Andean skiing offers an unforgettable combination of beach-style weather, great snow and exotic travel. There are many attractions. Here on the fringes of the Andes, skiers will find few lift queues, tickets 50% cheaper than France, and unique scenery that includes condors and Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak outside the Himalayas.
I wrote '33 Men' in eight weeks. Not only was it a combination of simultaneously writing and interviewing, but as I dug deeper into the miners' story, I found the key to their success was the ability to place their individuality on the back burner and bring forward the sense of a collective group responsibility.
When all else fails, I am comforted by the fact that when I am ill or old, I will never be on my own. After all, you'd have to be a pretty terrible father if not one of your seven daughters was willing to take care of you at the end.
Many foreigners imagine that Latin American cuisine is spicy, but Chilean food, on the whole, is extremely bland: salt, vinegar, mayonnaise, and more salt are the four basic condiments. Black pepper is conspicuously absent, and not only from the food - it is also rarely available even on request.
I feel best in a ragged pair of red Honda Motorcycle pants. I have taken them to Machu Picchu, to the Knob Creek Machine Gun festival, and backstage to Cirque du Soleil - just the right touch to make you untouchable. No one quite dares to throw you out, because perhaps you are a world class motocross racer.
It is a gift to be a teenager, and I see a dad's job as lifeguard, not chaperone.
There's nothing very exotic about classic Chilean street food. Imagine a hot dog hidden beneath an explosion of mayonnaise and ketchup. Cost? Twenty-five to 30 pence. This is the completo, an all-purpose solution to breakfast, lunch or, once, the curiously English teatime snack enjoyed by Chileans of all ages.
Getting to Valle Nevado is half the fun. A serpentine road from Santiago wriggles up the spine of Andean peak for an hour, then traverses a valley and finally up again. The hotel is perched on a rugged mountain crag at 3,000m: no other sign of human development is visible from this spot, which is close to the Argentinean border.
In the U.S. and much of Europe, the sale, distribution, and use of offset printers are watched closely by anti-counterfeiting units. In Peru, however, the offset industry is a free-for-all.
Style-wise, Valle Nevado is what can only be described as 'hip international.' Brazilians, Chileans and Europeans make the place seem like an electronic music festival transported to an remote Andean valley. Huge speakers blare out thumping, bass-heavy music, while promotoras stalk the staircases selling everything from Red Bull to mobile phones.
I could have been a top notch spy. People confess the most amazing secrets to me, even when I am not fishing for those nuggets. I must look trustworthy because I sit there with a video camera or a tape recorder while the stories pour out.
