We woke up Friday to driving rain and me still a bit sick. We decided to hold off on Chapelco for a day. I got some antihistimine and we walked around town. San Martin de los Andes is a pretty fancy place, and most things here we can´t afford. I guess it´s important to remember that down here, the rich people are probably richer than rich people are in the U.S. Anyway, we had coffees in a nice cafe and read a bit and bought bus tickets for Sunday and hung out in our room, which was very nice.
The rain slacked off during the night and we woke Saturday to some drizzle and light snow and a low snow line. The city bus left on time at 9 a.m. and we were up at Chapelco quickly. Chapelco had about 8 inches new at the base and a foot or more at the top, but there was not enough snow to open the trails at the very bottom. There is a gondola and we rode it to a midstation. Above the gondola was a suprisingly modern infrastructure serving mostly very short runs, though the really good stuff was accessible either by tbars or a chair which rose into dense fog. We skied a lot of the heavy powder but quit a bit early.
Down in town it started raining again. We ate a nice dinner out and walked around town. To bed to the sound of pouring rain.
This morning we were up early to catch at 7.45 bus. The hotel owners were helping us get our bulky gear out the narrow doors and offering to call us a cab. We schlepped our stuff through the flooded streets. The bus took the long way to Villa La Angostura since the mountain road apparently had lot of snow on it. We headed out of the mountains and rolled through this endless dry prarie before paralleling a beautiful river and then rounding a long lake. The lake led into hills and we picked up snow on either side of the road and then vistas led to mountain views with some serious drama -- looks a lot like Alaska, with the openness of Montana thrown in. Awesome.
There was about a foot of melting snow under sunny skies in Villa La Angostura. We cheked into a hostel and walked out to a lake. Snowy mountains all around. We´re heading to Cerro Bayo tomorrow.
1 comment:
Today marks the day after we hired a marketing and sales assistant and the first day I feel like I can truly live again. Which means following your guys' blogs daily and loving every second of it. I plan to take a vicarious trip around the world with you two. Thank you for taking the time to share your adventures! We miss you terribly.
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