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Previous2005-07-28 - Chillan, Chile - Just Chillin in Chillan
We rolled into Chillan around three in the a.m. and were still exhausted. We hopped in a cab and went to about four different places before we finally found a room available. It was nice and seemed clean, aside from the dog shit on the floor that Tom pointed out to the guy working there. He cleaned it up and we decided we would rest in town and get up in time to catch a bus up to the mountain in time for a half-day of riding. It was a good plan but we slept in a little too long.
We couldn’t find a bus to Termas de Chillan near the ski area so we finally caved in and rented a car – surprisingly enough without either of us carrying a drivers license. The lady said that our passports were sufficient, winked at us, reminded us not to speed, and we were speeding off up into the hills.
The area was beautiful and in stark contrast to where we were near Santiago the day before. Here, it the mountains were forested and had a waterfall right outside the front door of our youth hostel. Unfortunately, the weather did was not in our favor. I thought precipitation would be good but… not in the form of RAIN.
We were working on meeting up with Darren and were hoping to rent some gear and make it up on the mountain. But it started raining and didn’t stop. We took advantage of the convenient Boozer bar just behind the hostel where we hung out, had some drinks and played pool. We picked up Darren in Chillan, about a two-hour round trip and then returned to Boozer to catch up with D.
We woke up early in the morning and drove up to the mountain and most of the mountain was closed. So it seemed to us it wasn’t even worth it to rent gear, buy lift tickets and strap on our gear. Instead, we cruised around in our pickup truck, ate a lot of food and drank a lot of beer.
-Jason
