Headed South

Tuesday, 22 July 2008

On Tuesday morning we scratched the dogs goodbye and headed out of town. Well, we tried to. First we walked an hour to a bus stop, rode that for 45 minutes, switched to a subway, and rode that for half an hour. We popped up above ground and walked to the bus station ... only to be told the bus we wanted to Rancagua did not leave from there. We repeated this several more times until we gave up and took a commuter train there. Towns in Chile have multiple bus stations and different destinations from each.

We arrived in Rancagua at dusk, ate, and set about to look for the bus stop for Chapa Verde, a ski area we wanted to go to. Everyone we asked had a great answer to where the bus stop was, but none of the answers were right. I was up early on Wednesday hoping to find it but after another hour gave up. Back at the room we decided to take the day off. Laura and I walked around town for three hours ... it is not a bad place. Then suddenly we saw a tourist office! I walked in and the woman behind the counter was as surprised to see a tourist as we were to see a tourist office. But she gave us a map and pointed us in the right direction.

A half hour later we were at the right spot ... an office in a mall with no sign ... only pictures of skiing and a backboard for decoration. The woman told us to come back in the morning.

We spent the day at a park and walking around more ... it was a spectacular day, bright and blue and cold with tons of new snow in the mountains.

On Thursday we caught a bus to the bus stop and I walked in to the mall. A line. I did not know what it was for but felt compelled to stand in it. Turns out it was to buy tickets for the bus. When I got to the front the woman told me there was a problem ... the bus is running but not all the way to the mountain. There is some problem with the road. I got the ticket anyway. We left 30 minutes late, climbed a pass, and suddenly there was snow on either side of the road. Checkpoints took up an hour ... the road to the ski area is also the road to a large mine and access is controlled. At 10.30 the bus pulled into an icy parking lot and everyone got off. A few minutes later a Nissan Pathfinder came in and began the first of four loads to get everyone and their gear to the mountain. When it was our turn we found out why the bus could not go all the way ... the road was deeply rutted and totally unplowed. We slid and skidded our way to the ski area base.

Chapa Verde is about the world^s saddest little ski area. The base area was a collection of dilapidated buildings. There was a grouping of brightly painted tiny homes, all of them anchored to the ground with wires. Windy does not begin to describe the place. Every loose granule of snow had been blown clean off the mouintain, revealing ribs of rock and ribbons of skiable icy snow. There was a tbar and a very old triple chair. There was also a beginners handle tow, another tow which had not run in a while and an upper tbar which was not running.

Though skiing obviously starts late around here, they make up for it by running the lifts until 5 pm at which time it is almost dark. We skied every little skiable line there was and ate lunch huddled from the snow behind a snowfence. More waiting to go down the mountain, but the bus driver, who was so incredibly friendly despite the hassles of getting to the place, took us directly to our room. Exhausted, but a fine day.