Look at these great open-water swimmers – both Chilean record-holders.
Look at these great swimmers! This is a photo of Benjamín Caceres (20) and Bárbara Hernandez (24) after one of their training sessions swimming in Magellan Strait (we’re talking the frigid waters that separate the southernmost tip of the South American continent from the island of Tierra del Fuego, water T around 7ºC or so). That’s me in the middle, with the dry hair. I didn’t swim with them here – I am just proud that they are my friends!
I’ve known Benja and his family for six years, and I’ve just been down visiting them in Punta Arenas, Chile, for a couple of weeks. Benja had already done his Strait swim before I arrived. He trained for this crossing for a year, both in the pool and in the river in Valdivia, where he is studying marine biology. The narrowest part of the strait is in the far north, starting from Punta Delgada on the mainland, about 5 km across to Bahía Azul, on the island of Tierra del Fuego.
Currents are strong throughout the Strait, but especially here at the narrows, so the timing of his crossing was very important: aiming to swim at slack current. But the Patagonia weather is wild! You can predict the tides weeks or even years in advance, but you never know what the weather is going to hand you. Fortunately, his chosen day of January 8th was relatively calm… so he, accompanied by his trainer and family, set out. And his crossing went perfectly. As Benja explains it, before he knew it Tierra del Fuego was right in front of him. His crossing time was just over an hour (1:01:35, to be exact), a new Chilean record.
I arrived a month later, and met Benja’s friend Bárbara, who did her own crossing of the Strait while Benja and I were out at San Isidro Lighthouse (further south along the Strait) for a week. While we were there, Benja and his friend Jonas plunged into the Strait for a training swim without wetsuits, Benja staggering out of the water clutching his frozen head as soon as they were done, while Jonas lolled around in the shallows like a seal. Then Benja’s friend Carolina came out for a visit, and the two of them 
went out for a swim. With only one pair of goggles and one swim cap between them, Carolina had to wear a diving mask and Benja did his best to avoid the brain-freeze this time with a plastic bag and piece of cloth wrapped around his head.
Bárbara completed her swim while we were away – second Chilean woman ever to have swum the Strait. Benja and I returned to Punta Arenas to congratulate her. (Bárbara, who is a South American open-water swimming champion, had also just swum across from the mainland to the outer coastal island of Chiloé the week before). She did her Strait swim on February 13th, in a time of 1:24 (the strong current meant she actually swam an extra two km) – second Chilean woman ever to swim Magellan Strait, and the new Chilean female record holder.
Bárbara and and I had several days of overlap in Punta Arenas, staying with Benja and his family, and I sure enjoyed getting to know her. Here is a little video I shot of the two of them on one of their training swims (runs 1 minute 15s):
Later, the three of us went to the local pool together (yes, I will go swimming if the water temperature is acceptable…) They attempted to teach me flip-turns (which I did not master) and how to swim front crawl backwards (which I did master!) among other useful things (such as how to sink and crawl like a crab on the floor of the pool, and how to blow bubble rings from the bottom, two of Benja’s specialties). And, upon leaving Punta Arenas, Bárbara gave me a Chile swimming camp, which I now wear with pride, and which will always make me think of these two: inspiring swimmers and wonderful friends.
I am such a wuss in the cold water. But these cold-water addicts have really motivated me. I have a decent wetsuit, and I live just a 10-minute bike ride from Tonquin Beach. The nearest public swimming pool to do laps in is 125 km away… Of course I should train in the waters at my front door. I don’t really have any excuse, do I?
I am not saying I am going to do it. But I am seriously thinking about it.
Something Weird’s up with LAN Airlines in Lima (or, When Life Deals You a Bowl of Lemons, make a Pisco Sour)
Note: this post was written last week, Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, during a complete unforeseen stopover in Lima.
Ha! It says that Lima is "the best airport in South America". Ha! I say again.
OK, I thought I’d be fine for my travels back to Canada because I would not pass through Santiago de Chile (airport affected by the recent big earthquake); my routing was Buenos Aires – Lima – LA – Vancouver. Especially after checking in in BA: they gave me my boarding passes right through to LA. All seemed good.
Then I got to Lima where, upon disembarking, the screen showed my 1:05am flight, at Gate 21, to LA (along with a whole bunch of other LAN flights) as “Delayed”. So those of us with the same connection lined up and waited patiently… I heard the Australians in front of me being told that the flight was now going at 5:40am, but then read more…
Yup, for all of you who were jealous that I was escaping Canadian and winter and heading south, thinking I was drinking margaritas on the beach in my bikini, well… here’s what things are really like down here! (So if I don’t have much of a tan when I get home, maybe you’ll all understand why?)
OK, yes, it is the peak of summer, but this is Patagonia. Unfortunately, you can’t tell in the picture how windy it is! Not only is it high-latitude (53-54 degrees where I was, in and south of Punta Arenas – roughly equivalent to the latitude of Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands). But in addition, the plate tectonic accident that has placed Antarctica symmetrically over the south pole (for now, anyway) means that, unlike in the northern hemisphere, the winds that swirl around the globe in the latitudes read more…
This article is a response to the post by writer Sharleen Jonsson in which she decides whether to support the struggling newspaper industry by upping her subscription to daily paper delivery, or to try not to increase her paper consumption.
“But does it really matter, if I recycle?” Sharleen asks.
This is a big question. And my answer is YES it matters!
Our environmental problems are overwhelming. So overwhelming. And, once you start to grasp the overwhelmingness of it all, it’s really depressing. So people tend to focus on the positive – even if that positive is not actually representative of the big picture. It’s something to clutch at. Because the reality of the negatives – the very major changes we need to take make in in our lifestyles order to ensure that our planet is liveable for humans in the future – are mind-boggling.
So, instead, people focus on the positive things that we can do – things that, on the scale of the problem itself, actually have neglible impact – to the point that I think these “false-positive” messages are really damaging. Because now we can justify our consumption by letting ourselves believe that we are doing our part:
- oh, it’s OK if I consume manufactured single-use items that were transported to my home using greenhouse gases because I recycle them (consuming more greenhouse gases)
- and I can fly around the world because I’ll buy carbon credits to offset the fuel burned on my behalf (usually “credits” for projects e.g. tree-planting, that would have gone on anyway)
- and it’s OK for me to keep using energy because we are moving towards alternative sources – technology will save us!
Sorry if I sound cynical. I am. I am starting to feel that this whole feel-good thing about recycling is a huge fraud, perpetrated (by whom? I don’t know) to make people feel OK about consuming single-use items. Recycling used to be only the final last-ditch option of the three R’s:
1. Reduce
2. Reuse
3. Recycle
Now, recycling seems to be a source of pride. Look at the big pile of single-use items items I have at the bottom of my driveway this week! See what a good environmentalist I am?
Recycling is still throwing something out – and burning more fossil fuels as those items are transported back to the plant and remanufactured into another single-use item.
This is especially poignant right now, as it was just announced that there will be no more recycling of newspapers in BC. Newspaper for recycling will now be shipped to the US or to Asia! How can we feel good about that!
I am not for a moment trying to claim that I lead the perfect model life in any way. The way our society is structured now, it is impossible to – you’d have to truly eject yourself from society (which I am actually considering doing). But there is not enough room in the Canadian wilderness for 34 million homesteading hermits, so even that is not a feasible large-scale solution either (and even less so for most other countries).
What my mission is, at the moment anyway, is to try to encourage others to cut down their consumption. Of what? Of everything. It is very hard to remain in society yet cut your consumption by 100%. But it is quite feasible for most people to cut consumption by 10 or 20%. Rather than me cutting down by 100% just to make the point – if I can convince ten people to cut down their consumption by 10%, the net effect on our planet is the same as me taking the 100% eject-myself-from-society extreme route. So I encourage people to:
- get on their bike, or walk, and use their car 10% less
- eat 10% less meat (our high meat consumption is a huge cost to the planet)
- use 10% less plastic – get in the habit of carrying reusable shopping bags, and reject products that use excessive packaging
- use 10% less paper
- produce 10% of their own food
I think it would barely impact most people’s lives to make these 10% cuts. In fact, I bet that most people could cut all of these things by 25% without any serious suffering.
And what if I can influence 1000 people to make those 25% cuts? That would have the same net result as 250 times the effect of me going extreme and ejecting myself from society! So pass this info around.
