New Snow in Valle Nevado

The hostel we stay at has a lot of character. We are always the first ones to wake up.

There’s a mural on every single building in this area of Santiago.

The sun rise over the Andes.

You can see the slopes of El Colorado up there!

Valle Nevado gave us sunshine and a foot of fresh snow today, awesomeness!

Soaking up some vitamin D in the chair lift.

Lunch nap!

A$her had one goal with this trip; get a photo of him with snow covered mountains in the background. Today was a good day for that.

My goal was to avoid as many photos taken of me as possible.

You thought the dogs were only in the city? Oh no, they’re roaming around on the mountain as well.

The brave people touch the dog, the ones who are scared of all sorts of fleas and diseases keep their distance.

After 6 hours of skiing, there’s still untouched snow to be skied, how is that possible?

I had a slight headache and we were in the hunt for coffee but as we walked through Barrio Bellavista, we got the taste for a beer instead.

A bunch of street musicians came by to play us some music, a ton of fun and a good way to get rid of our spare change.

I cut my finger a little yesterday and the scar has been bothering me a little as it always gets messy when I put my glove on or trying to grab something from my pocket. I asked the ticket booth, ski school and reception for a bandaid but with no luck, I tried to hunt down ski patrol that seems to be everywhere but totally disappeared when I needed them. I went to the pharmacy and bought myself a box of bandaid instead.

Ski La Parva

Back in Santiago to ski La Parva, the last of the Tres Puntas/Three Peaks. It still hasn’t snowed, but the traffic control was very strict and wanted to see our snow chains for the car. We didn’t have any so we turned around to rent some a mile away.

Since they checked every single car there were a huge line to get past the control. Gave me an opportunity to go out and snap some photos.

Yup, another day of overcast. Time still seem to fly by and we had another full day of skiing.

It started to sprinkle a little as we were heading down. Maybe we’ll get snow tomorrow!

We checked in at a new hostel in the Barrio Bellavista area close to the University. Party part of town.

The only way to drink the local beer!

Santiago

We took the day off skiing to do some sightseeing. I like Santiago a lot, but there doesn’t seem to be any typically Eiffel Tower touristy things to do. Here’s our list of the things to do for today;

Packed up our stuff outside the hostel and off we go!

We started with just cruising the streets for a while, watching Santiago waking up.

They have the best traffic lights for pedestrians! The little guy starts running faster and faster as the time counts down.

We found a flag, check!

Marcado Central might be the most touristy thing in Santiago. We went there for a great seafood lunch and bought some postcards while we were at it.
A photo of me taking a photo;

If you visit Chile, you have to go to Bravissimo, best ice cream ever!

Dunno what is happening here, we were guessing they might change the guards.

When we thought we’d seen enough of Santiago, we got back into the car and drove an hour south to Rancagua, a town I remembered as a small and depressing, but with the best skiing in the world.

I told Asher about this place called Schop Dog where you could get cheap beers and hot dogs. We laughed about it but then when we blindly walked around Rancagua not knowing what to eat, we came across one and thought “why not?”

Dinner for two with a pitcher of beer for US$20.

Ski El Colorado

First day on skis since the end of April. We headed to El Colorado, 90 minutes on a zig zag rode east of Santiago.
The conditions were not epic, but there’s snow and we wanted to take it easy on the first day anyway.

At the end of the day, we agreed that it was an awesome “bad day”. Overcast and not a lot of snow, but we are just happy we get to ski!

It took forever to get down the hill to get back and as we past one of the 180 turns we found out why; horses are blocking the road! I’m slow as usual and only got their butts.

As there were free overnight street parking after 8pm, we stopped by a sports mall on the way home to check out prices on ski gear (pretty much the same price as in the US), waste some time and a cup of coffee at the Burgers Beers and Boards cafe.

We had no special requests for dinner so we just stepped into the first place that was open and seemed ok. I got two local IPA’s, one with a terrible pour.

We are staying in the Barrio Brasil neighborhood, they have a street called Santa Monica, photo needed.

Hello Chile!

Yup Yup, we’re here and all our stuff made it on time! Our auto for the week;

First things first, let’s go get a pitcher! This is when we realized that Asher may know more spanish words than me, but mine seem to be more useful as I can get around ordering food at a restaurant while he can say a bunch of dirty words, “hammer” and “I want this spotlight over there” etc.

Vacation Time!

I made it in time for the pre take off beer in the airport bar.

Whenever I travel, I try to travel light. It’s not always that easy when you travel with skis though. I take my boots as a carry on because whenever I check them the airline tend to delay my bags.

Packing

I’m flying off to Chile tomorrow and I’ve been panicking a little over the last couple of days because I have not had much time to do my packing. 

Traveling is fun, but packing is boring. Let’s have a beer instead!

Packing

I’m flying off to Chile tomorrow and I’ve been panicking a little over the last couple of days because I have not had much time to do my packing. 

Traveling is fun, but packing is boring. Let’s have a beer instead!

Hermosa Beach

Wanna go for a bike ride, watch the world cup game and jump in the ocean? Let’s combine it all with a 30 mile long ride down to Hermosa Beach and back! 

Horseshoe Lake Hike

Headed up to Mammoth for the weekend. I got lazy and didn’t bring my camera, which I off course regretted right away. Now I have to rely on the iPhone camera throughout the weekend. I am not gonna allow myself to be lazy and not bring my camera from now on…
I was excited for Mammoth, I have never been here during the summer before. 
We did a short ~90 minute hike around the Horseshoe Lake and it was beautiful! I know the town is called Mammoth Lakes, but I’ve never paid attention to the lakes part, only really cared about the mountains.

I read up on these dead trees; apparently the mother earth is releasing a bunch of carbon dioxide that are suffocating the poor trees.

The hike wasn’t that tough, so there were still some energy left for a bucket of golf balls.

This driving range is super chill!

Best part of the day;

I was helping out with some interior design in the new house, we managed to put the hooks up on an almost straight line.

They have this chandelier in the house, it’s way awesome!