Fast Women

Ok, I{m going to try and catch up on the last few days. Sorry to not post more photos - downloading them is extremely slow and the meter is running! These shots are of Portillo. One of the lifts goes over the highway which is fun and scary. Truck drivers and bus passengers wave as we float overhead. There is just enough snow to keep us occupied during the day, but the snow level is very very low for this time of year.

Anyway, to catch up on the trip thus far - after we visited the pinguinos, we found a dive hotel in Papudo. We played ping pong with the staffs{ kids for about an hour. It was more about pelting our repsective siblings with the ball rather than actually playing the game.

Friday morning we drove inland, got on the Pan American highway (I-5) for some views of the verdant countryside. I drove for a while along the coast and yet we escaped unscathed. Ryan coached me through shifting, which was kind of sweet considering I taught (helped) him how to drive a long time ago. We ventured south of Valparaiso - beautiful coastline, like northern California except fewer people and more stray dogs. We stretched our legs at Laguna Verde - I hope to post some pictures of that soon. I know I keep going on about how pretty it is here, but it really is.

We returned our little 800cc engine car with a nearly full tank of gas! We paid more for the gas than to rent the car. Both of us just thought to fill it up out of habit, not thinking that not only was this not required, but that the engine was so tiny that we could have driven to Ecuador and back on a single tank. The rental place guy was very nice and gave us a deal on the car and then drove us to the bus station for our return to Santiago.

Back in Santiago we finally managed to find a hotel that wasn{t overrun by footballers. Had to share a bed (ew!) because I was too lazy to go ask for a room with dos camas. Hotel Paris is a labyrinth and if our room wasn{t on the 5th floor, I think we had to go up or down as many flights of stairs to reach it.

Saturday morning on the shuttle to Portillo we met another brother-sister ski team, John and Kate from Australia. We{ve been hanging out ever since. Many many pisco sours have passed our lips and it is only Monday. (Hey, I need the protein from the egg whites!)

Kate is maintaining her ski instructor skills on the rest of our lot. She is taking a break from her summer-long RV trans-North America trip with her dog - to go skiing with her recently retired brother. We seem to have a lot in common and I{m enjoying them very much.

We got just a bit of skiing in on Saturday before tea. They feed us 4 times a day here! Sunday was very foggy with poor visibility. Fortunately they groom many runs so seeing where you{re going isn{t really necessary. Today the sun shone upon us all day long. It was awesome.

And for truly awesome feats, we{ve been observing the US Women{s Ski Team practice here. Ryan shoots better photos of them than I do (keep missing them, they are too fast for me!) but hopefully we can share a few soon. It is very fun watching them fly down the hill. (I had to really think about what verb would best describe what they do - zoom sounds louder than they are, race doesn{t do it justice, and hey, sometimes they are airborne so fly it truly is.) It{s a great excuse to take a break and bask in the glory and excitment that Olympic and World champions radiate.

I have just been informed that it is pisco time, and my drink is getting cold. I{ll try and post a few more photos but won{t promise anything ;)

Cheers-