Not a lot of exciting things happen between the last post and the time we travel back to Salt Lake for the first time since we’ve moved. We spent the weekend before we left enjoying the friends/acquaintances that we met through the hash by joining them on another run. This time it was through Parque Padre Hurtado. I haven’t been a part of many runs with them, but this one was also brutal. We ran for about an hour and since I’m pretty competitive to stay with the pack, they pretty much killed me. Nah, but I was tired. We gathered for lunch and beers and really enjoyed conversations with English-speaking people other than each other for once. 
Later that night we joined another English speaking activity called the Santiago Pub Crawl. Basically a bunch of college kids put together some drink specials and charge kids that like to go out and have fun and meet new people a small fee to take them around and help them get introduced to new places. I am SO glad that we went to this Pub Crawl ’cause they took us to places that we really had never gottena chance to discover on our own. We met a bunch of people, didn’t spend a lot of cash and good times were had by all! If you’re ever in Santiago and want to meet some solid people, find them here: http://www.santiagopubcrawl.com.
This takes us back to SLC. The flight home wasn’t too bad considering they were playing 3 movies that I wanted to see…which maybe was a bad idea ’cause I didn’t sleep much. We arrived in SLC and our really great friend Jeremy picked us up from the airport, once again. What a nice dude!! We headed out for lunch and to our house to see the dog and start-up the car. It worked. SWEEET! And Jager was SOOOOOOOOOO excited to see us. Or at least he acted like it. It was so nice to see him. We miss him a lot.
A lot of errand running and “to do list” check offs later ends us back into our hotel for the night. What an exhausting day! Tomorrow I go home to the midwest to see my family. I’m pretty excited for this much-needed family vacation!
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The drive from Chiloe to Valdivia was supposed to be about 3 hours. Considering we stopped into Puerto Varas for one last search for the stolen camera, we didn’t leave town until almost 8:00pm. Was it worth driving all that way for just the night? Survey says, YES! So we made our way up Ruta 5 and realized that just driving slightly over the actual speed limit, we were making good time. We actually arrived in Valdivia in just over half the amount of time that we were told…stupid google maps!!
Valdivia is famous for the large rivers that run through their town and the beautiful scenery that surrounds the city. It’s home to the Kuntsmann brewery (of the only good beer that I’ve found in Chile) and a large university that homes several thousands of students. When we got to Valdivia around 9:35pm, the town was dead. Not many people out roaming the streets and it just seemed empty. We didn’t plan ahead this time and actually book a hostel in advance, so we of course drove around town trying to check out the hostels recommended in our travel book in the dark. We actually came across this promising hostel that was located right outside of the bar district in town. JACKPOT!! We knock on the door, and a man with some resemblance to the father from the Adam’s family answers the door in sweatpants and messy hair. Pretty sure we woke him up. Anyway, we asked for a room in his cold and dark hostel, and it was actually pretty nice. TV inside and everything! By this time we were extremely tired and didn’t know if it would be a good idea to even go out. But we needed dinner. So after walking around the super quiet town for a bit trying to find a Peruvian restaurant that didn’t even actually exist, we settled for a family run Chilean joint with some wonderfully cheap food and drink. After dinner we headed back close to our hostel and settled into a jazz music club. Real chill saxophone music plays in the background and a few beers were had to take in the atmosphere. But the exhaustion took over not after too long. We headed back to the hostel for some much-needed sleep.
Sunday was another day of unplanned events, but some fun ideas in mind. We start off the day with a nice lunch at a restaurant nearby the famous river that flows through town. There we met these Kiwis (people from New Zealand) that were having the HARDEST time trying to order off of the menu. I felt pretty bad for them so I actually jumped in and asked them if they could use some translation help. Imagine that…me…the gringa…helping the other English-speaking people translate the menu and ordering. It was a pretty fun experience, actually. So after lunch we paroozed (not sure how to spell that one…but sound it out) the artistic shops around the river and watched as the sea lions scarfed the excess fish body parts that were thrown overboard from the fish market above. We have a special appreciation for sea lions because our dog, Jager, kinda looks like a sea-lion when he swims in the water. Awww….Jager. We miss him. Anyway, I digress.
