I arrived in Bariloche, Argentina early Sunday evening. After clearing customs, I met my ride and was off to the B&B. Knowing that Bariloche would be cold, I didn’t want to take any chances with faulty heating or hot water. So, I found a cute little B&B just outside of town. It would mean a short walk to the town center. But a hot shower and heat every day at an affordable rate was well worth it.My ride from the airport was free, at least from a monetary perspective. It had been arranged by the B&B as part of my stay. Unfortunately, they partnered with a local travel agency with shuttles that wanted to “help” me. So, here I am just off the boat, bags in hand listening to a sales pitch by a very nice woman. I had immediate, intense Peru flashbacks. I was tired and couldn’t be bothered. I listened politely and then asked to be taken to the B&B. There was a delay and after standing up by the door and staring at my “helper”, I made my point and finally left to go to the B&B. Ski Village in Cerro Catedral in Bariloche, Argentina. Copyright CareerBreakSecrets.com
On Monday, the first order of business was finding out the status of my skis. From the FedEx website, I tracked them to customs in Buenos Aires. So, I knew they were at least in the country. Little did I know, that was the easy part. I received the customs paperwork in a FedEx package delivered by its local partner. To proceed further all I would need to do is present myself in Buenos Aires to customs and I could get my stuff. Um, excuse me? Let’s see. I’m in Bariloche. The package is addressed to Bariloche. There’s a customs office in Bariloche. Do you think I could clear my stuff in Bariloche at the local customs office? Of course not. That would make life to easy. So, to make a long, tedious and painful story short…It’s now the following Monday night. And I am sitting without my skis after having paid “fees” to local brokers for more than I paid FedEx to ship my stuff to Argentina. It turns out that flying to BA for a daytrip would’ve been cheaper!
On a lighter note, we’ve already had two big snow dumps in Bariloche. So, there’s fresh powder on the slopes. I spent Saturday at the base to get oriented. I found all the essentials including a couple of places to get ski lessons. I just learned in February so I figured a couple of half-day lessons couldn’t hurt to get me going again. I bought a couple of pieces of gear that I didn’t already have.
View From Atop Cerro Catedral in Bariloche, Argentina. Copyright CareerBreakSecrets.com
The ski village is beautiful and much quieter than what I experienced in Breckenridge. Part of the reason is that the July school break for Brazil and Argentina are over so the kids are back in class. Most of the people I saw running around were people with really little kids, young adults (like me of course) and a few older die hards (like anyone over 37). I also saw a 50/50 split of skiers and snowboarders.
The mountains for skiing aren’t as high as Colorado so getting around is fairly easy. I was in my tennis shoes, not my ski boots so I was slipping around a little bit. A couple of weeks ago, I started to question my wisdom in taking a ski vacation. But, once I was in the village, I knew this was the right thing to do. And I was as excited to be skiing (or the promise of it soon) as I was in February when I finally learned.
Place To Warm Up On Cerro Catedral in Bariloche, Argentina. Copyright CareerBreakSecrets.com
OK, off to the slopes tomorrow finally and I will pray to the ski and delivery gods that my stuff shows up soon.
Originally Published August 13, 2007
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Tags: Argentina travel, career break travel, Jeff's Career Break Blog
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