Volcanos in Chile - one more thing to worry about

Last June, the volcano Puyehue erupted causing havoc in southern Chile but even more so in Argentina where the ash stopped most flights for a while and apparently covered a lot of the more scenic areas in the south like Bariloche.  Since then there has been at least one more active volcano, Hudson, that has erupted even further south.  Chile has 36 "active" volcanoes including the highest one in the world.  It looks like active is considered anything that has erupted in the past 12,000 years but many of them have erupted in the past century!

Volcan Puyehue is in the Lake District where many Chileans spend their summer holidays.  Part of the reason that it is so beautiful down there are the views of the volcanoes and the landscape created by the volcanoes.  We are planning to spend at least a week in that region and I have casually asked people which volcano is set to erupt next so we can avoid that area ;-)  There is one in particular that is very active, Villarrica, and is really close to the biggest tourist city in the south, Pucon (we will avoid that city for many reasons).  

Volcan y lago Villarrica

There are outfitters that lead hiking trips up the volcano but always include a disclaimer saying that it could erupt at any time - great.... I am still bracing myself for mild tremors in Santiago that apparently are quite frequent but we have not been blessed with one yet.

In addition, there are a lot of extinct volcanoes including one that we see every time that we drive somewhere, Cerro Manquehue.  It has been extinct for 16 million years so I think that we are OK.  Elisa actually went to a birthday party today on the face of the volcano in an area called Santa Maria de Manquehue.  A stunning "older" (meaning built in the 1980s) affluent suburb with a lot of forested area (pretty rare in Santiago) and incredible views.  Bad news is that our car huffed and puffed getting up the mountain.  I am not sure how it will do with five of us and our luggage on our journeys this summer.

Cerro Manquehue