Ice Pimps and Snow Queens

After arriving in Mendoza, we attempted to finally make sense of our flights, as we didn´t really know when we were meant to be off to New Zealand. A wonderful man with a goatee sorted us out nicely. When Marie-T and Leon tried to sort theirs out however, there was less success. They couldn´t rearrange as they wanted and realised they had 10 days to get to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. No mean feat. Good luck to them. So sadly, after far to long together for my liking, we parted ways.

Penitentes. Half way between Mendoza and Santiago, Chile. The backbone of South America. The Andes, not Santiago.

One of the main reasons we wanted to come to Mendoza was for the skiing opportunities close by in the Andes. So, on a bus we hopped to Penitentes, a 1 and a half hour bus ride we were told. 4 hours later we arrived at our destination. I´ve only ever been on a dry ski slope a couple of times, but Em has done more and is relatively competent. The original plan was to stay a few days and get some lessons etc. However, there were no cash machines in this tiny resort, and after some extreme accountancy we calculated the fun could only last for the grand total of a day. Shame.

The man in black.

Me "eating snow" as the lingo goes.

Half the fun was the ski lifts. Canny view throughout.

Was a hoot though! I was rubbish and fell over several hundred times, but was skiing like a pro at times. Not really as easy as it looks.

So after a day of incredibly cheap skiing, we had to return to Mendoza due to cash flow problems. Nevermind. More in NZ no doubt!