Chilean Ski Dream

I just arrived in Valle Nevado, a skiers paradise a couple hours outside of Santiago, Chile. My hotel is perched in the middle of a 360 degree valley of bald, snow blanketed Andes. its August and there is 20 or 30 feet of snow. not a tree in sight...waaay above the treeline. At Puerto Del Sol, this is a serious skiers place...no frills baby...just ski your tushie off. Base is 10,000. the road up from the city is ridonkulous....tiny, barely enough for two cars to pass, with super tight switch backs, donkeys on the side of the road, no guard rails, huge drops, cars stopped on the side of the road putting chains on. I can hardly believe they brought things up here to build. Our driver, Patricio tells us that its a beautiful day and this is the first time the city of Santiago has had snow ever. As we drive through the city, two cars collide in front of us on the icey boulevard. We start up the mountain and when we look down at the city from the mountain, though, there's a giant brown fog over it. Apparently usually the smog is so thick, you can't even see the city, "this is bueno dia!," Patricio exclaims. Thankfully there are not a lot of familiar things, but we did see a Starbucks, Blockbuster and TGIF fridays. America is inescapable. On the way up the road, there is so much back country skiing, I am craning my neck to imagine skiing it all.... HUGE swoops of virgin snow open for the taking. "Where are the backcountry hikers?"I ask Patricio. Apparently, they do not do that around here. "Wha?????" I think..... I finally see two pairs of tracks down the most PRISTINE, giant glade. A bit farther up the road, we see a couple of guys hitchhiking to get back up to do it again.... Lemme at it.... aaaaaahhhh...

On Gratefulness

May in Malibu. My oaks are filled with the summer birds. Sun is streaming through the windows and dappled on the wood floor. The dog is cuddled on his bed under the kitchen table and the cat is snorting happily on the sofa pillow next to me. It's mornings like this that I thank God that my heart beat another night. The coffee is good and the day is young.