I can say I met a lot of really great people along my trip, some I have pictures of, some I do not. Here are some that I do have pictures of, and as I think you can see I had a great time... For some reason the British girls really liked wearing my Vail K9 rescue hat. Hey, far be it from me to deny someone else the pleasure of wearing my hat...

So here are two views, one with proof I was there, and one unsullied with my ugly mug. I can say that they didn't quite come out as I had hoped, you see these postcard pictures and have some grandiose vision of what it will look like. Though all these pictures you see with the sun shining and a clear blue sky don't quite have the "character" that these cloudy shots do, well at least that's what I'm telling myself so please just go with it. Machu Picchu was one of the main reasons I chose to go to South America and it was well worth the days and hours of endless, tireless travel, I can now say I have seen one of the most beautiful sights in the world, Machu Picchu wasn't too bad either.... just kidding

So when I finally got to Machu Picchu after waking up at 4am to hike my way up the mountain here is the view I was rewarded with. In order to climb Wayna Picchu (the neighboring mnt.) you need to be one of the first 400 people on line due to erosion worries. I climbed in the pitch black , passing many people on the way up, did a climb they say should take 1.5 hrs in 1hr and 10 minutes and reached the top exhauseted but certain I would be in the first 400. I can say this was the most tired I have ever been, exercise wise, excpet for perhaps when Katie had me run the first half of last years NYC Marathon about 20 minutes faster than I had ever run 13.1 miles prior, I mean climbing in the heat and humidity and at such altitude really took its toll on me. I got to the openeing gate and there were about 600 people on line already!!! They all took the damn bus up, passing me as I climbed... to say I was pissed off would be an understatement. When we got in and the view was so foggy I was a little ahppy in that I said at least those "cheaters" coudn't see antyhing either. I waited for about 4 hrs for the fog to clear and will show you the view I was rewarded with next.

I will tell you all that Peru is a very interesting country, for instance here are the bags and bags of Coca leaves you can just buy on the street and chew or make tea out of, completely legal but only in Peru (to my knowledge). Peru really surprised me, great country and a lot nicer than I could've ever imagined. As you may or may not know I have made it back to the US as of right now but will put up lots of stuff I was unable to whilst I was away due to the slower computers down there.

Once again, the computers are PAINFULLY slow so I can only give a quick pick and update. Here is a picture I took today on the train from Cuzco to Machu Picchu. I amspending the night in Aguas Calientes (the town below Machu Picchu) and I plan on getting up at 3 am tomorrow to climb it and see the sun rise there. It has been a long ride getting here but this is basically the reason I chose to come to South America. I hope this finds you all well and I look forward to seeing you all soon!!

I wanted to post more pictures as I went out and bought a new card reader and it seems to have done the trick. Unfortuantely My bus to Cuzco leaves at 2 pm and I need to leave, it takes forever to upload pictures here. Well this is a picture of Valporaiso looking across the bay from Ranaca, I took it from a car, hence the blurred flowers on the bottom. I hope this message finds you all well, and Congrats to steve and Trevi on tying the knot last night, I wish them all the best in their life together....

I made it to PERU!!

Well I never got to say that my old camera broke so I had to buy a new one in Santiago. The new camera is working great, but apparently computers in both Chile and Peru don´t like to talk with it. I will try at my next stop but it looks as if I may need to continue my blog when I get home to put pictures up... That should extend your reading/viewing pleasure.