We head out of town by car to what we thought was going to be a tour of the Kunstmann Brewery. Turns out it’s just a restaurant and gift shop…but we’ll call it a tour anyway. Just a few minutes spent to take pictures and enjoy and authentic Kunstmann beer in the place that it’s made and we’re off again back to Puerto Montt.
I wasn’t impressed with Puerto Montt. It’s a major port town city where most of the boats that head to the southern Patagonia island regions of Chile dock for the night. The town itself is really dirty and very busy. It’s pretty sad ’cause it really has potential to be much better!! It’s right on the water and they’ve put in a boardwalk and a nice park right along the port area, but that’s where the bums and hoodlums hang out so no good luck there. We walked along the river enjoying the views of the sunset and observing the statues of Chilean historical pioneers. Along the river there is a historic train cart that smelled extremely badly of urine and feces. YUCK!! Walking around the train a homeless lady came up to Adam and spoke something in crazy fast Spanish- probably asking for money. We walked away from her quickly just saying “no” and she proceeded to grab his arm and cry out louder causing a big scene. I was pretty freaked by it actually. So I start practically running away and telling her “No nos molestas” which I think means “leave us alone” and the lady started darting towards me. Adam told her “NO!” in a more stern voice and she finally left us alone. YIKES! Crazy, cracked out, homeless people are scary! We head to the nearby mall for some quick grub and head back to the airport. One major mishap occurred though. We were already cutting it close and we didn’t exactly remember how we’d driven into town. So with my poor navigation skills, I tell Adam to keep driving north and he missed the turn for the airport. We had to turn around and speed all the way there. We drop the car off and by the skin of our teeth we arrive at the counter with just enough time to check luggage and make the flight. WHEW! That was a close one!
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Our trip to Puerto Varas/Puerto Montt begins on May 6th, 2010. We leave from Santiago on a late Thursday night flight, getting into Puerto Montt around 10:30pm. We rent a car and our on our way. We get to our hostel with not too much stress and are greeted with the smells of a burning camp fire, as they heat the large house with wood burning stoves. AWESOME! The house is very cozy with a TV room and comfy couches. We stay in on Thursday ’cause we’re beat from Cince de Mayo. And a big day lies ahead of us.
Friday morning we arise early to get breakfast. During our b-fast we meet a German couple that has been traveling around the world. They spent 30 days on a cargo ship with their RV and have been RV camping through South America on a 2 year tour. Probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard! Anyway, we check out and head out to check out tours of the area. We walked around town a little bit in Puerto Varas, a beautiful city right on the lake and saw our first glimpse of the volcano. We decide to grab some grub and make our own way around Lake Llanquehue which is attached to a most beautifiul volcano, Volcan Osorno.
The views of the country-side are really so majestic and wonderful. The GREEN rolling hills remind me a little bit of a MN summer. But more rolling and less corn fields. our first stop was the Saltos de Petrohue- or Petrohue Waterfalls. We got to the park and hiked a trail in what felt like jungle, thought we were lost but finally found the falls. They were truly amazing!! We took a $20 boat trip that lasted for 20 minutes. WHAT A DEAL! Nah. We took some beautiful pictures and really enjoyed the scenery. After the falls, we made our way to a small village down the way from Petrohue. While Adam shopped around, I climbed a hill to find a hidden community in the trees. Pretty cool! After that, we drove to the top of Volcano Osorno, where we planned to hike to the summit. The normal chair lifts were closed so hiking didn’t seem feasible, but we ate lunch at the top where they had a little cafe. How many people can say they ate lunch on the top of a volcano? Pretty sweet.
After the volcano, we were about half-way around the biggest lake in the lake region, Lake Llanquehue, so we decided to make the full trek. Another few miles up the road, we got stuck in contruction. Some workers had to pull a construction truck out of the mud with a backhoe. I think. OH- and also- on the side of the contruction there was a shovel truck giving elevator rides to the workers that had been lifted to the pile of dirt above. Not sure if this is a standard procedure for them, but you would NEVER see that in the states!!
