pulled up next to us. It was my first experience in a lorry, it was only a two seater but had a bed/sofa in the sleeping compartment behind the seats. I sat in the middle between the driver and Dries perched up on my bench, only thing was I couldn't see out of the window, just the road about 5m in front of the lorry. The lorry drove really slow but was a sublimely comfortable ride and we were on the Santiago ring road in no time. The driver dropped us off because he wasn't going into central Santiago but was heading south around the ring road.
We hadn't even got to a suitable place to start hitch hiking from when a bus pulled over and picked us up, both of us were saying that neither wanted to pay but were willing to as it would have been cheap. When the bus stopped though the back doors opened, we got on and it was empty, we went up to the drivers bit and offered to pay but he was wearing mechanics overalls and said there was no problem, he was on his way to dropping the bus off at the terminal from the workshop so it was on his way. After a few minutes we were in central Santiago and only had to get to the hostel again, only thing now was that we had to either pay for a bus or get the metro as we were still about an hour and a half walk from out hostel. We got the metro, paid $400 pesos and travelled twelve stops, the one we got off was the one on the corner of the road our hostel was on. When we got out it felt like we were going home from a big adventure, it was an adventure but had only been a few days and we hadn't gotten any further than 240km north of Santiago.