The Adventures of Sarah in South America

It all started with a flight, then another ( longer) flight followed by a short taxi ride to another airport to catch another flight before we finally got settled into the sketchy van for a never ending 3 hour ride. That’s when we saw the “Welcome to La Paz” arch, and knew we had arrived. I was racing the next Sunday (all the travel was on Tuesday/Wednesday) so we had a few days to relax, let the training sink in and see the sights! Well, there aren’t very many sights to see in La Paz, Argentina so we mostly relaxed and trained a bit. The whole town seemed to come alive for the triathlon weekend, which is definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I’d never been to South America before but I adapted rather quickly. Don’t look for stop signs on the roads, you won’t find them. Two o’clock to four o’clock is siesta time, so better make sure you’re not hungry or out of bottled water because no one else is out to help you out! But it’s a great time to ride around the empty streets, if you can withstand the heat. We made friends with the waiters at the hotel restaurant where we ate breakfast and dinner every day, as much friends as you can be without speaking the same language. Luckily, Kathy’s Spanish was good enough to get us through, and we always got the taxi to come back and pick us up at the pool when we were done swimming. Gold star for Kathy! On Friday night we got treated to a wonderful concert complete with singing and multiple drums…at 11:30, right under our hotel window. Luckily, most age groupers were racing the next day so it didn’t last too long and we got some sleep as well.

The race ended up creeping up on us and it was go time. Few highlights: the crazy current in the river that pretty much made you swim on the spot if you didn’t put some effort into it, and quickly go backwards if you ever felt like stopping. The pontoon that wasn’t really facing the race course (dive-in followed by a 90 degree turn). The bumpy roads with the kids standing in the middle to hand out water bottles to the riders. The unforgiving, blazing sun on the run course that made us all glad to be done. The manzana flavored Powerade (really, Argentina? Let’s just stick with the “red” flavor). The rows of fans cheering us on all throughout the race, usually from shady spots on the course (smart people). The massive confetti gun during the awards ceremony while they played “We are the champions”. The random people on the streets wanting pictures, even though they don’t speak a word of English. Here's a link to some results if you don't like my ramblings and would like some hard data.

After a burger and some Dulce de Leche ice cream (Kelowna memories anyone?), it was time to pack up again and get started on the 2nd leg of our journey. Chantelle and I parted ways with some of our Canada and USA-bound friends as we boarded a plane for Chile. It was a late night but we settle into a very nice hotel on the beach in a town that is recognized as the vacation spot for wealthy Chileans and Argentineans. Of course, we picked the high-season to visit, just to make sure we were truly immersed in the culture...and the sea of people. Luckily, we met some friends on the shuttle and became quite inseparable for rest of the week of training. Carlos, Barbara and Martin joined us for training and meals, as we learned some basic Spanish and Martin improved his English. And we both improved our sign language. Training was a bit of a challenge, but since no one else really got up before noon, the streets were ours to play in for a few hours every morning. We practiced the waves a little bit since the race was going to be in the cold ocean, went for rides along the beautiful coast (not very long since we were getting ready for a race) and did a little shopping.

Race day went by much faster this time around; since the race was at 8 AM, I didn’t have all morning to agonize it. The field was similar to La Paz but the race played out a bit differently. Two girls got away on the swim, increased their lead on the bike, and were just too far up the road to be caught on the run. Still a great race and a good learning experience for me. Chile knows how to put on a professional race and Canada just missed out on having 2 on the girls podium (although the time gap was still rather substantial). More results here. We finished the day with a bit of touring, South America style, too much walking and a nice dinner and wine at the ever fancy race hotel with all our new friends (minus Ben who had to run across the neighborhood to make his bus because we got off at the wrong metro station. We all hope you made it back to Colorado Ben). A long airport day on Monday finished off the trip nicely and now it’s back to Barbados for some more training before the adventures begin again!

Here are some pictures from La Paz:

Happy training friends!