Around 45 minutes from the total circumventing of the lake, we stopped in Frutillar, another brilliant city along the lake. It was dark by this time, so we couldn’t see much. We stopped at small pastry shop and picked up a German torta- delicious!!! Now it was back to hostel to recoup and head out for dinner. We went out for an amazing seafood dinner located not far from the lake. And the best part is that we had 2 bottles of wine two plates of seafood and ceviche for only $60!! Once again, they didn’t take credit cards, so we had to travel to the ATM for that one. Good thing we had the ATM card this time!!
Just down the street from the seafood restaurant was a club that looked fairly promising…so we headed inside. Turns out it was a locals place. It was fun to practice our Spanish and hang out…until later when we realized at some point one of the locals had snached our camera. All the awesome pictures of the volcano and falls and lake….GONE!! We were both heart broken.
Shady club experience aside, we didn’t let the experiences fade. Saturday we headed to Chiloe, a famous island in the South of Chile. As we were driving, we got into a small port town where the road eventually lead to a ramp that guided us into the water. Adam and I looked at each other and thought “this can’t be right.” So he turned around and headed the other direction. However, on the map, it specifically said that Ruta 5 (Route 5) lead us to Chiloe. We re-routed ourselves back onto the original street and realized the car normally in front of us was driving onto a cargo ship. COOL!!! We got to drive onto a ship that took us across the canal. SO COOL!
The first big stop in Chiloe was Ancud. We stopped for lunch and a little souvenir shopping and headed out of town to a place where they claimed to have penguins, Pinguinera. This is a place where they did all of the Chilean penguin tours, so we thought we may get lucky and see some ourselves. It was about a 45 minute drive on a small dirt road out of town from Ancud, but every bit of this drive was awesome!! The green rolling hills were ample, they had cows bigger than what I’ve seen before, and at the end of this small dirt road, there was an opening of the trees, and it spits you off right there onto the Pacific Ocean. In fact, when you get to the bottom of the hill, you even have to drive across a shallow river to reach the open beach. And the views….AMAZING!! It’s a perfect storm of ocean breeze, green meadows and peacefullness. Adam describes that place as the coolest place he’s ever seen. He’s been around the world, and still says it’s his favorite place. We spent some good time there really taking in the scenery. But with the sun quickly dropping and our amibitions to get to Valdivia by too late, we needed to head back to town. We drove back to Puerto Varas and made a last attempt to check on our camera. No luck. But we will venture on!!
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Cinco de Mayo
You know, being in a Latin American country, you’d think that I would remember a day like Cinco de Mayo. It has a very special place in my heart, being a non-USA holiday that Americans celebrate. Cince de Mayo is the time of year that Adam and I first met, so we try and celebrate as little or big as we can.
This year we didn’t know if there would be anyone out there celebrating Cince de Mayo since even though we’re in a Spanish speaking country, they have no idea what it’s celebrated for. Not that I really know, come to think of it?!
We headed out to the only American owned/run establishment that we are aware of. And just like St. Patty’s day, we were pleasantly surprised at how many people were out and celebrating. I swear, they must have had a bat-man American flag shaped light to signify Americans to join us there because during the week that place doesn’t do too much business. However, 5 de Mayo was PACKED!!
Adam stood at the bar and waited for 20 minutes to order a drink. Meanwhile, there was stupid American girls standing at the bar trying to order in their valley girl California accent “two, I mean, dos margaritas, por favor?” to the bartender that speaks no English. Argh. Then there was a red-head chick who kept walking around looking like she was going to puke while two dudes were standing near the bar talking about how cool they were and how America rocks….or something like that.
It’s no wonder why the world hates Americans. Amongst all of the other things that I probably have no clue over.
Overall, another good year of celebration for us, even with the crazy Americans. Happy 5 de Mayo everyone. I hope yours was a good as mine!
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San Pedro de Atacama
So it’s been a while since I’ve really tackled a post or two…so bare with me. This post is actually from the end of April/first weekend of May. I’m working in chronological order here, so try to keep up. Now, the desert.
The trip to San Pedro de Atacama didn’t exactly turn out how we had imagined. A German friend of ours here in Santiago raved about a fabulous experience in the desert of San Pedro de Atacama and said if we ever got a chance to get there, take it. So we figured we’d be up in the desert for Adam’s job anyway, why not combine it? SWEET!
The trip starts off from Calama. We got a later start than we originally had planned on due to my last-minute stop in picking up some much-needed shoes at the Calama mall. 
So we drove into the sunset and into the beautiful desert scenery. Somewhere around halfway during the 1.5 hour drive we came across a 3 song set of the famous 80s-90s boy band group New Kids on the Block. Jamming out (much to Adam’s dislike) I considered this good luck of what our fun weekend would be to come.
As I mentioned, we drove into the sunset but unfortunately that means in the desert that the deep dark sky was soon to come. We arrived to San Pedro in the dark, which was a mistake. We didn’t even realize that we had reached town, as the roads were not paved and the buildings around us looked like clay huts. What an interesting place. So we made an attempt to decipher the only map that we had in our books. We drove around town on the dirt roads desperately looking for street signs wondering what kind of place this was! We couldnt’ find our hostel after driving around for a half hour so we stopped and asked a local with our broken Spanish skills. Come to find out, we practically drove by it…duh!
The hostel in S.P. was not my favorite to say the least. We walk in to find they have two rooms…one right next to the busy common area where people were out drinking and the other near the front door. We thought a front door room would be the right choice…but the people screaming outside and dogs barking constantly at 5:00am proved that decision to be wrong. But I digress. With the stress of finding a place to stay now behind us, the next mission is food.
Before heading out for dinner, we stopped into a tour company or two to ask about cool tours around the city. We had some time to decide so we headed out for food and to meet up with a friend. We found this place that had a large campfire in the middle with smells of smoked food all around. YUM! We ordered the promotion of mixed meat and veggies. Double YUM! While waiting for our friend to show, Adam left to book a tour at the tour company before they closed. This is where the whole weekend turned sour. Adam comes back to the restaurant with bad news. We had decided to spring for a volcano tour that was pretty spendy, but sounded priceless. Apparently we hadn’t allotted for enough money to pay for our tour in cash (’cause who carries cash anymore) and the tour company didn’t take credit cards. Adam tried using the ATM card he thought he had, but that still didn’t work. Tons of stress and worry about what to do about the money situation. We decided on a half-day, less-exciting-sounding tour for the next day and figured we’d fix the money problem tomorrow. A few Caiprioska drinks later, we head back to the hostel for some much-needed rest and relaxation.
The next day we arose early to get a move on and fix the money situation. We found an internet cafe to make a phone call to Wells Fargo via Skype just to find out….the DEBIT card that we thought we had been actually a CREDIT card without a pin set up to get cash. And Adam had misplaced his ATM card a few days prior, so we officially had no way of paying for things in cash from then on. The problem was that this was Saturday morning, our flight goes out Sunday night and not many places accepted credit cards in this tiny, dirt town. AHHH!!! Whatever. We had just enough to pay for the hostel, one more tour and a little more so we found the nearest market that accepted credit cards and grabbed a beer before our afternoon tour. Before we set off on our tour, we stopped into a tour company that accepted credit cards and booked a tour for Sunday to make sure that we took advantage of our time there. The rest of our weekend was supposed to be set, and with just enough luck we’d get through just fine. Almost.
We set out for our tour of the Salar de Uyuni- one of the saltiest lakes in the world where you can swim almost above the water. On the way there we weren’t quite sure if the kinda cold weather would allow us to get into the water for the experience. Screw it, we’re only there once! After soaking for a bit longer, we got out and rinsed off. The tour guide came up to Adam and I and challenged us for the next part of the tour. She said “If you jump into the lake on the next stop of the tour, I’ll give you a pisco sour.” Well…since Adam and I are not many people to back down to a challenge, we returned with “you’re on!” not quite knowing what that was going to mean.
