It’s pretty hot in Santiago now, and this kind of slows down all my processes. I tend to sleep in, mostly because I’m up late… then blog or read a bit, do some stuff that needs to be done, file documents, check credit card bills, get in touch with my bank etc… all that stuff doesn’t stop because you’re traveling, and I need to do it at one point…

Then I walk around a bit in Santiago, hunting phone chips or strolling through neighborhoods, right now pretty much without any goal. I ran into an English bookstore today, and bought a little classic, to read in the next few days, as I ran out of my books long ago and left them back in Rio, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires.

I have become pretty non-nostalgic about shedding things off. I got the new iPad Mini waiting for me in San Francisco, from that point on I will have all the books for download. I’ll miss the paper but right now that is the only viable option. I just cannot carry all that weight.

What else then? I tend to have a nap at the pool in the afternoon, then go to my local coffee shop to blog a bit later, head home and walk around Bellavista or Lastarria in the evening. Both areas are buzzing with people, and I just like to hang out.

In Lastarria I found the cute restaurant, bar and shop called The Clinic, a sort of radical, anarchistic, communist place, that attracts a hip (and not necessarily poor) crowd.

The second round of presidential reelections are coming up on Sunday. The race is on between Michelle and Evelyn, and The Clinic is having a field day in ridiculing right-wing Evelyn.

Tonight I’m blogging in this rock bar Maldito, just a few blocks down.

This would be the place for my friend Sue. I might walk into Bellavista later. Nothing special to report, but I need those slow days, and more of them. It seems like a waste of time, but on such a long trip those days are valuable to re-charge. I would not be able to keep going at full speed all time.