We really can each make a difference. As individuals, it sometimes seems that what we each can do is very small – but there is a power in spreading the word, convincing others to do the same. That way we stand together. And, together, we do make a difference.
Sharleen, I do hear what you are saying about supporting the publishing industry. And I do so very fondly remember those weekend mornings, reading a real paper newspaper over a cup of coffee. But, for a long time now, I haven’t felt good about throwing that paper in the bin – even if it is a recycle bin. Every now and then I manage to snag someone’s old paper – sometimes weeks old – to relive that pleasure. (The second R).
But, to me, if I have to choose between supporting an industry (even one I work in!) and supporting the future of our planet, a place for our children, I have to choose our planet and our collective future. And that’s why I think we should – no, we must – get used to alternative financial models for many of our industries. The news(paper) industry is only one of them.
(Listen to me talking about this subject today with Long Beach Radio’s Geoff Johnson – click here to listen to podcast, or right-click/control-click to download mp3. Runs 22 min).
No one else pays attention to this date, but I always do. The anniversary of our earthquake is perhaps not pleasant to think of, but it is important. Kind of like Remembrance Day.
It was 310 years ago today – around 9pm on the night of January 26th, 1700, that the last big quake hit. How do scientists know that? Native people up and down the coast have earthquake stories in their oral history – but as non-written cultures, they are not able to provide exact calendar dates for these events.
Geologists can recognize ancient tsunami deposits by taking core samples in the mudflats – some of their data come from right here beside Tofino, in Browning Passage read more…
So many of my friends from other parts of Canada ask me how I handle the winters out here on the west coast. “How can you stand it? It’s such a damp cold.”
“Yup,” I smile. Damp is good. Damp means that the temperature is still above freezing.
The last week or two has been warm even for Tofino. My witch hazel bloomed a couple of weeks ago. Which is normal; it usually blooms the first week of January. But riding my bike around town yesterday, I noticed there are actually a lot of flowers in bloom right now.
So I got back on the bike today, camera in hand. These are no amazing photos – I only took my point-and-shoot out – but I was sure surprised, once I started looking. Remember, this is Canada, in the middle of January!
In a short little lap around town, I came across dozens of different types of read more…
Without healthy feet, you are not going to get very far, and blisters early on in an event may cost you hours of time, or even keep you from finishing at all. So the focus of Part 2 of this series is how to take care of your feet, with some notes as well on First Aid kits and other safety gear.
Prepare your feet beforehand: Elite racers may not have to do much – they seem to have bombproof feet, and I don’t know if that is because they are genetically born that way and that’s why they become so good at distance, or because they have put so read more…
There is a lot to do to prepare for a multi-day running race. There are so many articles out there about various training programs. But, when I headed out to attempt my first multi-day ultra in 2008, I felt that there was so much more that I needed to know beyond the training – and I had trouble finding it.
I am going to assume that you’ve already found a training program that is appropriate to your experience and your goals. With these articles, I am going to help you out with some of the other things you need to think of when heading off to a multi-day running event – information that I have gleaned from my years following the world’s top multisport/endurance racers as a reporter for www.sleepmonsters.com, as well as by twice racing in read more…
I am in Vancouver for the week. It amazes me, every time I pay a winter visit to this city, how absolutely great the bird-watching is here.
So, even though the lighting was far from great for photography, I am postingt a few of this morning’s pix here just to show you how much bird life there is here.
There are lovely seawall walks in this city – in West Vancouver, for example, and also around Stanley Park, where you can see huge flocks of overwintering seabirds. Right now, here in West Vancouver, there are huge flocks read more…
The other day I went for a walk out to Tonquin Beach. A five-minute walk from my doorstep takes me to the start of the trail. From there, I meander another 5 minutes through the rainforest and I am on the beach…
It is a soft grey evening (yes, this time of year, 4pm is evening…). Tonquin is a small beach, but the tide is low, so the beach is nearly as long as it gets, maybe 400 or 500 m? I touch the rock at the south end with my rubber boot, as is the custom. The winter surf curls beside me and I turn and now follow the tideline towards the north end. The sky is grey. The sun setting over read more…