The next stop was to an underground freshwater lake that was home to some of the cleanest pure water. So already cold and dripping from the last stop, Adam and I quickly changed into our suits and took on the challenge. We decided the running and jumping would be our method of choice. After a 1….2….3….countdown, we were in. WHHHHOOOOAAAA!!!! OH MY GOD, THAT WAS COLD!!! As fast as my legs and arms would work, I frantically swam towards the edge of the water and got out. Yikes!! Where’s our pisco sours?!?
Next stop was the salted over lake. The lake was so full of saline water that the top of the water had crusted over…to the point where you could walk over it! So during our walk tour, some dark clouds roll in. A little bit of rain drops and soon we are presented with one of the brightest rainbows that I have ever seen in my life!! The pictures can hardly do it justice. It was the kind that you really did want to go on a search to find the end, because there’s bound to be a whole community of little elves with a whole town of gold. But the tour bus driver turned down that request. A much deserved pisco sour and little snack was served and back on the bus. The ride home was bumpy and cold.
We arrived back in San Pedro and headed for dry clothes at the hostel. Our hostel owner informed us right when we arrived that due to bad weather conditions, the tour for tomorrow had been cancelled. CRAP!! Now what were we supposed to do? We showered and got ready for dinner and met up with a friend for some more grub. We walked through town trying to figure out a good/cheap place to eat…but also accepted credit cards. Another cool looking restaurant with a camp fire in the center for heat was suggested and with cheap food and good atmosphere, we thought “sweet!” A few relaxing drinks and a wonderful dinner was much appreciated after the stress of the weekend. We got the check and Adam presented his credit card. Nope, don’t take those here. DAMMIT!! There goes our leftover money.
Sunday we wake up with not much to do and no cash to pay for anything in this credit card using-less town. We had to borrow a bit of cash from our friend (how embarrassing!) just to do a little adventuring on our own, but we headed out-of-town to Valle de la Luna- Valley of the Moon. This reminded me a lot of the red-rock and red sand of southern Utah and the Moab region. We did a few hikes, climbed around an old abandoned salt mine, admired the huge mountainous sand dunes and headed out-of-town early. We got to Calama with still 3 hours left towards our flight. So we grabbed some grub, headed to the airport early with hopes to get away from this “vacation” with no more troubles. We got on the early flight and back to Santiago safely, AND without needing another ATM stop.
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Calama and Antofagasta
Just a few short days after our trip to Uruguay, I got a chance to accompany Adam on a trip to the north of Chile to the Atacama desert region. First stop, Calama.
A few short minutes into this drive I figured Calama wasn’t a place that I would like to stay for an extended period of time. Like most other dumpy desert towns, it was windy and dusty and filled with dirt in every crevice you could imagine. The amount of skinny, stray dogs here hurt my heart a little because I wondered if they had enough food and water here to even survive. But I guess a big dog population is not what the city wants. Anyway, I digress. The hotel in Calama wasn’t much to write home about. Get the irony in that? It did have a roof top pool, however, where Adam and I spent the majority of the sun-filled afternoon. That night we ventured into town to find some grub and for a quick walk. We made it to the mall, where the movie theater was offering a two-for-one. Too bad they had horrible movies, and dubbed in Spanish. No go. A quick saunter through town square led us shortly back to the hotel for some sleep and recuperation. Tomorrow we head somewhere more interesting.
First thing on the agenda was a trip to a mine outside of Calama. I sat in the car while Adam had a great meeting with a mine official. I tried to stay hidden in the truck when they returned to me, but Adam went for introductions anyway. After the meeting we headed through the desert to another popular beach/mining town, Antofagasta.
Although this town didn’t have much more to offer other than higher buildings and a little more population, it was attached to the beach. ‘Nuff said. We finally located our hotel after driving around for what seemed like forever (because I was STARVING!) and made our way towards some food. Again, we ended back at the mall…for some reason we end up making frequent trips there while traveling. It’s interesting. Anywho, we stuffed our faces with some quick calories and headed back to the hotel. The weather wasn’t great, so we took the rest of the afternoon to sit by yet another rooftop pool with a rooftop jacuzzi. Yeah, life is rough here! A good soak, a long workout, another quick dip and we were set for the night.
