Haggling, South American Style

My Haggling skills have come a long way since China, as I found out when I took the ski bus down the mountain the other day.

Driver "10,000 pesos por cada persona, por favor"
Alan "Que no! Solo 8,000 pesos. El Hostel se dice 8,000"

....Driver telephones Hostel to find out the price, some discussions go on for a minute...

Driver "Ok, 7,000 pesos"
Alan "Er, ok 7,000 pesos. Que bien!"

So thats how to haggle.

Hablo Español

Hey its official, I can speak spanish. Just got my result, grade A GCSE Spanish!

Although despite being in South America for nearly 2 months, it is possible my Spanish has got worse as I hang out with Gringo´s all the time.

Im back in Santiago now after a week of snowboarding nearby, so time to chill out for a few days before heading off to another resort...
Santiago and ski mountains just 45 minutes away.

El Colorado

Hi again. Just a short note... I finally managed to snowboard that Volcano in Pucon! Came up to Santiago, and am now staying at a nice hostel in the mountains, from where I can reach 3 ski resorts. Just had a couple of very sunny days snowboarding, but now the clouds are rolling in, hopefully to bring some fresh snow. sunset snowboarding in El Colorado... after a few Pisco Sour´s...

Still in Pucon

After 5 days of rain, the sun finally put his hat on today. So we got up and rushed out the hostel to see the Volcano (we had not been able to see it due to to clouds and rain) Then we put on our ski wear to head off to the mountain, only to be told that the lifts were closed due to high wind. So Mañana, mañana, mañana.
So to pass the day we took a hike to Huerquehue national park, and took some nice photos of the Villarica volcano instead.
Tommorrow, I will ski down the volcano for sure!

Chile, Pucon

Hola Chicos y Chicas.
I arrived in Chile last night and it is indeed very Chilly. I am thinking that the fake O´Neill beanie hat I bought from the market and wear constantly, may look very stylish, but has all the thermal head warming properties of a damp sock.

I am kicking around downtown Pucon- http://www.skipucon.cl/ awaiting for the mountain to open which seems to be closed because of too much snow or something like that. But the forecast is looking good for Monday, so soon enough I should be snowboarding down the side of an active volcano. Andean skiing has many drawbacks - like slow skilifts, inconsiderate weather, dodgy bus services. But it makes up for it with dramatic resorts. So if an avalanche doesn´t get me, the lava will. Nice!

Bariloche

Hello again.

I have been in Bariloche for about a week now staying at the 1004 hostel. A hostel on the 10th floor of the ugliest office building you have ever seen. Think Bracknell, Coventry, etc. Some say the only good view of Bariloche is from this building, such that you cannot see the builiding itself. Anyway the view across the lake is fantastic. Check out http://www.lamoradahostel.com/1004_english.html . The place appears to be run by hippys, and the only reason really I have to change hostels soon is the endless playlist of French Folk music and Enya on the stereo.

Got 3 good days of Snowboarding in this week in the nearbny resort of Cerro Catedral, amongst a few weather issues. Fair-weather only ´boarding for me remember. So that brings my amount of snowboarding up to 7 days in 5 weeks. Result!