Mendoza - a weekend with the girls

Stephen was sweet enough to let me leave the country for a weekend with the girls 2 weeks ago.  Nadine, Monique, Anu and I hit Mendoza, Argentina for a fun-filled weekend! 

Basically, the weekend consisted of steak, wine and music!  I really just wanted to share some pictures of Mendoza for you all to enjoy.

Mendoza is a beautiful city, filled with parks and tree lined streets.  They are also known for the steak and wine, which we made sure to get to know!

Other than a 9 hour bus ride to Mendoza and a 7 hour bus ride home, it was a great weekend!  But don't worry, we made the best of the bus ride, jamming out to music and drinking vino :)

There were something like 28 curves....1/2 way there!

It was pretty neat from the top.

A little bit of everything

As Stephen mentioned in his last post, we had a pretty active weekend last weekend.  I'm still suffering the consequences of it......

In addition to the 10K we ran, I participated in the Santiago Crossfit Games last weekend. Clearly it kicked my butt, as I opted out of the 2nd day of the competition with a sore shoulder (on top of a million other aches and pains :))...but what an experience!  I lifted more weight than ever before (and more than just one time)!  Being down here has completely changed my workouts with Pavel, the awesome owner of Crossfit Santiago, pushing me to be better, stronger and faster.  Needless to say I came in last place, but it has given me motivation for being a real competitor in the next competition we will have!

Other than that, our weekend was filled with napping and brunch.  We found a brunch spot, Cafe Melba, with some of the best breakfast foods around (Chileans don't do weekend brunches, so this place is a gem) and we go religiously.  It is the highlight of every Sunday - and sometimes Saturdays too!

We also found the best ice cream place in Santiago - which happens to be 2 blocks from our apartment, Bravissimo.  When we first got to Chile, we joked that everyone here either smokes or eats ice cream.  It was bizarre.  Walking down the street, 2 out of 3 people had an ice cream cone or cigarette in their hand.  Well, 2 months later, we know why!  The ice cream is SO good.  I don't even know if it's better than US ice cream, but it has become our obsession lately.  We tried a new place yesterday...bad idea.  Gotta stick to the places you like....in fact, I went and got a second scoop at Bravissimo because I was that disappointed.  Good thing I have been running alot lately :)

Not much else going on right now.  I am going to Mendoza, Argentina for girls weekend next weekend and then Stephen and I are going to Uruguay for Easter week to meet up with some friends we met while they were traveling through Santiago.  So should have some fun and exciting posts in the next couple weeks for you!  With pictures!

As always, hope this finds you well...abrazos,
Steph and Stephen

The Santiago Marathon

So Stephanie has been writing all the blogs so I figured that I was due to post something.  I have the honor of writing about the race we ran today, the Marathon of Santiago.  We actually ran the 10K race which started right after the marathon.  We did not really train for the race but it didn't matter because the sheer number of people running did not allow us to run very fast.  In my opinion this was better because we ran at a slower pace which let us notice the scenery of some areas of the city that we had not yet seen.  There were 20,000 participants for the race.  It was great weather and was not too hot so it was really a great day for running.  It was a flat course too so they say that its a good place to shoot for a PR not that it mattered to us. 
The Chilean President Sebastian Pinera was there at the race.  He was at the starting line.  Stephanie waved at him but he did not wave back...He must not have recognized her. 
We want to do some other races but we don't know which yet and there are not that many choices so we will see.  Anyways stay tuned. Don't touch that dial.   



This was the starting line.  We are the ones wearing the green shirts.  Can you see us?