Right now I am in Tacna Peru, I took 14 hrs of buses over night to get here, and now I am going to take a 10 hr overnight bus (with a full bed, my first try, I am excited). To give you a little background of what´s been happening yesterday morning I woke up at 3:30 am to catch a bus to see the geysers in Tatio (near San Pedro de Atacama) at sunrise. The geyesers where okay but the scenery was great. I saw Llama´s, (Skip loves that...) and a few Vicunas (an endangered deer type animal) and even ate some Llama. The day before I went sand boarding in the desert and then went to an astronomy observation type thing, I have never seen the sky like taht before in my entire life!! Also, most of you know I don´t mind the cold, but the desert, in winter, right before the dawn is colder than I think I have ever been!!! Something I never really understood until the other day was the term ¨the silence was deafening.¨ When you sit in the desert and no one is talking the silence is so overwhleming that you would think you had just gone deaf, I never knew waht that was like until I experienced it the other day (73rd street doesn´t really so that for you). So now on this trip I have experienced complete silence (awesome) and white out conditions so bad I got vertigo (not so awesome). I don´t think I mentioned it but when you ski in the Andes you are so high up that you are literally in the clouds. Most people don´t ski when it snows here, and someone had mentioned this to me and I thought it was stupid. Well I went skiing and it was so thick white pea soup out that it was the most disorienting thing I have ever experienced. You couldn´t see ANYTHING, even people about 10 feet away!! It was as if you were suspended in a completely white box, or perhaps about 20 feet deep in a pool full of milk, you can´t tell where the ground ends and the sky begins, or that there even is a sky or ground. My brain didn´t like this very much.... Anyway, tomorrow when I wake up I shold be in Puno Peru, right on Lake Titicaca, of Groundhog Day fame.... After that it´s on to Machu Picchu. I hope this finds you all doing well and I look foward to seeing you when I get home!! Oh, and Steve, best of luck this Saturday, though I have to do this as a friend, if you aren´t 110% sure don´t do it, blame it on me or whatever. If you´re sure best of luck and I will see you and Trevi when I get home....

Sorry for the radio silence, I have been pretty busy last week or so. I will tell you Chilean hospitality is off the charts. Jorge and Patricia Machicao (the couple I spoke about before) were nice enough to have me over to their home for dinner on Sunday evening. They have a beautiful house in the hills on the outskirts of Santiago. I found out that Jorge is an engineer and an
entrepreneur of sorts as he is a share holder in several different companies over here. It was really nice to sit down and get to know them better and to talk more closely about ALS and the research I did on it a few summers back. I was glad to hear that Jorge is still able to attend to his businesses and I will say that his ability to speak is tremendous compared to my fathers. They have a beautiful family and I wich them all the best during this trying time. The following day I was graciously invited to spend the night at Sebastian and Carolina Delanoe Garces (the coulpe that met in Aspen) place in Rinaca, a town right next to Vina del Mar and Valporaiso. They two run their own business, seliing the Westerville Sweaters that Carolina´s father manufacturers in Argentina. They are great looking extrememly well made sweaters, I highly recommend them! We had a great evenning drinking Escudos (Chilean) and Quilmes (Argentine) beers with their friend Roberto and their cat Cucho. I made it to Rinaca right as the sun was setting over the Pacific and I couldn´t help but get in for a little, a really nice beach I will tell you. The next day Sebastian and Carolina were awesome tour guides of Valporaiso and the brightly painted houses over there. Valpo and neighboring towns were built on a thin strip of land between the see and the mountains, eventually extending into the mountians, giving the streets a feel of a combination of Europe and San Francisco. The houses along with the elevators was a sight to be seen! I am now in San Pedro de Atacama in northenr Chile (the desert) and will be posting some incredicle pictures once I can gett all of this stuff working again. Tonight I will be on a bus overnight to the northern border town of Arica, to cross into Peru tomorrow. I hope this finds you all well and I look forward to seeing you soon!

Just a quick update, thought you may all find it intersting, as I did, that I am in Santiago right now, hanging out at a bar and I am having a conversation with 2 Finns, a few Brazilians, a Colombian, a Chilean, and an American... Of course it is all in english, lucky for me.... hope all is well!

Finally: I`ll spare you guys anymore pictures of me... for now!

Some more....

My camera is till not working but after seeing these pictures a professional photographer took of me I had to buy some. Sorry for posting so many but I figured if I loose the CD over the rest of my trip at least I will have sent these home... ENJOY!

Powder day...

