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Published: August 26th 2008
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Friday the 15th
Myself and steve met up in the hostel with a new zealander Tom and his Irish girlfriend Kerri and went for a few drinks with them. They live in Christchurch. Someone to meet up with when i get to NZ. After a few beers we headed for the bus terminal to catch our overnight bus to the Ski resort Las Lenas.
Saturday the 16th
I woke up on the bus at 7.30.The bus was meant to arrive in Las Lenas at 7.40 so I naturally thought we were nearly there. BUT with a combination of the bad weather and the fact the the friggin busdidnt have wipers we were going slow and were in fact hours away from the resort. 5 hours away as it turned out. The snow fall during the night had made the roads almost impassable. We did eventually make it at about 1230 after helping about 3 or 4 stuck busses and after passing many other cars and busses stuck in the snow. The snow was amazing, but with avalanche risk and high winds the lifts were not running (apart from the T bar on baby slope 50m long). Balls! We
So close yet so Far
On the Slopes....with my rucksack. Nowwhere to stay so off we go again asked around for accomodation but there was none to be found. This weekend is a holiday weekend in argentina and every fecker from buenos aires was already there. Myself and steve could have got one apartment that was available for 1500euro a night. We politely said "f$ck that" and realised we had to leave Las Lenas without having done one run. It felt like we wer 4-0 in a footy match down with fifteen minutes left. Still trying to keep some pride but in reality we knew we were screwed.
That evening with our tails between our legs we got a tractor that was in the shape of a bus (ok so it was a real bus but it could only do 30miles an hour) to a town 80km away called Malargue. Leaving Las Lenas the roads were relatively clear but it still took us two hours to get to Malargue. We got to a hostel in town and after talking to some guys in the hostel our spirits lifted. Apparently the weathere was good for the next few days, the roads would be clear and a transfer to las lenas was available with a real bus that would
only take an hour in the mornings and evenings. We decided to go rent some snowboarding gear in Malargue and do these transfers. One last attempt we said. We tried a good few rental places. There was not one snowboard to be had in the town. With the busy bank holiday weekend everything was rented out. I nearly cried.
After a 10 second discussion with Steve we decided to give up. Something was telling us not to ski and steve and I decided it was time to listen to these signs. So Steve called the argentinian air line company and got a flight to buenos aires booked for monday morning from a town called San raphael only a few hours away.
Sunday the 17th
Everyone in the hostel was up at 7 to go skiing or snowboarding (they had their own equipment) but we slept in till about 10. 10 hours sleep was heaven. We strolled up to the bus terminal and booked ourselves a bus to san raphael for 4 o clock. I watched some olympics to pass the time.
The bus left on time and arrived in San Raphael on time. Things were looking up. That evening we kind of felt like blowing out. So we looked for a bar that evening that might be a bit lively. On a sunday night of a bank holiday weekend in Gurteen County Sligo with a population of about 2 thousand people you can find a few lively pubs. In San Raphael, with a population of 2 HUNDRED THOUSAND people we could not find one good bar. Also, everyone in San Raphael is either younger than 16 or older than fifty. The young people must turn 17 and decide "im getting out of this shit hole". After a couple of beers in a bar where argentinas equivalent of Daniel o Donnel sang to the over fiftys (im suprised they let myself and steve in) we went home not having seen anyone in their thirties, never mind twenties. Come on Buenos aires.
Monday the 18th
A second night in a row of 10 hours sleep left us ready for the party we expected was ahead of us in buenos aires. We grabbed some brekkie and headed for the airport. The taxi didnt break down, the flight left on time, the flight landed on time, the next taxi to our hostel didnt break down. I was starting to trust all forms of transport again.
Waiting at the airport I tried teaching Steve a little Irish. He is coming along well. Ive tried to Upload Irish Lesson 1. See what you think.
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