21st June Portillo

Amazingly we were all ready for the minibus to Portillo at 09.15, having wandered the streets around the apartment looking for a breakfast cafe (unsuccessfully) and eventually settling for a supermarket shop and marching back to the apartment to eat it.

The route to Portillo became interesting when we reached the switchbacks and the traffic jam of lorries all waiting to pass over the border into Argentina - which our driver proceeded to overtake on blind corners.

We arrived at the hotel where changeover day meant a large amount of bodies and suitcases greeted us in the lobby - as did Felipe, the head of socialising. We were issued with our hotel passes while we waited for our rooms and went exploring - we were obviously in a very up market hotel, with a big living room with big comfy sofas, large restaurant with Maitre D' Juan, cinema, outdoor pool and hot tub and a fantastic view of the mountains and Inca lake - maybe we'd arrived in the wrong place for the raggle-taggled Linton/Cooper bunch??

Having rented skis, boots etc. and had an extensive lunch we ventured out onto the slopes for the first time. At this point we should say something about the level of service and attention to detail. This is kids week - the first week of the season where kids are discounted sufficiently to ensure that the place is full of young families and when the snow shouldn't be that good - but it is - there's loads of it. You ski from the door of the basement and on returning you hand over skis and poles to the ski check chaps and then exchange your ski boots for your shoes to the man who had memorised all our boots by the second day.

As most families seem to be Chilean or Brazilian there is quite relaxed and laid back attitude to breakfast, ski school starts at 10 so what's the rush - and after all, all the kids have been up until midnight. There is something to do for everyone when not skiing, there are various kids activities from climbing wall, pool, table tennis etc. to cinema showings of Ice Age, Spirit and The Incredibles, to attempts by the adults to work off the enormous amounts of food provided by working out in the gym after finishing on the slopes - then everyone in the outdoor swimming pool or hot tub, surrounded by snow with amazing views of the mountains. And as the majority of bikini wearers in the tub appear to be Brazilian, the standard of skimpy swimwear is impressive.

On the hotel tour on Sunday evening we met Gordon and Mallory Robison. Siena and Mallory soon hit it off, both with noses in books, or playing table football or just in their rooms.We all got on so well that by Monday we had combined our tables for dinner.

Meanwhile, Finn had met a group of Brazilians (who were in their 20's) and Brad from Australia. There are so few English speaking families here that opportunities for making friends are restricted but we are all having a great time.

Life for the majority of families here starts late (ski lessons don't start until 10.30am) and goes on late with tons of kids (the youngest being around 2 years old) still running around the living room at midnight, whilst the parents sit and talk or play cards or backgammon. Derry meanwhile was struggling to stay awake for dinner at 8pm on the first couple of days - and even though just awake she couldn't bring herself to eat anything - but by the end of the week our 3 were turning in for bed at around 10 and lying in until 9am - almost latino time!

The kids games room - with pool tables, table tennis, table football and a climbing wall is where our 3 disappeared after skiing on the first few evenings. An organised climbing wall session had Finn scaling the wall in super quick time - and then major frustration on his part when he had to wait for everyone else to have a go. But he did get to climb again when the session was over - it just meant he didn't have a climbing harness on. The climbing was fine, it was the 'abseiling' back down to the mats below and catching his foot between them that caused the visit to the doctors, the x-ray, the brace and the crutches!

Finn's injuries meant he missed his first ski lesson the next day as the doctor said he had to rest for the day (although there wasn't much sign of an injury once he had slept in his brace) - so Siena had a private lesson with Mario F(ettucine), and what a difference it made. There are sufficiently few runs that it wasn't difficult to pick out the lesson in progress - but when Alan and I first saw a skier in Siena's clothes going up a slingshot lift onto a black run and then venturing off piste on the side of the steep Plateau run. we really doubted our ability to recognise our daughter.

At the same time Derry had a lesson with Hans (from Austria, Katharina!) and she progressed from snowplough to speedier, almost parallel, turns -at least we weren't completely shamed by her also doing a slingshot lift before us as well. Hans also found time to teach her to skate, duck walk and ski backwards - all in an hour! Derry also enjoyed showing the ranks of the Chilean army how to slalom through their lesson (which we think was their first as evidenced by the discarded skis and poles all over the piste).

That evening Finn was signed off by the doc - although he decided not to do the climbing wall that night.

Wednesday and Finn was raring to go - so after a morning of skiing with no adverse signs we went to Tio Bob's for lunch. Today was the first really sunny day - until now the cloudy skies had given very flat light and not great skiing conditions. So a lunch in the sun was had - on the edge of Garganta de Diablo (a very aptly named run - Devil's throat) with fantastic views over the Inca Lake below - which the Chilean army were seen inspecting - and given the effort they had put into getting up there it was a well deserved view. Derry had her first descent of Plateau as we returned for the second lesson with Mario - this time it was the slingshot on Condor 3 times for both Finn and Siena.

Confidence boosted Siena and Finn entered the slalom race - with Dad in tow. All of us had been down the practice course once or twice, and we were all excited by the prospect - if a little tentative about racing. The hotel advertised it as an all-comers race, and when we were given bibs 47, 84 and 113 we expected it to last for hours - average time was around a minute. As it happened, there were only 30-40 or so entrants, so the whole thing lasted less than an hour. And the order was irrelevant! We all made it down without incident, doubtless all of us feeling like we were all totally on the edge and really racing - until we saw the pictures! We were also shamed by times which were way above the winners - alan's time of 50 seconds was 'only' 12 seconds slower than the winner (and 8 seconds slower than Felipe who looked a little like one of the more generously proportioned masters swimmers wearing a bodysuit as a last ditch effort - and a shiny purple/pink one at that!) So duly humbled we returned, happy to be presented with medals for completing the course in the evening and receiving a bronze medal for being within 140% of the winners time!

Midweek was also the point Al and I said 'enough' to the abundance of food and the lack of exercise. With potentially 4 meals a day leaving us permanently full (well it's almost impossible to not eat when faced with tempting menus) and mostly pedestrian skiing with the kids, it was time to find the gym. So 3 days in a row we went from ski slope to gym and had a workout - then to the pool for a few lengths - but don't worry Graham the water was bath temperature and the ledge for sitting on around all the edges prevented any real training. That and the murky water and the complete absence of illumination around the pool!

Siena and Finn had their final lesson with Mario on Friday and Derry joined Mallory in ski school as well. Mario asked Finn and Alan to join the instructors in the torchlight descent of the mountain that evening - a real privilege it turned out. Finn was by far the youngest, and skiing down a steep piste with no poles in pitch black aided by holding a flaming torch he was a real trooper - only prevented from completing the full course by a shower of sparks landing on his forehead and scarring my boy forever! After their lesson of more slingshots and off piste, Siena and Finn took it in turns to take Dadup his first slingshot lift, while Derry and Mallory were having a great time doing off piste between the tracks.

This has been a great ski holiday - luxury hotel with fantastic service with so much laid on. We even managed nearly a whole day skiing on the last day, with lunch at Tio Bobs again, suzanne's first sling shot run and another fantastic day. We'll skip over Derry's slingshot run - she loved the way up but didn't like the way down, falling some of the way and sliding further till she ended up in a heap against Siena who had slipped off the lift! So she wasn't too happy but we all ended the day smiling. Big hugs from Felipe, a final trip to the shop (now we're all wearing Portillo tops and jeans) and we were off in our bus back to Santiago.... bye bye Portillo, and thanks for everything - it's been brilliant.