Part Eight: Santiago, Chile

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This is one of the top snow ski areas in Chile. It's only 50 Km from Santiago and features over 16 ski lifts which it shares with its sister city El Colorado. It had taken us less than 2 hours to get here, and we had been in no hurry. Farellones is known for the special texture and amount of its powder snow. Apparently this was the first ski resort to make a name for itself in the mountains east of Santiago, back when the skiers had to get here by mule and haul their skis on their shoulders to the hill tops.

I had spent my childhood in England growing up with snowy winters. We used to skate on the local frozen ponds, cavort down snowy hills on toboggans, construct snow men, throw snowballs, and all the other wintery things that one does in the 'gay abandonment' of fresh youth. Since then, this was only the second time I had returned to the snow, the first being during my visit to Bavaria a couple of winters ago for a week-long catering job.

Well, I must say that I was certainly glad that I had bothered to rug up with a double layer of pants, three shirts and 2 jumpers, heavy shoes and of course my woolly hat, gloves and extra socks, which I had borrowed at the last minute, all on the advice of Adikesava. Yesterday the downtown temperature in Santiago had been minus 5 Celcius! I had shivered and suffered with insufficient clothing, so being swaddled like a teddy bear felt good. Oh, the shades were an afterthought in the car!

I am not embarrassed to admit to having never indulged in skiing, and I also have to admit I felt no urge to seriously hit the snowfields now, even as the ski lifts and resort were in full view. I was just happy to frolic, breathe some clean mountain air and trudge around after being tied to the kitchen the last three days. I posed for a shot atop the highest peak around, with the smog-covered city of Santiago peeking out of a blue haze 3 kilometres below us. A little more gambolling, then we returned to the car and drove back to the 'big smoke'.  

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