Portillo Problems

After two days on planes we finally got to Mendoza, Argentina. Our plan was to spend two days in Mendoza and then drive to Portillo, Chile to ski.

In Mendoza it was beautiful weather on our first day in Argentina. But it was different in Portillo. It was dumping tons of snow and the roads were closed. Thankfully we weren't leaving for two days.

It had been very odd weather in Mendoza. Every day the weather was different. One day with strong warm winds (viento zonda), the next beautiful sunny days, then cold and clear. But only one thing was happening in Portillo. Tons of snow. After three days of being disappointed over and over, we decided to reschedule our trip to Portillo because we heard we couldn't get there until Friday.

We were scheduled to leave for Portillo on Saturday August 15. The storm started on August 13 and the road did not open until the next Thursday.

We weren't scheduled to get our apartment until we got back from Portillo on Sunday but we needed a place to stay now. Thankfully our room was open and we could stay there. Unfortunately it was very dirty and there were dead bugs in the kitchen. Then we saw a nicer place right across the street for the same cost. We were about to move in to the nicer apartment when we realized it didn't have internet. So we spent a night in the original apartment. The next evening the nice apartment promised us internet so we moved over and here we are. I love it here. There is a great view of the Andes from the living room and the kitchen and the dining room. We are on the 11th floor. In our apartment building there is no floor 13 because in some countries 13 is an unlucky number.

Something to keep us occupied is language school. We go every week day. School starts at 8:30 and ends at 1:00. Our teacher is very nice and we are learning a lot.