Snowboarding?

With borrowed boots at least a size too large and a snowboard about a foot too short, I headed south to Mt. Corralco with friends of the family. I was estatic to get the oppurtunity to travel further south and to ski down the 13, 000ft giant located just a few kilometers west of the Argentinian border. Although it is winter, it rains ceaslessly in the Bio- Bio region and come summer it will remain consistently dry. To find snow you have to reach the higher elevations in the Andes Mountain range. From what I have been told, the current weather conditions are unusual; it pours continuously and many people are suffering from flooding rivers and city streets.
Proceding slowly through the wind and rain, we drove by the large agricultural plots maintained by the foresty industries and passed audacious bike riders pedaling through the unfortunate weather. Some things are just different; pedestrian traffic on major highways, stray dogs around every corner, eating dinner past 10:00 pm...
The rain showed no signs of stopping when we arrived at the small cabin and I questioned the possiblity of snow. After hours of competitive card games and passing the guitar around, we got to bed at around 3:00 am- it was no surprise that no one woke up until 11:00 the following morning. Since the weather wasn´t looking promising we collectively decided not to go skiing; however, made a deal to wake up before 8:00am on Sunday . Instead, we fled to Malalcahuello, a thermal spring and spa, where we spent the afternoon in the naturally hot water. After wallowing in the hot tubs, we returned home for endless barbeque, more music, and a never ending game of Uno (my friends were confused that the universal card game didnt translate to ¨one¨ in the USA).
We held on to the promise to wake up early; however, when arrived to the mountain in the morning it was closed becuase of poor conditions. We could have guessed that weather would only be worse at 10,000ft, but I didnt think the entire hill would close down during prime skiing season. And so we did not go snowboarding, but nevertheless, I enjoyed getting close and hopefully I´ll find another opportunity to see some snow. As for meeting new people and having a good weekend, the trip was worthwhile.