Greetings budz,

It was great seeing you all at Nookies and the social afterwards. As
I mentioned, I am putting together a ski trip to Argentina for some
time this summer.

I have received packages of info from the Argentine tourist bureau
and am pencilling in Cerro Cathedral, a large ski area 20 km from the
resort Patagonian resort of Bariloche. It offers the full array of
skiing terrain and lots of chairlifts, a gondola, and a tram. The
trail map seems every bit as impressive as Copper Mountain or
Keystone. It also has trees! By contrast, half of the lifts at Las
Lenas, which seems to get more attention in the guidebooks, are t-
bars and pomas. It's trail map doesn't look all that interesting,
with limited options for beginning skiers, and it seems to be
completely above the tree line.

I'm thinking that we'd fly down to Buenoa Aires overnight on a
Friday, hang out in BA on Saturday night, head to Bariloche on
Sunday, ski Monday-Thurs, fly back to BA on Fri and fly home on the
following Sunday night, or something like that. This will give us two
weekends to hang out in Buenos Aires, and five nights at the resort.

In checking flights, it seems to be far cheaper to purchase roundtrip
flights from Chicago to BA, and separate flights from BA to
Bariloche. As long as we're all on the same flights to and from
Bariloche, we can be flexible as to when we leave Chicago or return
home. While there is supposed to be accommodations at the ski area,
I'd rather stay in Bariloche, which I imagine will be far more
interesting in the evening and offer a greater array of dining
choices and scenery. There is supposedly a reliable bus from town to
the ski area.

As for making general arrangements, my idea is to simply name the
dates, pick the hotels, and allow people to make their own
reservations. As long as we all agree on the dates when we are in
Bariloche, we can fly into BA and home to Chicago on whichever day
works best for each individual.

On considering the dates, it's most expensive during the high season,
which runs from the second weekend in july through the first weekend
in August, and cheapest in the low season, which is in mid june and
after September 1. Labor Day (During which I have an unavoidable
conflict) is already into the low season, when I'd prefer not plan a
trip as when conditions might be marginal. In planning around the
high holidays for the Chicago gay summer, i.e, IML, pride, market
days (which is inconveniently on Aug 11-12), and the rodeo, it might
be hard to avoid the high season. I'm thinking of flying down either
the third or 4th weekend of July.

So, who's interested in this? Five people indicated interest at the
meeting last week. Any other interest?

Louis