Day 634 – South America – Chile [Los Rabanos to Lipimavida]

15/01/22

33km

  From Los Rabanos (Chile) to Lipimavida (Chile)

South America

Foggy and grey skies, busy roads on a Saturday through beach resorts and a tsunami alert

Crossing Rio Mataquito early morning

As is often the case since we started the South American crossing, the morning was moody, mist from the ocean created a veil of fog and the skies were grey. The running did not feel real nice from the get go. I am strapping my right ankle for the second day in a row and it is working in terms of reducing the swelling in the veins. However I am still bothered by the slanted road. It feels like it has been hundreds of kilometers since I last ran on an even road. And it is all putting pressure on the inside of my right ankle. Got to find a solution.

Moody skies, moody waves today

As I ran past the numerous seaside resorts towards Iloca, they were all very busy, shops, people, cars… and I had no hard shoulder to run on for about 15km. It is lucky Chilean drivers are very courteous, generally slow and respectful of the distances. It’s not as much the danger that concerned me today, but the sheer amount of traffic, I had to swerve around traffic, not ideal. Anyway, there are good days, which is almost all of the time – and then sometimes there is a day like today where I wish things would have gone better!

Empanadas, a national treasure

Tonight I finally managed to sit down at a cafe with a stable wifi connection and worked on all of my past blog-posts that were missing things (GPX map, videos, pictures…). And I think I am now up to date, at last!

As I was sitting at the cafe, I heard everyone’s phones, including mine, sending a loud alarm sound. I looked at mine, it read: “Tsunami alert – leave playa area immediately – O’Higgins Area”. I was really concerned, especially as James was at the cabana (near the sea in Iloca) with no direct access to the internet. O’Higgings area is just north of where we are. And the whole thing is an aftermath of the tsunami that hit Hawaii and the US West Coast… A scary moment.

Rare moment of blue sky and a monkey tree

Enjoy the video of today’s run: https://www.relive.cc/view/veqzBPK977q

[PS: I see today that my GPS device is badly calibrated: if you look at the graph it shows me running up to 20m below sea level, whereas I am running right by the ocean shore… that also can explain why all the elevation readings are so wrong lately – if you know how to fix this, send me a PM please!]

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: