Lagos Andinos, Part II

Day 3: The bus left early on Day 3 for the Valle Nevado ski resort. All 20 or so of the other people on the tour were Brazilians, and a good many of them were from places in the North, like Amazonia, Fortaleza, and Recife. Most had never seen snow, so the point in going to the ski resort was not necessarily to ski - but to see snow.


The resort is about an hour or so outside of the city. It's 3500 meters above sea level and the road to the top is not for the weak-of-stomach. The road has 70 hairpin turns (numbered) and the rest of it is snakey. Of course, there are no guard rails, so every turn is like a scene from some movie (for example, the scene in Motorcycle Diaries where Felix the half-blind Peruvian is driving Che and Mial in his old beat-up truck).


Since we were only going to be at the ski resort for about 3 hours, we decided it wasn't worth the cost to rent gear and buy lift tickets. We met a young guy from Colorado working in the ski rental shop - he said they don't get many Americans there. The resort was well appointed with a variety of hotels and restaurants. The snow seemed excellent for skiing. It was a tough to be so close and not go. I have to admit, though, it was great to feel cold weather again.

That night, we had dinner with our Austrian and Brazilian friends at a New Zealand themed restaurant in Santigao, Chile. (There's a sentance I never thought I'd ever say.) Our friends from SJC happened to be in Santiago, Chile at the same time as us, so we met up at Akarana.

(More pics from Day 3)

This was our last day in Santiago, and we were sad to see it come to an end. We promised ourselves we'd go back. The next day, we flew to Puerto Montt, Chile.