So last night I went to a party at the staff bar across the street for the rookie ski instructors. It was a great time and I found out the story behind the Hunter Mnt. poster. The head of the ski school here is from upstate New York and grew up skiing Hunter. He even told me that Hunter made all of the snow making equipment that they use here in Portillo, though after today I have no idea why they need it. I will be honest, as I woke up Tuesday morning I wasn`t the most excited I`ve ever been as the skiing was sub par and I thought to myself, "I`ve got 5 more days of this?" Meaning I wasn`t too excited to ski. Well yesterday was obviously great but it snowed all night and this morning we had 15 inches of freash powder and it was a Bluebird!!!(that means a day were the sky is as blue as you`ve seen it and there`s not a cloud in the sky). I swapped my rentals for some powder boards (in deep snow it`s better to have long fat skis to help keep you "floating" on top. I need to preface this story with somehting I haven`t shared yet. The mountain here is only for guests who stay a week, they are not currently selling day passes. Furthermore it is their winter break right now so there are a lot of families with little kids here. This translates into a mountain where I have literally not seen one lift line, and I can ski fresh powder, come back later and only my tracks are there. It`s amazing. There were places where the powder was waist deep, oh and they`re forecasting 30-60 cm. more for tomorrow and Saturday, looks like I may need to spend an extra day or two here. Anyway, the point of the story is that I can honestly say that today was the best day of skiing I have ever had in my entire life, and it`s only supposed to get better. I have some great pics to share but unfortunately somehting is wrong with my card reader and I can`t upload them. I hope this finds you all well!!!!

Well as I am sure a lot of you will or do not believe I got up and hit first tracks this morning, that means I was the first on the mountain. To fill you in it started snowing last night, and it didn`t stop, and this morning the road was closed, here`s the sign they use to let you know, and there were 6-8 inches of fresh powder on the graound. This has now gone from best July skiing ever to some of the best skiing I have ever done. Period. This is a shot of the mountain next door that I took whilst on the lift today. I can honestly say that this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited, I highly recommend it. Not too much else has happened except for the awesome skiing, on a funny note for dinner last night we had Chuletas de cerdo. For those of you that don`t speak spanish, or more to the point for those of you that did not have the pleasure to be in Mrs. Frommia`s 7th grade Spanish class at Manhasset Jr. HS those are pork chops. I know that there was something else interesting I wanted to share but alas, it escapes me at the moment. Oh, well. I hope this finds you all doing well and I will continue to keep you updated.

Here`s the resident dog, he`s real nice but real big and old as well...

It started snowing agian this afternoon and here`s what it did to my beard...

Here was the view as I walked out the door this morning...

So I met a kid from Boston in the boot room before I went out today. Here`s a shot if him and the spot we were skiing today.

Update 7/20/2010

Sorry to share only a few photos but they take a long time to upload and the hotel I`m stayting at charges you to use the computers. So right now I am in Portillo Chile, it`s where the US, Canadian, and Austrian ski teams practice during our summers. It is really seld contained, as I said it`s in the middle of the Andes so I`d compare it to being on a cruise ship. There is no town, only the hotel, which does have some nice stuff like outdoor pool and hot tub, but if I were to live here for a full season I think I`d go stir crazy. I had a few drinks last night and can honestly say that my Spanish got a lot better the more I drank, or at least I think it did. The Chileans are crazy about these Pomo type lifts where you put a disk attached to a pole between your legs and it pulls you up the mountian. They have them in the US but these are a little different, they use them to get to the really hard terrian. I`d equate it to water skiin up hill, I mean there are bumps in the way. The first and only time I thought it was harder getting up the mountain than down. I am staying in a hostel like room with 2 bunkbeds, my 3 roomates are all brothers from La Serena Chile. They all speak english very well and are exteremely nice and about my age, one of them worked at Aspen Snowmass for 5 winters and actually met his Argentinian wife there! Interestingly enough I actually met a nice couple here from Santiago, with their children. Life can throw you some really crazy coincidences that really make you think. The father, Jorge, is in his early 40´s and he has ALS and is confined to a wheelchair. I was speaking with his wife and she`s originally form the states, her name..... Patricia!! For those of you that don`t know my mom`s name is Particia and my father passed away from ALS. Of all the people in the world I could have met in the world I met them, they seemed happy to be able to talk with someone that had been through it all, so I hope I helped and was able to provide some sort of piece of mind. On a happier odd coincidental note I went to the bar that all the ski instructors go to last night. On the wall there was a poster, as I looked closer I saw it said HUNTER MNT, NY!!! I go half a world away to see a poster from a mountian essesntailly righ tnow the street. My HS friends will really appreciate that as we were all lucky enough to learn to ski at the Calderone`s, which is in Windham NY, about 5 miles from Hunter.... crazr world we live in!!!

