Day 639 – South America – Chile [Pailimo Chico to Navidad]

20/01/22

38km

  From Pailimo Chico (Chile) to Navidad (Chile)

South America

A very nice run inland on trail roads – and an inflamed sciatic nerve to nurse…

Dusty trail today

Yesterday evening whilst walking around, I moved my right leg at a funny angle and felt the sciatic nerve instantly shoot pain all the way up my leg and lower back. For a while I was completely crippled and every position was painful. I walked on it until it became tolerable. This morning as I started the run, I was almost walking for the first few km, it was so painful. Then, as I was expecting, the pain subsided slowly and I found a way to run that did not trigger the inflamed nerve. A slow run, but I was glad that I got through without much pain.

Dusty lunar surface

The run today went inland. I had glimpses of the ocean here and there. Most of the run was on an unsurfaced road, very quiet, almost no traffic. It was very dusty and I was glad there were not many cars, because each time one passed me I ended up running in their cloud of dust for the next 500m! Anyway I enjoyed the run and the vistas. We stopped today in Navidad. Navidad is a town known for its rock formations (ocean side) which have first been described by Darwin in his 1846 book “Geological observations on South America” – you can read all about it on Wikipedia!

Glimpses of the Pacific coast

So tonight we shall visit the coastline and check these out. It’s very windy again, the wind is quite chilly on the coast! This afternoon I received messages from Maurizio, a Chilean runner who has heard about my journey from Condor Campers (the company that rents our campervan). So… I may have company on the road tomorrow – that would be a real treat!

Enjoy the video of today’s run: https://www.relive.cc/view/vXOd5j7z946

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: