Hey, what are you running away from?

So far, most of my friends understand why I am leaving Santiago for the road and the unknown. But from time to time, new people, that doens't know me, start questioning what I am going to do. Most of them don't really understand how someone can leave like this all the comodities the city offers and what I have built in the time I've spent in this city. The idea of a lad in his mid 20's, leaving all behind doesn't seem to be sane at all. Some understand and agree, others share my points of view, others disagree completely, and I'm fine with all of them. This post is for those that wonder if I am running away from something in particular and are worried about that.

What am I leaving?

Currently I have a well paid job, I work as Bioinformatics Engineer for a well known german company now based in Chile. The salary is really good for what I spend monthly and I can pay all that I need with it. The working hours are ok and I still get time to do other things in my spare time. If I stayed, certainly good oportunities would come and I would go up in the ladder in my field because the work place I am leaving is really good and offers a lot of good things.

I live in nice big flat which I share with my friend Jota. I live in a secure neighborhood with a park right outside the flat. It's not that noisy at night and it's big enough to host people from time to time. It's not far from work, and I'm able to pedal everyday. My daily commutes take around 25 minutes at a steady pace. I don't have to go uphill so I don't sweat while going to work. Most of my friends here in Santiago live near there, so we can meet during weekends or do things during the week, not having to travel big distances to see each other.

I have a girlfriend with whom we've built an awesome relationship. She loves to do lots of things I love to do too, so we have a lot of things in common. We've been doing lots of things since we started our relationship and I really love to spend a lot of time with her. We are really similar in how we see many things of the world, but we are also quite different. It's fantastic to talk and talk non stop discussing different things we don't agree and agree with.

I have several friends here in Santiago, with whom we also share a lot of time. We party, we meet, we travel, we go to the mountains, we pedal. It's an awesome group of friends!

A picture from the last time we met with my friends here in Santiago. Don't ask what's going on. From left to right: Sara, Me, Jota, Tom.

I live three hours away from my hometown, so I'm able to leave during the weekends and visit friends in my hometown, visit my mother, and spend some time in the countryside too.

I'm leaving a city that has lots to offer, I'm leaving the capital of Chile in which I have been living since 2010. I'm leaving a city that offers thousands of different activities, and lots of different places where to go and visit. I'm leaving girlfriend, friends and work.

You are running away from something!

Most of the people that doens't know me like to theorize that I am running away from life, from work, that I am immature, and that this is just a way to escape from real life. The last and most funny of the theories I've heard lately is that I am running away from marriage (seriously? wtf people!). Others wonder if I went nuts to leave my comfort zone and face the unknown. Most of them tell me I shouldn't run away from things, and that I should think better what I am going to do, and so on. When I tell I want to do this, because it's my lifetime adventure, and because it's something I've been thinking from some time, they keep trying to make me change my mind.


So, Am I running away from something?. Of course I am, I am running away from Santiago de Chile.

Santiago de Chile.

I've been living in this city from around 2010. I came here to do my BsC thesis. After that I moved back to Talca, to find out the only place I could really find a job in Bioinformatics, by that time, was in Santiago. So I came back 6 months later. Since then, I've been working here.

Santiago, what you see if you google it.

Santiago has around 7.5 millions inhabitants right next to the Andes, and I'm sick of it. The public transport system is seriously fucked up. The subway is packed at every hour and it's incredible the amount of time and discomfort you have to face everyday if you use it. Have I mention the heat down there?. News use to say that you have around 5ºC more in the underground compared to the surface. Temperatures during summer in this city can easily reach 35ºC, so inside the metro you reach 40ºC. Add to that lots of people in suites, and all of them sweating. Add to this also no room to move, and people fighting in order to find a small spot to get inside the train. This everyday. Even Saturdays and Sundays. And the smell at the end of the day. Damn, we humans smell really bad.

Rush hour about to start in the Metro system. Picture from www.emol.com

So why not to take the bus?. Well, buses are pretty much the same, plus they get stuck in traffic jams. Traveling with the bus is damn slow too, so if I wanted to get to work from where I live now, it would take me around 50 minutes.

