A Little Break

Last Saturday started the four day weekend. In preparation for Lent, the people demand a few days of partying. My party didn't start off to great ... Friday night I didn't fall asleep until 5 in the morning on Saturday because of a brutal stomach bug and, as a result, I slept most of the day on Saturday. I quickly recovered, although not fast enough, and was back in business on Sunday.

When I enjoy some down time, I generally pass it with a professor, at the institute where I'm a visiting researcher, and his family (wife and two-year old child). They generally take me to some seafood restaurant on the weekend and then we take a small trip somewhere ... nothing big, just the middle of the Earth and back! Sometimes we just eat dinner at their place. They're a fun bunch and we keep ourselves entertained. Last week we planned a good ole BBQ at the national park to enjoy our Monday holiday - agreeing to get as much work done as possible so we could actually relax on Monday and get back to business on Tuesday. The little stomach bug didn't help my situation out, but I did what I could.

Two of their friends (a couple) joined us and we had a blast. We started grilling at midday and just hung out for about 6 hours. It was pretty great and relaxing. We came prepared with plenty of food and wine - enough to keep the conversation at an endless flow. As you can tell, we enjoyed ourselves. Santiago, the professor, is on the right and his wife (Heidy)---she's an economist---is on the left with their child Matius.


Towards the end of our little celebration David, the other guy, took me over to the edge of the park and showed me the incredible view of the east side of the city. I had been sitting in the patio space for about 6 hours and had no clue that I was so close to this sight. As you can see, it's insane!