If you didn’t quite get your quota of powder this winter, it might be time to start thinking about a trip to South America, where the ski season gets started in just a few weeks.

This year, a stronger U.S. dollar means there are some great bargains available, including seven-night packages in the Argentine Andes starting at $479.

Buenos Aires-based Inspira Travel stands out among South American tour operators with week-long ski packages to three different Argentine resorts for under $600. Inspira focuses on three ski areas in Patagonia: Bariloche, San Martin de los Andes and Cerro Castor, near Ushuaia.

Last year, the U.S. National snowboard team trained at Cerro Chapelco, a mid-sized area with 27 runs. The base area is modeled after a European-style alpine village, surrounded by forests, lakes, and a volcano.

Cerro Castor has a claim to fame as the southernmost winter sports center in the world. The area has one of the longest seasons in South America. European ski teams use the area as a summer training base, running gates on one of the area’s 19 runs.

Cerro Castor is located near Ushuaia, the capital of the Tierra del Fuego province. Along with skiing, Ushuaia is a popular base for exploring Fin del Mundo, the end of the Earth at the southernmost tip of South America.

Skiers or boarders can take a break from the slopes and visit sea lion colonies or trek through Tierra del Fuego National Park. Inspira Travel is offering a seven-night package to Cerro Castor and Ushuaia for $499, with lodging at the Macondo House Inn.

The southernmost winter sports center in the world, Cerro Castor (or “Mount Castor”) is also the newest in Argentina. Near the Ushuaia province capital city of Tierra del Fuego, Cerro Castor features 19 runs of varying difficulty and one of the longest seasons in South America.

Home to many European professional teams who train here during their summer off-season, Ushuaia is also popular with travelers who want to explore the “End of the World.”

Travelers wanting a break from the slopes can enjoy additional outdoor adventures, such as boat rides to sea lion colonies and treks through Tierra del Fuego national park. The Summer Slopes Ushuaia seven-night package starts from $499 per person, based on double occupancy at the Macondo House Inn, a boutique hotel that has garnered great reviews on Tripadvisor.com.

Bariloche is one of the best-known South American ski centers. Inspira offers a seven-night package starting at $539, with skiing at Cerro Catedral, named for the towering granite spires of the region.

Cerro Catedral offer modern facilities with over 53 runs overlooking the spectacular lakes and hills of Patagonia. Lodging for the package is at the lakeside Tres Reyes Hotel.

All of Inspira’s packages include lodging, a shuttle from hotel to lifts, ski lift tickets, breakfast, roundtrip airport transfers and medical insurance.

Rates are per person, based on double occupancy. Airfare, ski passes and equipment are not included. Packages are available from June 13 – Sept. 26. Prices may vary.

More information is online at www.inspiratravel.com. The company is focused on creating tailored itineraries that promote interaction with local landscapes, cultures and customs.

Inspira also maintains an entertaining and informative travel blog at www.inspiratravelblog.blogspot.com, including a recent entry on green travel in Buenos Aires. E-mail: info@inspira travel.com or call (203) 307-1267.

Ski area links:

Cerro Castor: http://www.cerrocastor.com/2009/2009_ENG/

Bariloche: http://www.bariloche.com/english/index.asp

Cerro Chapelco: http://www.interpatagonia.com/chapelco/index_i.html

Bustling Buenos Aires

If you decide to visit Argentina for summer skiing, be sure to plan for an extra couple of days in raucous and friendly Buenos Aires.

A recent short visit helped me glean some insight into the culture that gave birth to the magic realism in contemporary South American literature. Leigh and I are already planning our next visit, when we hope to get temporary jobs as dog-walkers.

During our 36-hour layover, weenjoyed a great sidewalk pizza and cold brews, watching as residents strolled home from an evening protest in a downtown square, their banners furled nearly under their arms.

We visited the Recoleta cemetery, a block of tombs and mausoleums built by the city’s rich Catholic families. Some are lavish monuments while others are crumbling, leaving gaps between the bricks where you can peer down into the vaults to see six layers of coffins stacked atop each other.

Eva Peron is buried here, nor far from Padre Antonio Fahy, an Irish priest buried under a giant Celtic cross.

At one point we saw a nearby penthouse resident practicing rooftop yoga in his Speedo, apparently oblivious to the throngs of tourists below.

In a taxi, we zoomed over to Parque Lezamo, in the San Telmo district, where Spanish conquistadores supposedly laid the first cornerstone for a city that now has about 12 million residents. Our stroll took us past an onion-domed Orthodox Russian church to Plaza Dorrego, where Tango dancers performed for tourists while pigeons scrapped for crumbs on the cobblestones and Argentinian hippies sold beads and drums along the edge of the square.

A jazz guitarist set up his amp for a concert while we sipped frosty mugs of Quilmes beer and munched peanuts. Halfway through the show, several pigeons dive-bombed him, swooping and pooping while he played a soft-jazz version of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

Street vendors on bikes pedaled by, one with braids of garlic hanging off the handlebars, another laden with a cardboard box full of flowering plants.

Just down the road is the city’s smallest house, the Casa Minima, barely wider than a doorway.

It’s a vivid daydream of a city, appropriate, since nobody here seems to sleep at night.

Traveling bloggers

Local historian and author Mary Ellen Gilliland is blogging on her trip in the Aegean Sea as the Tightwad Traveler. Go to www.summitdaily.com /blogs to follow her adventures.

While you’re there, check out Goddess of Moon’s blogs on little-known Florida destinations.

Ancient voices echo in the walls of Ephesus

By Mary Ellen Gilliland

Travel expands the mind not only spatially — taking this traveler across the globe to Turkey on the Agean Sea — but also chronologically, transporting one back to the history of the ancient cities of Asia Minor.

One of these, Ephesus, is the best-preserved classical-age city of the Eastern Mediterranean. A stroll on its white-marble-paved thoroughfare passes through the statue-encrusted Gate of Hercules. The walk sidelines the magnificent 2nd century B. C. Celsius Library (its 25,000 scrolls rivaled the collection at Alexandria). It visits the three Roman baths built 300 years before Christ.

The baths washed grime from foreign captives destined for the port-side slave market and refreshed wealthy Roman citizens with dips into hot, tepid and icy waters, followed by an olive oil-herb massage. This indulgence is replicated today on the Celebrity Cruise ship that transported me to Ephesus. The ship Solstice has its own AquaSpa where hot water and massage still soothe patrons 22 centuries later.

Can the stones of ancient cities speak? If so, I heard the clamor of shoppers in the Agora Market. I caught the voices of orators in the Odeion. I picked up the cry of “Great is Artemis resonating from the Temple of Artemis, one of the ancient world’s seven wonders.

If travel stretches the psyche and heightens the senses, then, yes, I did hear those evocative sounds.