Chile

Rental ski gear in tow and wearing nearly all of our clothes we began the winding, twisting and turning up all the steep little roads. We were finally dropped off at our hostel and after a quick check in we were off to the slopes!

We started on green runs so Nic could warm up but eager as ever, we both quickly jumped on the ski lift and headed higher and higher and were eventually happily skiing on the reds!

On our way up

Nic preparing for the red run

Obviously she wasn´t prepared enough....

The views from the top (3350m high) were amazing. We were in the heart of huge Andes mountain range with Santiago now a distant "village" (!) in the background. We had beautiful sunshine, clear blue skies and crisp lovely snow. We were in heaven!

David after one of his falls!

We´d had a couple of spectacular falls and ended our first day tired but very happy. We returned to a cosy hostel thanks to the log fire and chilled out playing pool, chess and chatted to fellow skiiers!

The second day was more skiing, though as we were still getting over our jet lag it was a lot more relaxed. We basically had the slopes to ourselves, it was bliss.

Checking out the slopes

We made our way back down, down, down into Santiago and finished off our two days of skiing with a few Pisco Sours!!

The sunset over the Andes just as we were leaving

Trying out pisco sours for the first time...

We left New Zealand at 5.30pm and landed in Santiago, Chile at 1.30pm! We had officially time travelled and were feeling the effects! After a weird night´s sleep we walked into town and had a stroll around the main square and a peek inside the Cathedral.

Preparing to land

Inside the Cathedral

During our stay in the city we also caught a furnicular railway up to the tops of Parque Metropolitano where a huge statue stood. From high up we could clearly see the Andes and the thick layer of smog which seemed to constantly hang over Santiago. We took in a dose of culture at the Precolumbian musuem. This was really interesting as they had artefacts dating from 100 to 400BC and mummies which were created 2000 years before the Egyptian versions!

View of the Andes from Parque Metropolitano

We sampled some local street food including the renowed "hot dog" with gucamole, tomato, mayo and if you´re daring some mustard!

Santiago city is a modern place and allowed us a gentle introduction to South America. Tring hard to get our spanish right, we even managed to have conversations that involved football! Having said that, this wasn´t too hard as the Copa America is currently on and the whole place is crazy for it. A real treat to see the likes of Brasil and Argentina thrash it out! (That comment was obviously from David!)

Still, with the draws of a modern citry at our fingertips, the Andes mountain range was looming overhead and we needed to get out of the city.....