The concierge informed us that the hottest night club in town was located in….drumroll, please….the mall. Soooo….we went back for our 2nd trip to the mall that day. And the “hottest” nightclub in town was not so hoppin’ at 11:00pm. The next stop was a karaoke bar. SO FUN! And a great Spanish lesson too. Neither Adam or I actually sang, but it was great to be able to follow along with the words on the screen while everyone else made a fool out of themselves busting out the lyrics.
Friday morning we slept in to relax. We went to breakfast and headed out back to the desert. Before we left town, Adam took me to a place that is very famous to Antofagasta, La Portada. It’s where Arches National Park meets the Pacific Ocean. The most beautiful rock formations and color, meets the crashing waves of the ocean. It truly was such a peaceful and wonderful place. I sat there memorized for about 30 minutes. But there was more driving to be done, so back in the car we go…
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Uruguay, Part 2: Punta del Este
On the way to the beach, even despite the beautiful scenery, I fell asleep. Adam woke me up when we got into the small town of Punta del Este, when he needed directions to the hostal. We arrive on a beautiful day! The sun is out and the wind is calm- perfect timing for some site seeing. We dropped off our things and strolled around town. We headed back to the hostal where I layed down to “rest my eyes” for just a bit…an hour and a half later I woke up and it was dark. Oops.
For dinner we drove to the downtown square where most of the restaurants seemed to be. However, the problem is that since we were there in the off season, most of the places we wanted to go were closed. So we found a local sandwich shop where I had another hot dog (that was not very good, and costs about $4) and made it back to the hostal. I wasn’t feeling well at all. Adam and I were both very tired and worn out from being up early, but were determined to make it out to the nightlife in Punta del Este. What we didn’t realize is the nightlife doesn’t start until around 2:00am. Am I going to even make it that late? We headed out to a place called “Moby Dick’s” around 12:45am where all of the tourists and people in town crowded in. It was a small place, but tonight they had a live band- and the lead singer sang songs of 1990s cover tunes. Sweet!! After jamming out to some Guns and Roses, Rolling Stones, Natalie Imbruglia (random) and Madonna- we decided to call it a night. At 2:30am.
Saturday we slept in, which was much needed. After breakfast we headed outside to find out that it wasn’t really a super warm day…but we were going to make it to the beach anyway. So we packed a bag with appropriate beach attire and headed the 3 blocks to the beach anyway. It was SOOOO windy on the Atlantic side of the water, so we decided to try our luck with the bayside. MUCH better! After a few hours of hanging out here, we drove out to La Barra, the site of the famous bikini beach. Due to colder weather conditions, there were neither bikinis nor famous people out on the beach that day, but the sites were still as wonderful!!
Saturday night we wanted to see what the club scene was all about in Uruguay. So we headed to the only part of town that hadn’t shut down from the off season, and ended up back at Moby Dick’s. It was about 11:30pm and we still hadn’t eaten dinner, so we popped a squat there for some grub and live music again. Same band as the night before, still enjoyable. Next door was where rumor had it would be the best nightclub to visit on a Saturday night. But as the night grew later, we us more tired, the club didn’t seem to have anyone even in it. Moby Dick’s had gotten a similar crowd to the night before, so we stayed there for the entertainment until about 3:30am. Still no crowds at the club next door….ok, time to go home.
Sunday we woke up to rain and even colder weather than the day before. We still needed to grab some famous photos from around the city. In the rain we created our own car tour and headed back to Montevideo for our flight. Another beautiful beach weekend accomplished. Not great weather, but we didn’t let that stop us from creating our own fun.`
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Uruguay, Part 1: Montevideo
Maybe taking that 7:00am flight was a bad idea. We woke up about 4:30am, drowsy and kinda out of it. The car was supposed to arrive at 5:15…supposed to. At 5:35 we finally asked the door man of our building in my very broken Spanish to call us another taxi. Sure enough, as soon as the door man gets on the phone, the car show up. Off we go. The flight to Montevideo (the capital of Uruguay) was filled with energetic toddlers and crying babies. PERFECT!! That’s exactly what I needed at 7:35 in the morning! I was still able to pass out for a bit, between the temper tantrums of the children surrounding.
