Chasing the Pow!

Join me for a spot of skiing?  Banff and Lake Louise, Canada

Pure White

Serene; pure; cleansing and simply magnificent.  That is what fresh snow is to me and when that snow is draped across the Canadian Rockies and hugging the shores of Lake Louise, one can’t help but feel alive and the soul renewed.  Coming over the mountains into the Bow River valley in Banff National Park is always an amazing sight and I can literally feel my lungs and heart expand.  I love this part of the world and I don’t think that I will ever tire of the place.  Its as though time slows down and life takes on a completely different meaning.

This trip was probably the most leisurely I’ve done.  No timetable to follow – except to be back at the Calgary International by 11am on 25 November.  Beyond that, I could explore, ski or not ski, shop or not shop, relax or not relax and of course, eat drink and be merry.  I chose the “explore, ski and not relax” option.  For so early in the winter season, the snow conditions in Banff National Park were perfect. A snow pack of 106cm and 71cm of fresh snow in the last 7 days – no one can complain.  I checked out the Sunshine Ski Resort and the Lake Louise Ski Resort.  Both very different but equally fantastic skiing and views to die for.  There is something truly special about standing on the precipice of the mountain looking down at Lake Louise! 

I stayed in Canmore this time; a little town just south of Banff and I really enjoyed the change.  Far from the touristy style of Banff and very much a local mountain community.  Funnily enough, I had two great nights out – the first in the Drake Pub chatting to an Australian fellow who has been living in Canmore for 10 years and then the second in a fantastic wine lounge, the Sage, which is owned by an Australian who is married to a Canadian.  Almost can’t escape my fellow countryman.  But it is easy to see why so many Australians travel to Canada – its not only an amazingly beautiful place, but the people are incredibly welcoming and friendly and seem to share the same curiosity about the world as many Australians do.

I think that if one has the opportunity to go anywhere once in their life, the Canadian Rockies has to be high on the list.  

Farewell Buenos Aires

What to make of Buenos Aires?  After three weeks wandering the streets, it would be arrogant to suggest I am anywhere near having a handle on this city.  Each time I take a corner I discover something different and often unexpected.  Each street of the city is unique and has its own character; from the architecture to the people and even the breeds of dogs on leads.  I guess that is not unlike most cities but this is certainly a city of extremes.  Magnificent old and new buildings side by side with other woeful examples of architecture; wealth and extraordinary levels of poverty coexisting in the same space; glistening clean beside reeking piles of garbage hosting dead animals and who knows what; and politics that polar opposites.  It is an assault on the senses not unlike Milan or Genoa.  An old city still figuring out how to preserve the old while creating the new.  It’s a city awash in people (12 million and counting), culture, arts, fashion, food, and pretty much everything else that one can imagine of a city with a chaotic, and sometimes violent history.

I was reminded of these extremes the other day.  I was luxuriating in the dappled shade of a tree in the old Plaza Durango, sipping a lovely Mendoza Sauvignon Blanc watching the antics of the hawkers and buskers, when a small boy of about 10 years old with extraordinary patience and skill caught a pigeon.  My initial thought was ‘wow’ as I watched him cradle that pigeon gently stroking it.  Then in a blink of an eye, he snapped its neck and ran off with a couple of other little street kids to enjoy what was their freshly caught lunch!  I was speechless for sometime processing what my eyes had seen.  It’s amazing to me that there but for some quirk of the universe that allowed me to be conceived where and when I was, go I.  Associated with this experience, I have also struggled with the wastage I have observed.  Buenos Aires folk love their beef.  On average, Argentinians consume around 60kg of beef a year per person.  I am told that is about 1.2kg per person per week, which if you were eating it every day is, probably an easy target.  But for me, who rarely eats beef these days, it’s beyond comprehension.  However, feeling the need to sample what others constantly babble about while almost salivating, I ordered a tenderloin fillet last night.  I am sure I was served half a cow!  It was magnificent and it did melt in the mouth but no….I couldn’t consume it all.  So, needless to say, it went to waste.  Leftover tenderloin beef or a dirty pigeon? Something seems out of balance.

But I guess it is all part of that wonderful thing called cultural difference.  Travel provides such amazing nourishment for the mind and soul and it’s these types of challenges and grappling with how you respond to those challenges, which I am really grateful for.

So to sum up Buenos Aires:  unexpected, a little ‘shady’, but incredibly interesting Prepare to be perplexed.

Snapshot notes:  English is not widely spoken at all, despite what tourist books will tell you so learn some Spanish; pick-pockets are many and very good at their task; Argentinians don’t like spicy food; red wine is cheap but very good; and ‘it’s a good wife’ I am…apparently.