This is on Samuel Mendoza, he's 61 now and he's telling me about one of his childhood

memories.

I was 9 years old when my grandmother showed me a picture in a magazine.

It was a picture of a man skiing down a beautiful snowy mountain.

Samuel grew up in El Alto, one of the biggest cities in Bolivia, at age 9, he had never

been to a mountain, so he was mesmerized by this image.

So I asked my grandmother, where was this, and she said up north and Chacaltaya, and I said,

I want to be a skier, like this.

Mountain Chacaltaya was a world famous resort, and Don Samuel did realize his dream.

He spent his life working on the mountain as a skiing instructor and guide, but then one

day, that beautiful snow that Don Samuel saw in the magazine, it was all gone.

Don Samuel and his brother are still there on Mountain Chacaltaya as a caretaker of an

abandoned ski resort.

Ammanolo Morales, and this is Atlas Obscura, a deadly celebration of the world's strange

incredible and wondrous places.

We'll hear the story of Don Samuel, finding his way up the mountain, and why he stayed

after everyone else left, more after this.

Here in the US, we've got Aspen, Colorado.

People come from all over the world to enjoy the winter season in Aspen, to go hiking,

to enjoy the views.

But mostly, people go for the skiing, and for a long time, Mountain Chacaltaya was basically

the Aspen of Bolivia.

...