Buenos Dias o en Chileno buenodia

My apologies for taking so long to write an update, I am sure that you all have been anxiously checking the site multiple times a day with the hope of a new fantastic bit of adventure writing. So hold your breath no longer, here it is! Oh and if anyone just can not live a second longer with out hearing my voice, you can give me a call on my cell phone: 011-56-9-7843-0404

The Andes! La Cordillera de los Andes! Simply getting there was quite an adventure. All 28 of us on this trip decided to go, even though it was not included in the study abroad program. We had to take two smaller buses because the mountain roads where too small for a normal coach bus. To get to the first resort we covered over 50 switchbacks, working our way up and up the mountain. Along the way we saw cars stopped putting chains on their tires, but seeing as the road was clear and dry our drivers did not feel like wasting the time. Needless to say as we come around curve 30 we slide to a stop on a nice big patch of snow covered road… in fact the rest of the road from there on out is snow covered. The following 45 minutes consist of the drivers who have most likely never driven in snow before attempting to get chains that are too small for our tires on and finally jerry-rigging the chains. We listened to the loose parts hit the wheel wells for the next 30 minutes and stopped again to unwrap the one that had gotten loose from the axel.

Finally, we arrived at the entrance to Valle Nevado, the name of the ski resort. As we parked next to the heliskiing helicopter it began to snow . (No I did not jump out of a helicopter with a snowboard attached to my feet… it was simply too expensive). The snow did not last long but I looked around at these huge mountains all around me I thought, how awesome is this? It is July and I am about the go snowboarding in the middle of the Andes!

Snowboarding in the Andes is quite different than any riding I have done in the states. Being above the tree line, there was no clear definition of where any of the runs were. I had an amazing time we got to explore plenty of back country and found some excellent patches of fresh untouched powder. Everyone stayed in a lodge called Refugio Los Andes. They cooked us dinner there and then we all had an great carreta (fiesta) around the fire place. Only a few of us wanted to go skiing the next day, and we went to a different resort called El Colorado. We got to ski for longer there and had an equally good time. Monday was another holiday and a great time to do some serious resting.

Tuesday after a very early Charla, we boarded the nicest bus we’ve ridden on yet with big leather seats that reclined quite far. After an hours ride we pulled up to a horse farm and were greeted by a handful of Gausos and soda and the best empanadas, Gauso is Chilean for Cowboy, in Argentina they are Gauchos. Empanadas are delicious pastries that can be stuffed with anything, usually cheese and meat, theses had cheese, onion, sauasage, and egg. We were given a tour of the farm and they explained how horses in Chile differ from others around the world. Horses here are shorter and a lot stockier, they have a shorter neck and sometimes have a long black stripe running down their spine. After our tour the Gausos put on a little show for us. Chilean horses are also some of the only horses in the world that gallop sideways. They are taught this because when corralling cattle the use their chests to move the cows around. One of the little girls on the ranch got in the ring and danced La Cuenca, Chiles national dance, with one of the horses! We had a delicious lunch in the restaurant on the ranch and then boarded the oh so comfortable bus and headed off to a Winery.

The winery we went to was called Casas del Bosque, houses of the forest. It was quite a small winery and only 20% of the wine bottled there stayed in Chile, 80% goes world wide. As for the tour, it was like any other winery in the world, they smash grapes, put them into big metal tanks, then oak barrels then into little glass bottles! We tasted a Vino Tinto and Vino Blanco, (red and white respectively) both were excellent and then they turned us loose in the gift shop. I bought a bottle of Carmenere, which is a type of grape now extinct in Europe that is grown almost exclusively in Chile, but am waiting to drink it until I am back home in the states.

Wednesday we had our final Caminata around Valparaíso, and it took us to another one of Pablo Neruda’s houses La Sebastiana. Architecturally speaking I liked this house a lot more than the other one we saw Isla Negra. This house was either four or five stories with only one, maybe two rooms on each floor, but with great views of Valparaíso. Neruda always made it a point to watch the fireworks over the Valpo harbour every New Years.

Thursday and Friday were basically normal days of class. I bought a one way ticket from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Lima, Peru and also contacted a moutain bike tour company in La Paz, Bolivia so the beginnings of that trip are starting to take shape. Now that I have the hard part of updating done, maybe I will get some pictures up and even a video soon. Again if anyone wants to call I would love to hear from you 011-56-9-7843-0404! In the meantime I love reading comments and emails too even if I do not get a chance to respond all the time. To answer Lindsay’s question when I am with the other gringos we speak English most of the time, all the other time is Spanish, all of our tours, classes etc. Vaya con Dios!