Argentina

From Sand to Snow

Written By: jeff

Posted On: December 12th, 2010

career break, career break travel, career break advice, travel the world, Argentina travel, Bariloche, Bariloche skiing

I arrived in Bariloche, Argentina early Sunday evening. After clearing customs, I met my ride and was off to the B&B. Knowing that Bariloche would be cold, I didn’t want to take any chances with faulty heating or hot water. So, I found a cute little B&B just outside of town. It would mean a short walk to the town center. But a hot shower and heat every day at an affordable rate was well worth it.My ride from the airport was free, at least from a monetary perspective. It had been arranged by the B&B as part of my stay. Unfortunately, they partnered with a local travel agency with shuttles that wanted to “help” me. So, here I am just off the boat, bags in hand listening to a sales pitch by a very nice woman. I had immediate, intense Peru flashbacks. I was tired and couldn’t be bothered. I listened politely and then asked to be taken to the B&B. There was a delay and after standing up by the door and staring at my “helper”, I made my point and finally left to go to the B&B. Ski Village in Cerro Catedral in Bariloche, Argentina. Copyright CareerBreakSecrets.com

On Monday, the first order of business was finding out the status of my skis.  From the FedEx website, I tracked them to customs in Buenos Aires.  So, I knew they were at least in the country.  Little did I know, that was the easy part.  I received the customs paperwork in a FedEx package delivered by its local partner.  To proceed further all I would need to do is present myself in Buenos Aires to customs and I could get my stuff.  Um, excuse me?  Let’s see.  I’m in Bariloche.  The package is addressed to Bariloche.  There’s a customs office in Bariloche.  Do you think I could clear my stuff in Bariloche at the local customs office?  Of course not.  That would make life to easy.  So, to make a long, tedious and painful story short…It’s now the following Monday night. And I am sitting without my skis after having paid “fees” to local brokers for more than I paid FedEx to ship my stuff to Argentina.  It turns out that flying to BA for a daytrip would’ve been cheaper!

On a lighter note, we’ve already had two big snow dumps in Bariloche.  So, there’s fresh powder on the slopes. I spent Saturday at the base to get oriented.  I found all the essentials including a couple of places to get ski lessons.  I just learned in February so I figured a couple of half-day lessons couldn’t hurt to get me going again.  I bought a couple of pieces of gear that I didn’t already have.

career break, career break travel, career break advice, travel the world, Argentina travel, Bariloche, Bariloche skiing

View From Atop Cerro Catedral in Bariloche, Argentina. Copyright CareerBreakSecrets.com

The ski village is beautiful and much quieter than what I experienced in Breckenridge.  Part of the reason is that the July school break for Brazil and Argentina are over so the kids are back in class.  Most of the people I saw running around were people with really little kids, young adults (like me of course) and a few older die hards (like anyone over 37).  I also saw a 50/50 split of skiers and snowboarders.

The mountains for skiing aren’t as high as Colorado so getting around is fairly easy.  I was in my tennis shoes, not my ski boots so I was slipping around a little bit.  A couple of weeks ago, I started to question my wisdom in taking a ski vacation.  But, once I was in the village, I knew this was the right thing to do. And I was as excited to be skiing (or the promise of it soon) as I was in February when I finally learned.

career break, career break travel, career break advice, travel the world, Argentina travel, Bariloche, Bariloche skiing

Place To Warm Up On Cerro Catedral in Bariloche, Argentina. Copyright CareerBreakSecrets.com

OK, off to the slopes tomorrow finally and I will pray to the ski and delivery gods that my stuff shows up soon.

Originally Published August 13, 2007

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One Response to “From Sand to Snow”

  1. [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sherry Ott and BriefcasetoBackpack, Jeff Jung. Jeff Jung said: From Sand to Snow. The start of my #skiing adventures in Bariloche #Argentina. http://budurl.com/8gwy #travel #rtw #rtwnow #rtwsoon [...]

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