Chilly in Chile

¡Hola Amigos!

In an attempt to alleviate our jetlag from 40 hours of travel on our way to Ecuador, we decided to have three days stop over for rest and relaxation in Santiago, Chile. Besides a lot of sleeping, we hired some snow gear and headed up the very impressive Andes mountains, just an hour from Santiago.

It was suprisingly warm in the snow. Especially for us since we kept falling off the T-bar towing things they use to get back up the hills whilst still on skis/snowboards. That meant we had to carry our boards back up the slopes on foot while everyone else cruised past us on the ski lifts!

It was heaps of fun and amazingly I (Tim) could keep balance enough to make it half way down the mountain! Renee took to it like a pro and with another day or so would have been doing flips over jumps I reckon.

Although impressed that we could manage to stay up for a reasonble time, our self pride was instantly crushed when all these little kids went flying by. (one little tacker was only 4 years old, about 2 foot high, and was learning to do jumps!) Very cute, impressive and jealousy evoking at the same time!

Hot Snowboarding chica (after carving up las montañas)

The first ski field we went to - Valle Nevado in the Andes.

(Expensive and international touristy, but excellent facilities)

View back towards Santiago and the sea from Valle Nevado

The view out the window of the hostel.

The same hostel window view (zoomed in) of Santiago emerging from the clouds and the sea of clouds behind it. (A pilots nightmare with mountains hiding and popping out all over the place!)

One cool dude. (because he kept falling over in the snow)

Thats enough for only 3 days.

Off to Quito, Ecuador next for spanish school and many more cool adventures!

Hasta luego,

Tim and Renee