New Years Day hike to a lamb BBQ
The whole lamb is roasting on a spit over blistering hot coals in the middle of nowhere–literally. It smells delicious and has been soaked in beer and seasoned only with salt.
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The whole lamb is roasting on a spit over blistering hot coals in the middle of nowhere–literally. It smells delicious and has been soaked in beer and seasoned only with salt.
It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m writing this in perhaps the most unique resort I’ve ever seen—Hotel Remota outside the Patagonian town of Puerto Natales, a small (perhaps 15,000 people) but growing tourist town for those discovering the wonders of this region.
So this morning we’re at Turis-Otway, about an hour northwest of Punta Arenas. Many here take a boat to Isla Magdalena to see some of the 120,000 penguins who live at the Monomento Natural Los Pinguinos which, according to Fodor’s is one of the continent’s largest penguin sanctuaries, open only from December to February when the Magellanic penguins come here to nest and nurture their babies along the southern Chilean Coast.
We are sprawled under giant eucalyptus trees, chickens squawking as we tuck into a picnic (our trays are the tops of oak wine barrels—at the Emiliana Winery, which makes only organic wines in the Casablanca Valley—one of Chile’s big wine-growing regions about 22 miles east of Valparaiso.
The three of us love skiing… hard. Silverton satisfied our collective appetite for steep slopes, open powder fields and “earning our turns.” With only one lift (not counting the bumblebee-like helicopter that pilots experts to otherwise un-gettable peaks) the Mountain has a huge variety of terrain which can be accessed only by strapping one’s skis to backpacks and trudging up in ski boots.
DAY FIVE AAH. I’m face down with soft music playing at the Golden Door Spa at the Peak’s Resort in Telluride as the massage therapist works magic on my aching muscles (after four days of skiing )
DAY FOUR — I’m standing in a ghost town—in the snow in the middle of the forest. Who says all there is to do on a winter trip to a ski resort is ski or snowboard?
Sixteen year-old Max Walker-Silverman, a Telluride native has a message for visiting teens: “Get out of the mountain village and spread our tentacles and you will find a cool historical town.”
We drive from Silverton about two hours across a mountain pass to another world at Telluride Ski Resort, where we check in to a luxe condo–so luxe I can’t even figure out the lights or the shower (do I want rain shower, multi jets…?) at The Peaks Resort
Some people do make their dreams come true. “It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of fun and you just have to learn to roll with the punches when there is an obstacle in your path,” says Aaron Brill, the 38-year-old owner and founder, with his 37 year-old wife Jenny, of Silverton Mountain Resort in Colorado (www.silverton.com) that is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. This isn’t any ski resort. For one thing, there is only one lift and no bathrooms–just an outhouse.