Wherever I go, it's packed of people, it's hard to find a place with no people and some silence.

Also pollution. Damn this city and its pollution, it's like smoking cigarretes everyday!. Since the public transport system is fucked up, lots of people opted for buying cars and motorcycles in order to get on time to where they go. This added lot of pollution to the city, and most of the days, the picture I posted is a fake picture because you don't even see the mountains thanks to the smog cloud above our heads. The only time you see a postal like that is after the rains. You can count with your hands the time it rains during a year. So most of the time, you only see pollution.

Hey dude! What are you doing to ameliorate things?

When I got here, I knew all these problems existed. Therefore I decided to buy a bike. Since then, I've been pedaling. I'm helping by not using the subway or the buses, not adding someone to the already congestion transport system. Most of my use of it involves moving to the bus terminal to leave the city to my hometown, Talca. I haven't bought a car, despite the questioning of some people and not even a motorcycle which seems to be useful to have in this city. More pollution? No thanks, It's way easier and faster to move by bicycle rather than using a car, getting stucked in traffic jams, and once on destination, try to find a spot where to park the car. Not to mention all the security measures you have to take so thieves don't steal your car.

Pollution, the most important thing to run away from.

Last Saturday I went on a morning bike ride with Camila, my girlfriend, we were going to a scout meeting. We had to pedal from downtown to the base of the Andes. One would think that living right next to the Andes is a good advantage. Well, not really in this city, most of the days you don't get a clear pciture of the Andes. Instead pollution a layer of smog would cover the mountains. The andes blocks the winds coming from the other side too, so there is no air flow to send the smog away. At the other side we have the coast mountain range, also a huge wall that stops the winds. Both this mountains trap the smog above the city.

Riding towards The Andes. Not really a clear sight, the layer of smog covers the mountains.

The next Sunday we decided to go for a hike. We hiked up the Manquehue hill. Its height?, around 1638 meters over the sea level. I got amazed by the picture you get to see up there. Seriously Santiago?. Really? Come on, that looks like a swamp!!! Well, yeah, the smog doesn't even allow you to see the coast mountain range which are 25 kilometers away from the city!. We should be able to see the mountains from this point. Instead, a wall of smog.

Santiago, from the top of the Manquehue. Down there, people, above the people, smog, and further above, some clean air. What you really see when you are here.

Seriously, am I living in this city? Is this real life? (irony) is this what I really want for the next 5, 10, 15 years of my life?. Certainly not, and that's what I'm running away from. I see this everyday from my office. I'm fully aware of the air I am breathing and the life style I'm having in this city, and if there is something I am running away from, is the smog I am breathing every day. Heck I can't even do sports properly without feeling the smog in my throat!

Window shot from my office right before luch. Back there, the smog covering the buildings in downtown. I see this everyday.

Compared to other places, at least for me, Santiago sucks, and I've been saying this since I came back here. I recently took a tour to the country side near my hometown. I loved it, so relaxing, so clear, so breathable, so free from people. Definitely a place I would like to stay for more time. I decided I didn't want to live anymore in Santiago, I decided I want to run away from the smog, the stressed people that fights to get into the subway and the collapsed transportation system. I decided to leave behind the angry drivers that fight every morning between themselves and with the cyclists because "you should be riding on the sidewalk!". If I have to say I am running away from something, I'm running away from Santiago and the pollution both of body and mind, and that's it. It's quite simply actually, I don't want to live in this city anymore and I have taken this as a starting point for a new cycle in my life. I am leaving for the adventure, or at least, 2 years of adventure. After that? I don't know, it's quite impossible to know what I will be doing after the trip. I could die during it, I could just continue pushing pedals further on, I could come back and work again (that's the plan so far) but planning that ahead it's pointless, what I can say for sure is, I will try as much as I can not to come back to live in this city again.

As for my friends, most of them already have plans to leave the city too, they are my friends and we share points of view, we all agree it's the way to go and that we have to do it if we care about ourselves. They all will do it at some point, I'm sure of it, so it was a matter of time who would leave first. It seems I'll be the first one and I hope others follow soon.

Country side near Talca. I'm leaving the smog for more of this.