We arrived in Montevideo to find a very nice and newly built airport with very efficient customs lines. Greeted by smiling faces, we approached the AVIS counter a little nervous about whether or not they would give us a car. Apparently you’re supposed to have an international driver’s license to drive in Uruguay…which both of us lack. No problems here. In fact, they upgraded us to an even bigger car than we reserved. Yippee!?! Anyway, we get outside to find the car pretty dinged up and scratched, but who cares?! They gave us a car!!
Onward to downtown Montevideo we went. In times like these, I really wish that we had the luxury of the GPS like we use in the states because I realized that I’m a pretty terrible navigator. Sorry Adam. But we made it to the town square with just a little confusion. And then the parking. We finally resort to a garage just to find out that the guy inside takes your keys and parks the car for you. This is taking a huge risk…but oh well. Luckily, no harm done.
We take a stroll around town and really take in the beautiful scenery. Just a few blocks in either direction is the ocean and the buildings look like they come out of the medieval times or something. My history knowledge is terrible, but they looked really cool to say the least. We find an outside terrace to grab some lunch and take in the surroundings. I hadn’t been feeling well since the morning, so I ordered a hot dog with some Canadian bacon wrapped around it (pretty good, actually) and ended up eating only about half. A stray dog was wandering around begging for food, so I figured, “hey, I’ll just feed him the last part of the meat. I’m sure he’ll like that.” Yeah, No. He sniffed and moved right along. GRRR!!! That is like the 3rd time that I’ve tried to feed a hungry looking dog and no good- and that one had meat! Whatever, his loss.
After lunch we grabbed some Gatorade, made our way back to the car. In one piece the car was delivered to us and just like that we’re on our way again. A big part of the next drive is right along the water…captivating and calming….ZZZzzz…
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Maraton de Santiago 2010
Sunday, April 11th, 6:30am. The alarm rings. Uggghhhh. I hate mornings. Especially knowing that within just a few hours I was committing myself to running 13+ miles. Not super excited.
I got out of bed very thankful that I had organized my running gear the night before. I slowly put together some breakfast before we had to head out the door. The Santiago metro normally opens around 8:00am on Sundays, or maybe even later. Honestly I’ve never been up to witness it. However, on marathon Sunday they open up at 7:00am. Right outside our apartment complex you could see red, white and blue shirts sauntering their way down to the subway station. Inside the cars were a mess of tired people in their running gear heading in the same direction as we were.
We arrived to the starting line destination just to be greeted with about 19,995 other people wearing their similar red, white or blue running shirts that were provided by the marathon. These people seemed to be WAY to energetic for 7:00 in the morning. But the energy and excitement soon wears off. We make our way to the starting line and very shortly after the 8:00am starting siren, we made our way through the gigantic starting line bridge. Within about 30 feet of the starting line, it was so busy and people were bumping into each other trying to get ahead so much that someone knocked my headphones off of my Ipod. DAMMIT! That was my 10-20k getting through the rest of the race plan. I was so irritated but I wasn’t going to fight the crowd to go back. So because Adam is such a wonderful guy, he switched me his Iphone (that plays out loud) with my Ipod and my irritation melted away.
The first 5k was easy. Well…as easy as 5k can be. Reaching and exceeding the 10k water station got a little more difficult. We had only prepared our running regimen to about the 10k mark (or a little more), so neither one of us were really sure if we’d make it running much longer. Luckily along the sides of the roads were several Chilean citizens cheering us on. Now, we knew that none of these people were friends or family members of ours, but that didn’t matter. The excitement and encouragement of the people on the streets, and even the runners around us were enough to keep going. At the 15k water station, I had told myself that I was going to give myself a break. With this and the last race, Adam and I talked about how he would part around that time frame and he would run his normal pace (because I’m much slower) and we would meet at the finish. It was Adam’s encouragement (and algebraic equation) that kept me running until 16k. We figured with only 5k left of the race (which is something we’d been able to do with little to no problem) he would part then and I could give myself a break like I wanted. So I pushed on. We said our “adios” and made finish line arrangements and Adam went on his way. WHEW!! So I stopped to walk for about 30 seconds. The problem I found though was at that point since I had been running for the past almost 2 hours, it was actually easier to run than to walk. So I turned on the Iphone, found a song with a good beat “Take on Me” by A-Ha and ran the rest of the way. Thanks to that wonderful 80s one-hit-wonder band for making that song that just so happened to match my running pace because I ended up playing that song on loop for the remaining portion of the race to get me to the finish line.
