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!!!
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