Gearing up for the 26.2!

As the big day of the Santiago marathon was getting nearer, I got more and more excited. My teammates and I were running awesome long runs, we bought some sweet shirts and printed our team name on them, and my students were starting to make me signs showing their love and support. I had a good feeling this marathon was going to go well...

Street art

In Iquique there's often random displays of art around town in the plaza, on the walls, on the beach, etc. I've found various words the past few weeks that I thoroughly enjoyed, including some string art, hidden sea life murals, and public statement murals. I also included the latest of my never-ending oil painting...we're getting closer to the end! I can see the light!

Spanish flamenco in Chile

A friend of mine is in a Flamenco Dancing group and had a free performance. I went with some friends because I absolutely love the flamenco, and it was awesome. There was a group from Bolivia that danced beautifully...it brought me back to my times in Granada, Spain, watching flamenco in the caves...

A visit from Chiloe

When I was travelling through southern Chile, I stayed with a family on their farm on Chiloe Island and volunteered there in exchange for free camping and food. I spent 10 days with them on the farm and got to know the family very well. One of the sons, who is dating another volunteer on the farm from California, were travelling through Iquique on their way to Peru and stopped by to visit for the weekend! For the first time I was able to be the tour guide instead of the tourist in Iquique! I loved it...we went out for delicious empanadas, cold beers, and drove around town before they continued on their way. If you want to come to Iquique too, I'll gladly show you around!

Let's Go Dragons, Let's Go!

I finally made it to a Chilean soccer game...and it was kind of boring. After the tremors in Iquique people wanted to stay in their houses, so there were very few fans at the game. Apparently the Light Blue Iquique Dragons are pretty good, but the fan club wasn't that great. The first half of the game no one scored, but the halftime and the second half were a lot more entertaining.

My friend is a sports radio announcer and was covering the game. He was in the booth so we went up to say hi during halftime. Right when we got up there he was sending me an on-air greeting, talking about the upcoming marathon, so when we walked in he started interviewing me on-air. I was totally caught off guard and forgot all my Spanish...

After the excitement in the radio booth we went back to the stands to watch the second half. That's when Iquique scored two goals to win the game....much more exciting than the first half. Next time I need some light blue dragon apparel and I'll be good to go as their cheerleader!