Unofficial Andes

Photo By: UnofficialAndes.com

I arrived in Pucon, Chile at 6:45 a.m. on a dark, cold, rainy winters morning. As the bus pulled away from the bus stop I look out into the pitch-black morning. It’s June 21st, the Southern Hemisphere’s winter equinox, I am in the middle of nowhere, in the midst of a nasty storm with no place to stay. Opening my over sized backpack I scrambling through it’s contents looking for my stained, sun faded red Patagonia ski parka as I contemplate my next move.

Hostel, cabin, shack it doesn’t matter I just need to find some place to get out of this storm. So I take off in the direction of town dragging my enormous ski bag behind me. Walking the streets of Pucon the first light of morning begins to creped over the volcanic cones that surround the town and I have still not found a place to get out of the storm. The rain begins to calm when off in the distance I see a faint light coming from an old wooden house with hostel written on the gate.

Soaking wet I ring the doorbell and hope for an answer. A few moments later a large kind looking woman opens the door and seeing my miserable state quickly ushered me in. I collapse by the stove; my gear and bags sprawled out around me. I watch the woman as she darts in and out of the room with sheets, blankets and pillows. She is rambling on and on in Spanish but in my exhausted state I cant make out what she is saying. Before getting into bed for the first sleep in just over a day I finally put together what the old woman was trying to tell me. Seeing all my gear she must have known I was there to ski and she was trying to tell me that the Pucon ski resort was not going to open for another week due to all the snow but that Bariloche on the other side of the Andes was having one of the biggest snow fall in years.

Share This