My new favorite place in the world: Pucon, Chile!!!

More Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/triusa/Pucon?feat=directlink

I have been asked by tons of people what my favorite place is that I’ve traveled. I’ve always answered Madeira, a Portuguese island out in the Atlantic Ocean. However, after my recent travels, I have a new favorite: Pucon, Chile!!! When I was thinking about this, I thought about how lucky I am to have traveled so much: Japan (3 times), Spain, Mexico (several times), Canada, Austria, Germany, South Africa (twice), Thailand, Honduras, Argentina (twice), Brazil (3 times), England, Hungary, and probably a few more that I missed. I’d actually been to Chile 2 years ago for an ITU race in Villarica, the sister city to Pucon located only 15min away. I remember when we were there that we heard there was a half Ironman race in Pucon the week before our race. At the time I was still in my Ironmans and 70.3s are crazy! I had no desire to do anything longer than an Olympic distance. Fast forward two years and I’m actually back in Pucon for my third 70.3! Since I spent over two weeks in Chile, 8 of those days in Pucon, I got a real taste of the culture.

The people were so friendly and outgoing! And they have quite the lifestyle…stay up until the early morning hours and then sleep in until 11! The breakfast at my hotel did not even START until 9am (in the US they are over by then!) and went until 11:30…and I never saw anyone down there at 9 J. I could go bike and run and the roads would be traffic free in the mornings…and the views while riding were remarkable. Our post race dinner started at 10:30pm! And desert wasn’t served until midnight…and that was followed by the discotec!

The food was yummy and relatively cheap. And since Pucon is the adventure capital of Chile there are several options to keep you busy: volcano hike, trekking, bike riding, rafting, kayaking, canopy tours, horse riding, and hydrotail to name a few. And if you would rather do something relaxing, you could chill out on the beach or spend day at the thermal spas!

Everyone in the town, from the residents to the tourist, are all active and very fit! Most people walk or ride bikes to get around. Instead of making a monthly trip to Wal-Mart/grocery store…they just pick up items for a day or two and carry it back home. That way they can pick up fresh fruit/vegetables and hot out of the oven bread. The product was delicious and could be found at vendors along pretty much any street. I did this quite a bit too and loved it…I am not looking forward to my first trip back to good ole wally world!

So if anyone is looking for an adventurous destination trip…I highly recommend Pucon!!!! Details of some of my journey through Pucon are above, enjoy!

CHILE!!!

Yes, Chile, not chilly....I am in Vina del Mar, Chile...where it is 90 degrees, sunny, and stays light outside until 9:15 pm! Its a very nice change from the snow and cold back in Colorado.

So you might be wondering, why in the world am I in Chile??? For a race, of course! I raced in the Vina del Mar ITU race this morning, and will be racing the Pucon 70.3 race next Sunday. And since I have a week to spare in between, I'll be going to San Alfonso del Mar, tomorrow, for two days. It is the home of the world's largest swimming pool and there was NO WAY I was going to pass that opportunity up! I am not sure if I'll have internet access once there, but hopefully I'll be able to get some cool pictures posted.

I've been practicing my espanol with the locals, which has been muy divertido. And they always get a kick out of my charades when I can't quite say the right thing. I actually ran into quite a few American today that came out to watch the race...I guess alot of people spend their winters over here, and I can see why! And the street perfomers here are not only really good, but they really perform, IN the street. Not along the street or walkways like in the US, but in front and between cars stopped at stoplights, pure craziness!

Alright, so about the race. Pre-race morning stuff was going good...until we discovered there were no Porta Potties...and the host hotel would not let us in so sent us over to an apartment building...they wouldn't let us in and sent us to a restaurant...that wouldn't let us in! Finally one of the other girls in the race took us to her hotel which was about 6 blocks away, Thank You Romina! When we got back to transition it was about 9:20 and we were supposed to start at 9:45, with introductions at 9:40. So Yasmine and I headed down to the beach, got our wetsuits on, and warmed up. When we get out of the water, no one is around! Come to find out, they delayed the start and we had another 40minutes...so I chilled out and stretched a bit.

There were some pretty good waves at the start that we had to dive under and then swim over, yeah, I love a wavey swim! The swim ended up being WAY short, oh well. I still came out with a good lead and got on my bike and took off. The course was 8 laps with a little bit of a hill about midway through. And there were dogs running all over the place: running out in front of me, next to me, and chasing me! I ended up gaining a little bit of time on the pack of 5 behind me and I was riding solo. On the 7th lap at one of the 180 turns (which was across a median, so very narrow) there was local just standing in the middle of it straddling his bike. I come whipping around, swerve to miss him, had to unclip and wobbled a bit. That got my heart racing, so I was good to go for the last 1.5 laps!

Then it was off on the run! The run was 4 loops of a 'squashed M'. So we went down to the end, half way back, then turned around and went back to the end, then all the way back to transition...and repeated 4 times. So on the 1st loop, I make it to the far end and start heading back. I follow the arrows on the ground and then there are 4 arrows looped around a circle with an X in it marked on the ground with two cones. I turn around there and run back to the end. Once I get there, an official on a motorcycle tells me I missed the turn and have to go back....the real turn around was farther up the road (and was not marked with arrows?????) so I ran for a little over an extra minute...and while I was doing that one of the girls from the pack behind me caught me. She got a little bit of a gap on me and I tried to stay close. On lap four I was gaining a little on her but she beat me by about 20 seconds (that's just a guess, I haven't seen the results yet.) So I started the year off with a 2nd place. Definitley would have liked to have had the win...but what can you do???? And all in all it was a good day and I felt pretty darn good for it being the beginning of the season and for not being in race shape!

Now I'm off to get some R&R, sunshine, and swimming as I get ready for next weeks race! Adios :)

My Hair is ALL GONE!!!

Well, I took the plunge and chopped off all my hair! I know, crazy!!! Those of you that have know me my whole life, know that I have ALWAYS had long hair. As a kid I wanted to grow it all the way down to my feet...that never quite happened but it has stayed long all of these years. I decided to grow it out for Locks of Love in March and have been working hard ever since :) I went in to have them check to see if it was long enough last week, and they said yes, looks like you have 10inches. I made sure they knew it HAD to still go into a ponytail and they assured me it would. So they chopped it off! I must admit that I almost had a heart attack when the scissors made the first big snip and then again when I realized all of my hair was gone! What had I done??? I also found out that it doesn't quite go into a ponytail...only the top half fits and its so short! I am finally starting to get used to it and actually figured out one advantage to the short hair today when I went to swim: my swim cap ripped and I had to swim capless...my hair stayed out of my face for the most part and didn't weigh 10 tons, so it was all good. Alrighty, I'm outta here, have a great one!

Lucky Ducky Derby

When I was in Clearwater, Randy & I went to check out the Tampa Bay auto show to see all the new Suzuki's, we were looking forward to seeing their Kizashi Concept Car. When we were down there we stumbled across the Lucky Ducky Derby. The dumped 20,000 rubber ducks out of a cement truck and into the river. The ducks floated down and the first ones into the tunnel won. Check out the fun pictures...our family Lab Mr.Bailey would have loved this!!!