Waiting just beyond the finish line was Adam. I caught a glimpse of him before he saw me. At the point I saw him I was so exhausted and ready to be done. The girl next to me that I had been silently competing with to the finish line was getting closer and closer to passing me. NO WAY LADY! I picked up the pace and crossed the finish line with a time of 2:32. 15 minutes more improved than the Moab “Other Half” last October. I found Adam and gave him the biggest hug that I could conjure up at that moment with tears welling up in my eyes. I was so proud, and so exhausted and so excited all at the same time. Another defining life moment here in South America.
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Buenos Aires
I won’t be too vein to think that I have a huge following (or one at all), but I have had a few requests to get caught up…so here it goes.
Over Easter weekend 2010, Adam and I visited Buenos Aires. What a wonderful city!!! The trip started out with a delayed flight and a little airport anxiety, but we weren’t going to let that stop us! Upon arrival in Buenos Aires, we grabbed a few beers and headed to our hostel. Night one was a night out on the town. Argentina is known for their wonderful steaks…so of course on my first meal in Buenos Aires…I order chicken. Duh. Luckily Adam had a clue and we shared the piece of wonderful steak that he ordered. I won’t make that mistake again.
Day two is full of sight-seeing. We were tipped off to a cool Bohemian neighborhood near the water. So to try to shake the hangover, we walked, and walked, and walked. And walked some more. BA has a very European feel. Well, if I had been to Europe before, I’d imagine that it would look like this. There were so many old-looking buildings and statues. If I was more of a history buff, I might go wild. Even still, I enjoyed. We made it to La Boca and found an abundance of street life and futbol. Since it was Saturday night, we ventured out to find a mega-club. We don’t normally frequent those kinds of places, but we figured we’re in the best place in South America to party, so let’s see what it’s all about. Dinner brought us two large steaks (so yummy!) a huge plate of salad and potatoes and a bottle of wine. All for the low price of about $40. We love Argentina so far!! After dinner we head out to Asia de Cuba. The name doesn’t make much sense, and neither did the business management inside. They had two large bars at each end of the club, but only staffed one of them with a huge crowd of people. Interesting choice. But on the plus side, they did play 80s-90s retro music with a true club style. Forgiveness granted.
Because Saturday was such a long night, Sunday we took some time to relax a bit and discover the neighborhood closer to our hostel. Just a few blocks down stood a huge cement statue called “Obelisco” which kind of acted as the downtown square. We walked around and grabbed some grub and really just took in the city. Sunday night we had planned on heading to a dinner and Tango show, so we headed back home to get ready.
The Tango dinner and show was by far the highlight of the whole trip!!! We walked into a restaurant that was oh so beautiful with gold lining and meticulous paintings. Upstairs was where the intimate show was held. They served us the choice of an appetizer, entre and dessert. Once again I had steak with a cream soup and flan for dessert. The whole meal was AMAZING!!! Shortly after our desserts were picked up the show started. And since I’ve been a dancer for pretty much all my life, I was more excited that most (I think) to see this show. I hadn’t really paid attention to the ballroom dance circuit when I was younger, but the appreciation is still there for sure. The Tango is a very sexy, sensual dance and the dancers on the stage did a great job at acting out their interpretations of this style. There were also folk dancers and singers and musicians. The whole show was such a blast!! It’s hard to describe the feeling in the atmosphere during the show, but there was much appreciation for their craft. When the show was over, I even got a chance to dance with one of the male dancers for a very brief lessons of sorts. What a great night!!
After the show we headed back home to the hostel once again. With the excitement of the weekend, I headed to bed. Monday was going to be a long day of traveling back to Santiago and I needed some ZZZzzzs.
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