Two of the items on our South American wish list was to ski in the Andes Mountain and visit Bariloche in Argentina, which is located along the Chilean border in the Patagonian region of Argentina.  Bariloche is a picturesque mountain town which looks like it could be located in the Swiss Alps. 

Bariloche, Argentina Pre -Ash

  But a volcano in Chile ruined our plans.  While waiting for the winter snow to arrive in Argentina, the volcano started erupting ash that coated Bariloche with a deep layer ash. We waited patiently for some sort of good news from Bariloche but even 4 weeks after the intial eruption, the ash was still raining down. 

Bariloche, Argentina Post-Ash

  When it came time for us to start making our way to Peru, the volcano hadn't stopped spewing ash.  The ash cloud had circled the globe causing flight cancellations throughout South America, New Zealand and Australia. We reluctantly decided to skip Bariloche and proceed directly to Santiago with a stop through in Mendoza. As luck would have it, our backup ski resort in Santiago received 12 inches of fresh snow. 

Even though it was only 25 miles outside of Santiago, it took our shuttle 2 hours each way to get us up our resort, Valle Nevado.



At 10,000 feet above sea level, the lack of trees made the skiing interesting.  But even though you had no trees to worry about there were enough drop offs to keep you aware of your surroundings.  Villa Nevada had only opened up their ski season the day before, so the slopes weren't crowded yet  The extra space allowed Elizabeth get her snow skills back up to snuff.  She never gave up, even after falling around 6 times throughout the day. I'm so proud of her and glad we were able experience this together.