Monday, May 08, 2006

¡corre a las montañas!

Well as you can tell from my last posting, things were getting a bit nutty here in the city last week. I realized all of a sudden that my mind was spinning years beyond the here and now and over things I couldn’t control, making me restless, uncertain and unhappy. Not good. Something needed to be done. I needed some perspective.

And I knew exactly where to find it.

Sunday morning I bundled in my winter gear and set out from the house at 6:30 in total darkness, starting my day as most partiers in my neighborhood were ending theirs. I met my always-dependable adventure buddy Joe downtown and we made our way to Santiago’s bus terminal. Joe himself was just pulling out of party mode so we got him some empanadas and us some bus tickets for the first leg of a good journey. 10 minutes later we were on a bus headed for the Andes and I was breathing easier. Staring out the window, watching city turn to space, fields turn to vineyards, altiplano turn to rugged jagged peaks. God, I love moving. I love motion.

Our destination was Laguna del Inca, a lake sitting at the base of three beautiful peaks called Tres Hermanos and the famous ski haven, Portillo. We hiked around, got dirty, climbed rocks, laughed, he took pictures of backcountry ski lines for the winter, I took a nap in the sun over the shining green lake. Perfect.


The winding road about halfway up the pass. Every curva has a number... Curva 28, Curva 31. I think its so they can easily find trucks that fall over the edge. Really.


Portillo. Nunca cerrado.


And look who I found in the ski lodge! A photo of the US Ski Team circa 98-99. Check out the second row, 4 in from the left side. My very own Megan Ganong! What a badass you are! Nice headband too, hotstuff.


Laguna del Inca y Los Tres Hermanos


Some perspective. Look for Joe in the red jacket on the rock outcropping on the left. We people are verrrry little in this world.


A little sun nap


Awake

Because we were on the Argentine border, the customs police were really strict about which buses could carry whom from where so we had to hitchhike down. We weren’t having too much luck, the sun was starting to make long shadows over the gigantic peaks and we were getting cold. Finally, a rickety old converted bus stopped, we jumped in and asked where they were headed. “Down” they said. “Great” we said. I look up and realize we hitched a ride with a vanload full of construction workers, still wearing their orange jerseys and blue hard hats. Too funny. They were pretty entertaining with their dirty jokes and funny nicknames for each other (granny, little biscuit, fat birdy). I was glad Joe was male and we made it down in one piece.

A couple hours later we were back in Santiago and I was home in time to collapse in bed. Exhausted and happy from a day in the mountains.

2 Comments:

At Wednesday, May 10, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah, yes. Nothing sets your mind at ease (or puts things into perspective) like a visit to the mountains.

 
At Wednesday, May 10, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kelly! Me alegro de leer tus mensajes aqui en tu blog:) Acabo de cumplir el mismo escenerio. En jackson, me ofricieron mi empleo antiguo, pero no queria dejar a mi mujer aqui. Es dificilisimo obtener un empleo aquien Burlington, sin embargo, despues de 4 entrevistas, me entregaron un empleo de maestro del espanol en una escuela local! Lo malo es que tendre que renunciar despues de un ano si mi plan sique como debe seguir. Bueno, tu mereces este empleo, y si no te lo dan, no sera un lugar suficiente "cool". Debes buscar en VT. Es un paraiso. De todos modos, estaremos en la misma region en 2007. Adonde fue Britt?? Esta escondida y no me devuelve las llamadas:)

un abracito
David Y Osita

 

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