Los Penitentes

7/9th

So travelling is all about going with the flow and so when someone said lets go skiing I said sure why not! Mendoza is a few hours away from the Andes and so there are plenty of ski resorts in the area. The one we chose is Los Penitentes about 4 hours from Mendoza.

We were up at 5am today to catch a 6am bus. We had rented ski pants and gloves in a shop next to the hostel and planned to rent the rest of the gear when we got there.

We arrived to the resort at 10am and headed to our hostel. After changing into our gear we headed off to the ski rental shop and got kitted out in our ski's and poles. It was all very exciting!!

Now Iv been skiing before but only once. I can do it but Im certainly no pro!!! It was myself, Jekke and Mythica that came on this trip and we all decided to do a lesson before we hit the slopes. Jekke has been skiing about 6 times before so she picked it up pretty fat, Mythica hadn't done it before so plenty of falls for her! As for me I picked up the basics again, I got my stopping down and just about mastered the turning (sort of). The lesson was from 1-2 so after that we got some lunch and then spent the rest of the day on the baby slopes. No falls today but we will see what tomorrow and the red slopes are like eeeek!

Our hostel here was a log cabin, small but warm and cosy. We had a great night with the other people staying there. Everyone else was from Argentina so they thought us card games and let us try their local drinks!

8/9th

Day two, lesson done, time to hit the big slopes! We checked out after brekie as we were getting the 6pm bus back to Mendoza tonight and then headed out to ski.

I had some serious epic falls today, my god I am bashed and bruised hahaha!!! No point in going skiing and not going all the way to the top right! Its hard work though and exhausting. The views from the top slops were pretty cool.

We spent the day going up and down before we headed back to the hostel to shower, grab our bags and head for the bus.
I cant believe how easy it was to go skiing just for 2 days and also how inexpensive it was. Two days skiing + rental + accommodation + food = €150. Where in Europe would you get this! I was wondering would it be cheaper to go skiing in SA for a week rather than Europe?

I was planning on getting back to Mendoza tonight and heading straight to BA but by the time we got back (our bus broke down on the way) it was late and I was tired and smelly and just wanted to go to bed. So I headed back to the hostel with Mythica, got pizza and went to bed!