Our Skiseason in Cerrö Castör

As good ski bums we slept at the lift. The next morning the alarm rang at 7:00 so we could be at time at the rental station and in the lift. After moving Rosi to the first spot in line we prepared in the van. Linda put in her contact lenses, while I was on our little toilet for No2. AT EXACTLY THAT MOMENT a guy came to the van to ask us… something. I was sitting on the toilet while Linda was half blind with only one contact lens in her eyes trying to open the frozen door and understand what the friendly guard was rapid firing in Spanish. After whiping pretty fast, I came from the toilet and tried to solve the situation, but I did not wash my hand and therefore refused the friendly indicated handshake from the guy and offered him a fist bump through the opened window. After a short chat it was clear, that Rosi was too long with the bicycle and we had to re-park to the side of the big car park, then (of course I washed my hands first) we made a coffee and got all geared up for a proper ski day. We had our ski trousers and goggles with us and warm underwear was packed anyway. Linda got my warm ski hoodie (and looked like a professional ski girl) and I wore my winter jacket. The rental process was pretty fast and after we got our -for rental gear normal- uncomfortable boots and ski and snowboard we went directly to the lift line and … waited. The lift opened at 9:45…. That is soo much later that in the alps, but whatever. Whether was good and anticipation was high. So we got in the lift, greeted the lift boy and… WHACK… got hit by the old chairlift in our calves. „Ok, this is going to be different“, we thought. No heated chair lifts and no slower lift while sitting down. I got instantly reminded of Japan, but at least the seats here were cushioned and we did not have to lift on wood bench lifts (@Chabo I still loved it with you in Japan :-*). So up it went, and we were both totally stoked. Everything was white and we were going to ski….in a winter wonderland….Next to us in the lift was a young Argentinan guy who instantly asked us in almost perfect english were we were from and than started to talk…non-stop… It was a surreal moment. Linda and me were both stunned by the fact that we were going to ski in almost perfect conditions in the most southern ski resort of the world and at the same time this young dude told us how much he liked to study in Denmark and that he really enjoyed the KitKat club in Berlin and how crazy it was to travel to Antarctica and and and….Somehow I tried to interrupt him to just shut up, somehow he just wanted to be nice and somehow we could not handle this moment… At the top he said a friendly goodbye and relieved us. We lifted one more to the top and than it started…The snow was fresh, it was grippy and next to the slopes there were about 10 cm of fresh snow. It is hard to put the feeling it words, if you don’t enjoy skiing or snowboarding, but at the end of the first slope, I could just smile…

We took another lift to the top and turned left, to pass through the typical „gate“ of this resort: Two huge stones with the slope passing through as if you pass this huge gate into a view of the mountains around. It was beautiful. We said to each other multiple times how crazy it is to be here and have a „normal“ ski day, just as we have it in the alps. 

After a few slopes the real needs of the body kicked in, and re realised how cold we were, how much the rental boots hurt, that we haven’t eaten anything yet and headed into one of the cabins of the resort. It was a big one, with a huge window front to the slope and beautifully build with huge wood beams. We had really good coffee, hot chocolate and two medialunas each (do not dare to call them croissants, it is completely different (no it’s not)). After that we skied almost every slope of the resort and enjoyed a beautiful ski-day that we finished with a nice beer at the bottom. There was no Apres ski and most of the visitors remained in one of the good restaurants on site. 

We made our way to a gin distillery we wanted to visit, but it was sadly closed. So we just had a nice dinner in the restaurant nearby and the lovely owner allowed us to spent the night at the parking lot.

The next day we woke up early again and made our way to the lift for the second half of our ski season. The cool thing is, that we could leave the rental equipment in the shop and it did not take any space in Rosi. So we headed in the second day, with new boots for Linda and a new board for me, and it was at least as cool as the first one. A few slopes were sadly blocked most of the two days, because the ski teams of Italy, France and Germany were training here, which was sad, because these were some of the coolest ones, but I guess that’s the reason why they were used for the training. 😉

At the end of the second day we both felt really confident, warmed up and ready for a full week of skiing, but this would have been too much. It was a beautiful experience although Cerro Castor is a pretty small ski resort with 13 lifts and 35 km of slope, but it was not cheap and once again I realised that skiing is a sport for the rich people. Many people we talked to, were just here for the weekend or a full week from Buenos Aires, and the stories they told us indicated, that they were pretty wealthy. I felt very grateful for that experience and the fact that we can afford this skiing adventure, although the fact that prices are similar to the Alps means that our budget can only allow some of this kind of adventures, but we both love skiing and this might be the only two days on the slopes we will have this season. 

Nevertheless this short ski season was worth it and after giving back our rental equipment, we tried again the gin distillery. This time it was open and it is hard to explain the scenery. The distillery is linked to an old motorbike museum, which is one big room stuffed with old motorbikes and behind a bar there stands a friendly looking Santa Claus surrounded by gin bottles. Santa was the owner and very friendly he explained us why the gin was called 3005 (the old km mark of Ruta 3 of the distillery) and all the botanicals that were added to the gin. He gave us a little shot to taste and that (combined with the charisma and the attitude of Santa) convinced us directly to buy a bottle of this gin. Now we have four different gins in Rosi to choose from for our G&T… (Thanks @Frederik for the drawer, it is now our bar). Also he gave us half a stamp… For the other half we have to be in a very specific location in Alaska… Lets see if we make it. Happily we headed towards Ushuaia to the first camp ground we had to pay for since we left Uruguay. It was a small parking lot, next to a house and the owner greeted us very friendly. Although the place was not a really campground we enjoyed the hot shower as if it would have been a full evening at the spa. We were happy and sore and ready for the end of the road, the most southern point we can reach with Rosi.