My first race

I must admit to having felt home sick for a while. Being able to alone grab my bike and go for a ride at any time of the day or night just minutes from the city center. Here the story is different. Where are a lot of talks about people getting robbed and places where you shouldn't go with your bike.

And I wasn't particulary happy to get to know that I wouldn't be able to ride the specialized enduro for the race. It was Fernanda's idea that I should still join and that I should ride her old bike and that she's convinced I wont brake it. I really never believed in this thing about it's not about the gear, but I though I should be able to replace everything I brake, so why not!

Fernanda's old bike is great! It doesn't have much suspension and a very steep angle. But no, it's not all about the gear. I'm starting to really like the dry, loose and dusty terrain. And I'm convinced that one more day of practice on the trails would have given me a bigger advantage than more suspension.

I broke the fork but except for that I think the bike survived. So did I, I didn't even hurt myself but I did get tired.

We were six of us competing in my category. This time around Vera from Santiago and Mariana from Peru, both downhill racers, are both faster than me. Unfortunatly Franca and one more girl can't finish the race because they fell, otherwise I think four girls would have been faster than me.

Thanks a lot for a fantastic weekend! I'm planning to run many more races in 2014!!!

Dreams about rain

Here in Santiago I am definitely back in the capitalist world there at least a lot of things can be bought for money, still I didn't manage to get hold of a bike.

The thing I never really liked about biking is how much about the equipment it is. So now it's time to prove it!

There are all these things you need to do to really become a biker. I never rode a race and I never built a bike. Bike shops are closed and won't open again until I'm already on my way to the race. So won't be able to buy a frame and components to put a new bike together for the race. Thanks to Fernanda, an absolutely incredible personality, I will (or might...) be riding this weekends enduro race on her old cross country bike.

I'm still not really able to adjust the gears properly. It will cost me a lot of time and effort, but I will build my own bike and become my own bike mechanic.

What more is different here is that it seams that the rain definitely stopped following me. Here the terrain and the trails are dry and dusty with very little grip. It will definitely take some getting used to.

Lesson learned

This girl might have been the sister of the guy who asked for my bike. But for whatever I know she was just as honest as somebody can be. She organized a cab for me to get back to the hostel, waited with me until the cab showed up,made sure that the driver knew there I was going, negotiated a fixed price for me. Even if I was never really afraid of the toy gun I now didn't feel very comfortable in the neighbourhood any more.

Alberto skipped biking to help me going to the police station to get a report, and organized for a fantastic day biking in the mountains the next day!

The people I meet here in Argentina are just amazing, but I guess living in a country there the government more or less literary robs you, as does some of the kids on the street. You learn to stick together and help each other.

And about myself I guess you learn from your mistakes. There were a lot of things I could have and should have done to avoid this.

I should have told Alberto that I was planning to follow calle Goody Cruz for about five km east to come to his place, he would have told me that I should rather go one or two km south than five km east.

I should have turned around when seeing that the houses there not very pretty and the neighbourhood didn't look like the kind of place you chose to live in if you can afford to spend a lot of money on a bike.

I should have turned around when I saw that the house number where 4200 and not 34.

I should have turned around when the first women I asked for directions indicated that I should be careful about who to ask for directions and watch out if I see two people arriving on a scooter.

Instead I biked back and forward trying to find number 34, and stopped to ask for directions a second time. So now I know the reason why the people here always insist on taking long detours to pick me up at my place. And why still in Brazil I always asked asked about where it is safe to go before going for a run. So now I learned my lesson, and the price could have been a lot higher.

BBQ

Argentina is famous for it's meet and bbq's. I thought I already knew the argentinian bbq's from my last visit. Well, I think that was the bbq adapted to gringo tastes.... Here not only the meet ends up on the bbq ;) These things takes forever to cook, but everybody makes sure not too eat too much before they are ready, real good stuff!!! I don't really know what it is, so you will have to guess for yourself... blood sausage is another thing which seams to end up on the bbq each time together with the more conventional beef and sausages.