Here`s a close up of one of the Poma lifts I was talking about, nuts. It works like a see-saw, as you can see there are two set of tracks, as you are pulled up the left, the other set of `seats` comes down the right...

Here`s the view from my hotel. To say it`s breathtaking is an understatement, I don`t even think the photo does it justice...

So last friday was a holiday in Chile and I just happened upon a crazy parade. People were playing music and dancing and wearing some pretty impressive outfits, here is one of the odder ones. I was told that they were all northern Chilean/Peruvian/Bolian cotumes as that area apperantly shares some culture.

View of Santiago

Here is what walking around Santiago looks like. It really is a beautiful city, with a very European feel to it. The mountains just hover everywhere.

So, I am working on putting some pictures up but may take me a little while. Please excuse any odd punctuation, these latin american keyboards are confusing as some keys have three options and I cannot (see I wanted to write can}t but I get a } instead of an apostrophe) seem to figure it out. Hey, I figure it may make for some interesting posts. Anyway, I made it up to Portillo today and it really is just a stop in the middle of the mountains. I get to ski from about noon to 5 and while it was a little icy and we could use some snow I can honestly say that it was the best skiing I have ever had on July 18th!

Funny thing I have realized is that ciao seems to be the most ubiquitous word in the world. It is obviously Italian but I will tell you that I know that Germans use it, and now I have seen that both the French and Spanish speaking worlds us it as well. Odd. I have a lot to share with you guys but I am feeling the altitude (base is about 9,000 ft.) so I don{t (see, there it is again) have it in me to write too much more tonight. Hopefully we get some snow soon and I will be able to share some sick action shots (how am I going to take action shots of myself? I do not know yet but it is going to happen!).

So this is my first attempt at a blog so this will obviously be a work in progress, please bear with me....

So thought I'd let you know that I got my bag, made my day I'll tell you, so much less to worry about. I'll tell you something interesting thing about Santiago, man there are a lot of dogs!! Now I know why Bob Barker always had that announcenment at the end of The Price is Right about "Please spay or neuter your dogs," because apparently if you don't there will be thousands of dogs just roaming the street. Another interesting thing is it seems that some guy named O'Higgins seems to be pretty big down here as the main drag is named after him, I think he had something to with a fight for independence. Looks like you can't get away from those damn Irish no matter where you are in the world, almost impossible in Manhasset...HA[with a name like Aidan I'm allowed to make jokes like that]
So I had an interesting time trying to get a bus ticket to Portillo today. Everyone I have spoken to said to take the Tur Bus to Mendoza Argentina but to just have the driver let me off in the middle of the mountains before crossing the border. Sounds a little sketch, I realize, but if everyone independently says it's no problem I figure what the heck. Well I go to the Tur bus people and they say they will not just let me off in the middle of the mountains on the highway to Argentina. Considering how bad my Spanish is right now just this much info took a LONG time to figure out [this is after an hr walk to get to the bus station]. Anyway the lady directs me to take a subway all the way across Santiago in order to take a different bus. Luckily I don't buy it and keep poking around the bus station until I can find a bus company that does this. Name of the bus company O'Higgins...

Just thought I'd drop you all a line and let you know that I have safely made it down to Santiago Chile, all by my lonesome, and by that I mean my bag didn't even make it. I can say that it felt great getting of the plane and having the cold air hit my face, being able to see my breath, but what made it even more fun was the fact that because I got on the plane in NYC yesterday I was in shorts and a tshirt. Fear not I was bright enough to bring a button down and my jacket on the plane with me, but now it's off into the city to try and buy a pair of pants.... Hope to see you all in about a month when I return.