Day 18, September 1, 2009

Phrase of the day: Adios Chile

After spending the last couple days in Santiago, Chile, Amberley and I decided to leave our fun times in Chile in search of a new adventure in Argentina. So, we got on a bus that took us through the Andes Mountain range to Mendoza, the capital city of the Mendoza Province of Argentina. It is a beautiful little city that sits up against the east side of the Andes and is known for its wine and olive oil production.

After our 8-hour bus adventure on windy roads through the Andes, we finally arrived in mendoza. We were pretty tired from the bus ride and decided to have a BBQ at our hostel with some friends and take it easy for the night.

BBQ, veggies and wine... you just can't go wrong!

Day 13, August 27, 2009

Phrase of the day: fiesta de disfraces (costume party)

There were two separate events that let to a costume party at La Posada, a tiny bar across the street from the Portillo ski resort.

Firstly, it was Ricardo's birthday. This is Ricardo. He is a ski instructor at Portillo and his fellow coworkers decided to throw him a party for his birthday.

Secondly, it was Jamie's last day as a Peace Pedaler. This is Jamie Bianchini. He was a guest at Portillo and he was getting ready to head home to the US after spending 7 years as a Peace Pedaler. Peace Pedalers is a charity organization the Jamie helped start. He has been riding his own tandem mountain bike all over the world over the last 7 years. He rides in the front seat and has picked up "guest riders" from dozens of countries who rode on the back seat anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks.

Everyone had to be really creative when it came to finding a costume because of two factors; firstly, the decision to have a costume party was very last minute and secondly, since Portillo is in the middle of nowhere, the only way to get a costume was to make one out of the clothes that you already had with you.

Needless to say, everyone really seemed to put the effort in and there were some amazing costumes at the party.

After digging through all of the clothes that we had with us, Amberley and I decided to dress up as the Cristal Police. Cristal is a Peruvian beer that is very popular in Chile and our costume was a big hit at the party.

We partied until all hours of the night and had a great time!

Day 12, August 26, 2009

Phrase of the day: autopista caminando (highway walking)

We got up around 8am, got dressed to go snowboarding, had breakfast, and started our half-kilometer walk down the highway to Portillo. Lucky for us, we didn't have to worry about any passing traffic as long as we got up early enough each morning. The highway closes to all passing traffic at night and doesn't reopen until around 10am each morning.

It was a beautiful bluebird day on our first day at Portillo. The mountains in this area were unlike any I've ever seen. They are so steep and jagged. There was a big storm about 5 days ago and, because the surrounding mountains are so steep, there were daily avalanches.

There was a lake in the middle of the ski resort that was almost frozen over. It had these really beautiful snow swirls throughout the thin layer of ice.

Day 11 - August 25, 2009

Word of the day: Sharpie marcador (Sharpie marker)

Today was one of those days where nothing went according to plan. But, at the same time, everything worked out better than we ever could have hoped. Amberley and I had planned to travel by bus from Los Andes to the Inca Hostel at Portillo ski resort. We called the Inca Hostel yesterday to book a room; however, we were informed that the hostel was booked-out for the next two weeks. We've had great luck with every part of our trip thus far, so we decided to go to Portillo anyway and take our chances with the Inca's lodging.

This is Portillo Ski Center and it is in the middle of nowhere. There is no town, no streets, no businesses, no nothing - just the ski resort, formal hotel, and hostel. Therefore, when we asked the lady at the bus ticket counter in Los Andes for two bus tickets to Portillo, she informed us that there is no bus that stops at Portillo and that we have to hire a private shuttle to take us to the ski resort.

Lucky for us, rules don't mean much in South America - the ticket lady ended up selling Amberley and Istudent-rate tickets from Santiago to Los Andes (even though we were in Los Andes heading to Portillo), wrote "PORTILLO" with a Sharpie marker on our receipts, and told us to get on the bus labeled "Mendoza, Argentina." Basically, Portillo is off of the same highway as the bus that travels to Mendoza, so the bus driver was told to drip us off at the exit for Portillo along the way to Mendoza. The bus tickets only cost us US $4, whereas hiring a private shuttle would've cost over US $100. It was awesome!

Fortunately, we learned of another hostel that was only half a mile up the road near the Chile/Argentina border--Hosteria Cristo Redentor. Porticio, a snowboard instructor that we made friends with earlier in the day, helped Amberley and I find someone to drive us and our luggage up the road to the hostel.

This was our newly discovered accommodations--an old abandoned hotel-turned-hostel. If you look closely, you can see that all the windows on the top three floors are blown out. I have to say, Amberley and I were very worried, to say the least, when we first saw the delapidating building.

But good karma served us well once again because the hostel only consisted of the first floor and our room turned out to be nice. Amberley and I got our own room and our own bathroom, and the owners cooked us breakfast--which consisted of oatmeal, scrambled eggs, toast, hot cheese sandwiches, coffee, and tea--each morning. For those of you who have not stayed in hostels before, having your own room, own bathroom--with hot water all day--and free hot breakfast is pretty rare.

The hostel we stayed at turned out to be awesome! Had we stayed at the Inca Hostel at Portillo, we would have been sharing a tiny 4-bed dorm and shared a bathroom with 6-12 other people. Instead, it was like we had our own hotel room with free breakfast for only USD $30 per night - Sweetness!!