No Vamos a Valparaiso

I On our third day of skiing I was riding a chairlift with Dan. I turned to him and raised as concern about going tip Valparaiso after six days of skiing (this is before I took a day off). Valparaiso is built into the side of a hill and is known for its steep hills. I wasn't sure how my legs would feel about this. Apparently on the previous chairlift, Colleen raised similar concerns to Dan. So rather than heading to the coast for our last two days in mainland Chile, we changed our reservation and decided to stay in Santiago. (This turned out particularly well for Colleen because she caught my cold - but had it much worse).

Holly arrived at out new hotel in Santiago at the same time as us and after freshening up, Holly, Dan and I headed to the Los Domenicos neighborhood to check out a local crafts market and then back to Barrio Bellavista for lunch. After lunch we took a funicular to the top of Cerro San Cristobal. Colleen, Dan and I tried this last week but the funicular was closed for maintenance. In a way I'm glad because it was a much clearer day this time around. You really get a sense of the vastness of Santiago from there. 

We attempted to return to our hotel on foot but Holly was clearly hitting a wall after her red eye flight and Dan and I were more than happy to hop back on the subway to return to the hotel. 

We started our last day in Santiago right. 80 minute massages to relieve our muscles after the weeklong ski trip and prepare us for part 2 of our adventure. Next up Easter Island (aka Rapa Nui)! 

Ski Arpa y Portillo

After three nights in Farrellones we moved to the town of Los Andes. It was nice to be in a hotel with room to spread out. The downside was our room was 85 degrees. When I spoke to reception he suggested we open the window. I think this cooled the room down to 84. At one point during the night I was so hot that I stood next to the window for ten minutes to cool down. Even the tap water only came in two temperatures - hot and hotter. The only good news was I think the heat helped me sweat out most of my cold. 

In the morning we headed off to Ski Arpa. This is a ski cat resort which means that there are no pomas. The drive from town was a little scary. We drove up a dirt road just wide enough for one car. The road was a series of very tight switch backs up the side of a mountain. I was glad to not be driving but would have appreciated a seatbelt.

Once we arrived, we had a quick safety talk and hopped on the ski cat. After several days of cloudy skies and high winds, we were blessed with a bluebird day. The only way the day could be better is if there was fresh snow, but we still managed to find some soft spots. I think both Colleen and I were happy that we had taken the previous day off because we needed fresh legs to manage the steep drops and areas with styrofoam-like snow.

Just before our final run, the clouds in the distance cleared and we got a spectacular view of Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the Andes. We decided this was a good time for a photo shoot. It was a good thing too because just as our shoot finished the clouds rolled in and out sunny day turned cloudy.

The next day we headed to Portillo. This is the most famous resort in Chile. It is also the resort that sent me an email that led to our Chile adventure in the first place.

This was our last day of skiing and I think most of us were pretty tired. The resort is really amazing if you are fine with pomas, as you will remember - I'm not. They have several multi person pomas which look like a disaster waiting to happen. I opted out and stick to the basic groomed runs available via chairlifts. 

After lunch I was forced to do one more poma, but once again, the poma won. Rather than give it the chance to school me further, I took off my board and hiked to the top of the lift. Halfway up I regretted this but was at the point of no return. Fortunately, it was the end of the day and I was able to recover/sleep on the drive back to Santiago.

Tengo Gripo (I have a cold)

I woke up on day three with a cold. This did not stop me from heading to the slopes for the third day in a row. We headed to Villa Nevada which is the highest resort in Tres Valles. It was clearly the resort with the most Americans and the most snowboarders. Perhaps there is a correlation but I have no evidence to back this up. 

After only two runs we took another poma. I'm happy to report that I somehow managed to make it to the top. Although, when the group was given the option to spilt so that the snowboarders (Colleen and I) could stick to chair lifts, we jumped at the chance. I was happy to finish the day Lucinda: 1, Loma: 0.

Considering it was our third day in a row snowboarding, I was expecting a shorter day. However, we kept going until nearly 5:00. By this point my legs felt like rubber and I was in desperate need of a long stretching session. 

Given my cold, after stretching I decided to nap before dinner. And after dinner it seemed like time to go to sleep.

When I woke up I felt marginally better than the day before but still suffering from a cold.  This didn't stop me from putting my snowboard on again. However, the icy run, combined with my tired legs and cold had me taking it right back off. I hoped to go back out once the sun warned up the slopes but the weather had other ideas. Winds kicked up and all the chairlifts  shutdown leaving plans as the only option. This was not my kind of option so I opted for hot chocolate. 

