La dia en las montanas de Andes.

If you're living in Santiago, you see the Andes casting a shadow over the city, if you're lucky the smog hasn't blocked the beauties in a resulting haze. On a clear, sunny day, they beckon any snow bunny novicio (novice) or pro to escape the city in exchange for it's powder-rich slopes.

After four days of vivo en el Santiago Centro, I put on my skiing pants. Well, rain pants with spandex underneath because I didn't have room to pack those. The adventure, however, began like any day in a foreign land, with attempting to find our transportation van, Manzuir expediciones. Aughhhh.... I'll save you the pain and misery of half an hour of pained Spanish and broken coversation. Como???

In the magic of travel, we found our pickup location and departed for the lurking mountains. An hour later of winding and twisting on the roads leading up the mountain, I felt sick and we had arrived at the resort, El Colorado. How ironic? I suppose I could have saved myself the flight down south and just hopped two state borders to be in Colorado, USA. But the surrounding scenary was spectacular, not to forget the vistas from the van window. Wild horses roamed the cacti-spotted hillsides and bikers peddled precariously close to the road edge. Muy interesante!

My stomach took the back-burner in my mind as I grabbed my snowboard and stepped on the snow. As someone born and raised in the flat-landscape of Iowa, mountains and sea leave me at awe. My snow skills, however, are terribly lacking. Nevertheless, I'm always up for a challenge, resulting in great embarrassment most times.

After a slow ride down the mountain, my ass was literally being dragged up the mountain on Chile's version of ski lift. Basically it's a pulley system with hooks to hold onto as it's pulls you up the incline. The trick is balancing one's weight while riding on his/her skis or snowboard. I fell two seconds after grabbing my hook. For the remaining ride of 10 minutes, the surrounding Chileans gazed on. Sad gringo.

Finally at the top, I wanted to give up. I was already tired and quite embarrassed, to be honest. But like any motivational book or my parents would tell me: you can't leave the mountain yet and you already paid for the ride so suck it up.

So, there I was, in the Andes and eventually, loving it.