On Wednesday, April 22, we flew north from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu, the town adjacent to Iguazu National Park and Waterfalls. The slightly less than 2 hour flight was uneventful, and we were met and taken to our apartment in the city. Our plans for our next stop were to fly southwest to Bariloche, changing planes in Buenos Aires, on Saturday April 25. We were to spend 3 nights in Bariloche, driving around the lakes and mountains in the National Park, then travel by land to Puerto Varas, Chile, staying for 2 nights on the lake overlooking two volcanoes. We then were to fly to Santiago Chile on Thursday,
April 30.
Thursday morning we turned on CNN while having breakfast and learned that the Calbuco Volcano in Chile had erupted first Wednesday evening and again Thursday morning. There was spectacular footage of the eruptions taken in Puerto Varas, but also reportage of fears that a third eruption was possible. Since Calbuco hadn't erupted in over 50 years, we wish it'd had the courtesy to wait until after our visit. For some great photos of the eruption, mostly taken from Puerto Vargas, where we intended to stay, go to www.boredpanda.com/volcano-eruption-calbuco-chile
On Friday we received an e-mail from our accommodation in Bariloche expressing uncertainties about what was occurring and availability of flights (cancellations were taking place because of the presence of heavy ash). We then learned that our Saturday afternoon flight was cancelled with a possible flight taking place Saturday night. We also were advised that the Argentina-Chile border would probably be closed. Seeing health warnings concerning the ash, we decided to change our itinerary. We flew to Mendoza, Argentina (touted to be an international wine capitol), on Saturday April 25th, and will leave from Mendoza for Santiago on Thursday, April 30.
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