Well our last stop in South Amercia, Santiago, Chilie ! We had heard mixed reviews on Chilie, a lot of people said it was grey, cold, uninspiring etc. But having spent a few days here its OK and it's big attraction are the ski resorts about one hour (in good traffic) from the city. The first thing we noticed as we left the airport was how much more affulent the place appeared than the rest of South America weve visited. The city itself has some really beautiful colonial buildings, a really good tube system and traffic lights at many of the junctions ! It does seem to have a problem with Grafitti, it's everywhere and not even good stuff. Just midless 'tags'. Obviously a lot of bored teenagers ! After going surfing in Peru, Jungle treking in Equador we thought it was about time for a bit of snow action !. We got a shuttle service from our Hostal at 0730 up to the mountains which took about two hours by the time we had stopped at their shop and got kitted out in lovely Orange trousers, gloves, boots and boards. We were dropped off at Colorado ski resort (not the famous North American place !) It was quite small by European standards but had about 25 runs when the snow allowed. We booked a one hour snowboarding lesson which began at 1200 so we had an hour or so to muck about. I have done lots of Skiing and been snowboarding once before when I visited my compardre Alex in Boston. I got the hang of it then really quickly, but couldnt really remember a lot of it, i.e. how to turn ! So i was hoping it would come back to me. Sam on the otherhand had never been skiing or snowboarding before. Our instructor was really great and before we knew it we were going up the lift to have our first proper run down. Sam is officially goofy ! (snowboarding speak for having her right foot forward). Sam was doing really well and before long was sliding down the slopes like a pro. Luckily I started to remember what I should be doing and before long was carving 'S'turns down the mountain. As I regained my snow legs I started going higher and higher and really enjoyed the freedom of being on the 'piste again'. The only thing Sam didnt enjoy was the button lifts, I guess there designed for skiers, so on a snowboard you have put it behind your front leg with your rear leg trailing, a bit awkward and if you fall off its a long walk to get back to the bottom of the lift. It made me realise how much I miss being in the mountains and weve both vowed to do some more snowboarding hopefully in NZ but definately when we get back to the UK. It does mean however that my dreams of going on boys only holidays snowboarding is now out as Sam enjoyed it so much !.