The rest of our crew finished around 2:00 and we ate a traditional Chilean lunch - fondue, before getting in the bus to head to our next destination. 

Santiago Y Mas

I spent my first morning in Santiago with the United Airline Baggage Services. Apparently, my suitcase decided 5 hours was not enough time to enjoy the Houston airport and skipped the flight. Since there is only one flight per day to Chile, it looked like I was going to have to do a little shopping.

We fought off our desire to sleep and after a quick shower we caught a ride with a friendly Uber driver to a Barrio Bellavista. This neighborhood seemed a little sleepy but after a strolling around a little we realized that it must come alive at night since it seemed every other establishment was a nightclub.

After lunch we walked to the center of town to look for a few items to hold me over until my suitcase arrived. Our jet lag was quickly catching up to us so we just tried to kill time until it was acceptable to eat dinner.  Just before dinner we found a park with some spectacular sculptures. After just a few minutes we realized that this park was a favorite with young couples. There were couples snuggled up every few feet. It was borderline uncomfortable for Colleen, Dan and I but we ventured on and took in the entire park.

Finally, we decided it time to eat and found ourselves at a nice wine bar that served several Chilean and Argentinian wines by the glass. We stretched out our dinner so that by the time we finished the restaurant it was finally an acceptable hour to eat dinner in Santiago.

Day two was the start of our tour and thankfully the return of my suitcase. We returned to the airport and met our guides Vicente and Claudio. It took us a little while to get to Farallones but we still managed to have a group meeting before heading to Valle Colorado for our first day on the slopes.

One thing I’m not loving about the ski resorts in Chile is the extensive use of T-Bars and Poma Lifts. These are not snowboard-friendly methods to the top of the mountain. On day one, in the battle between Lucinda and the T-Bars, it was T-Bars 4, Lucinda 3. Perhaps I will catch up by the end of the trip but I’d prefer to retire from the T-Bars altogether.

After a couple hours on the slopes we took a break for an avalanche safety course in the unlikely event of an avalanche. Just before we all froze on top of the mountain, we finished the class and snowboarded back down to our lodge for the first half of our tour.

We enjoyed a spectacular sunset, followed by a steak dinner and then a well deserved night of sleep.

Day two, we headed to Ski La Parva. At this resort we made our first climb of the trip. About halfway up, I had a newfound respect for the people I see climbing Granite Chief at Squaw. I also discovered that they were crazier than I thought. By the time we made it to the top, my legs felt like jello and my lungs were burning. It took about 40 minutes to get up and about 1 minute to snowboard down. The snow was great, in fact the best we found all day, but I would have preferred a shorter climb and longer ski.

After a couple more runs on piste, we broke for lunch where we were introduced to a Chilean specialty – Chorrillanas. This was a giant plate of French fries topped with chicken, steak, chorizo, hotdogs, grilled onions and three fried eggs. I’m not sure I’m ready to eat this dish again anytime soon, but after the long morning of snowboarding, it hit the spot.

After lunch, I began my battle with the Poma Lift. Poma Lift 4, Lucinda 1. Eventually Vincente took pity on me and took us to a chair lift. From there, we took a long ride all the way back to the village and called it a day. It was a good thing too, because, we still have several days of snowboarding still to come.

In Search of Snow

It is finally time for a new adventure. There were a few months early in the year when I was pretty depressed. Not only was there hardly any snow in California, but I also didn't have any trips planned. Not even a short one. Then one day while chilling in the cabin in Tahoe dreaming about snow I remembered this email that I received a couple days earlier from Ski Portilla. I jokingly talked with Dan and Colleen about going to Chile in the summer if it didn't start snowing soon. 

Well, within a few weeks we went from joking about it to researching options to booking a tour. And once we were committed to heading all the way to Chile, we figured why not have Holly join us and head to Easter Island. 

(Yeah, it's not that close but you can only get there via Chile, Peru and Fiji and I've always wanted to go. It didn't hurt that I was feeling a little jealous that my mom's friend Sue had a trip booked and I didn't want to feel left out.)

Oh, and did I mention that Chile is right next to Argentina? I spent a couple hours in Argentina at Iguazu Falls when I was traveling in Brazil, but they refused to stamp my passport so I'm not sure it counted. And this way I get to check out Patagonia, Mendoza and Buenos Aires. So what started as a desire to have at least one really good day snowboarding in 2015 quickly turned into a 3 1/2-week expedition. 

As usual, I will brag blog about it along the way for those of you interested in living vicariously or, like my family, want to make sure I'm still alive.