We had the opportunity to spend 5 days at Antillanca, a small ski area about two hours from where we live.  We had no idea what we had signed up to do several months prior, when our Chilean friend, Franco, who we met in Boulder Colorado about 15 years prior, insisted “here is the link just pay and sign up – this will be a good time.”

We packed up our little white matchbox rental car and headed out.  Little did we know  it turns out we had a 16 km drive up a rough mountain road in a snow storm without 4 wheel drive in a car that felt closer to a child’s toy than an actual vehicle.  We started up the road thankfully with 2 chains.  As we slowly inched our way up avoiding ditches and potholes, Steph closed her eyes, while the boys selected music to accompany the adventure.  We excitedly or for some of us scarily ended the adventure with one chain at the base of the mountain. 

Once parked, Steph looked around at the beautiful snowy landscape and said well looks like we are staying here for the month.  It only took one run on the most beaufiful ski mountain of our lives for Seth to say “well that doesn’t sound like a bad plan, frankly this is what my heaven looks like.”

We skied each day surrounded by the volancoes and open fields of snow.  The way the snow felt as we curved down the mt was like “Helado de Pina.” Or translated as Sweet Ice Cream or Pineapple ice cream. 

But the snow was not the only sweet creamy part of this adventure, we were surrounded by an amazing community of skiers.  There were about 35 families who owned like dorm rooms all in one small location with only a handful of rental rooms.   We would sleep in bunks in the night and the kids would all go ski race and train in the day while the adults skitted talked and enjoyed each others company. 

For some reason we came to Chile without our skis.  So we rented the first day but then this amazing group of people each day found skis another set of skis for all of us to use.  Oh, “Noah you want to slalom train with the team today? I can find you a pair of skis.” And the next morning they would be outside our door.  “Steph its supposed to really snow tomorrow you need powder skis.”  And again outside our door. 

Each Chilean we met greeted us like we had been lifelong friends. Like we had been there skiing together forever.  They would yell out on the hill, catch a run with us and say “over here” or pull up and share a story in the lodge.  Kindness and sharing joy were clearly a part of this Antillanca culture. It felt like college living in a dorm or even better like living in middler cabin 4 next to the most amazing baseball field with friends you just met but again you felt like you knew forever.

Overall our hearts were filled with joy.  You could just see the feeling beeming from our faces. 

This ski-batical…we mean sabbatical was like helado de pina!