Chile’s capital, Santiago, is a big city with a backdrop of the Andes, providing you can see them through the smog. Despite staying here for three weeks, I did not see much of the city. It was either cold or rainy or I was busy with work. I ventured off a couple of times in the historic center but that was it. I cycled a little bit but not as much as I would have liked to, for the same reasons.

While in Santiago I lived through my fifth earthquake, a 5.4 magnitude shake: I probably would have peacefully slept through it, had Julie not woken me up.
We also played “The Biggest Loser” within our Sep7imo Dia team. For three weeks, I deprived myself of wine, desserts and anything tasty. Still, I lost to a guy who did not seemingly have much to lose, in terms of weight.

During one of our weekends, we went to Valparaiso, a coastal city about two hours away. There is nothing much to see in terms of sightseeing but the city is full of colors with more graffiti and murals than I have ever seen in one place. We spent a couple of days walking up and down the hills, eating and drinking at nice restaurants with open terraces and views of the ocean, feeding pelicans and sea lions at the local fish market. It was nice and sunny and, not very typical for us, a pretty chill weekend.

These weeks in numbers:
127 km – distance covered
4.6 kg – lost while starving myself trying to win
50 – USD was the stake in our competition