Wondering why it’s been so quiet here at On the Ground Travel?   We’ve been exploring parts of Chile, Argentina, and Brazil since January!   In the mean time we’ve been tweeting photos taken with our blackberry whenever we happened to have a wi-fi signal.

Check them out at our OntheGroundTrvl Twitter photo gallery!

We alerted you to the closure of Torres del Paine Park in Chile due to forest fires a few weeks back.  At the time, all tourists within the park were evacuated, and the Chilean government announced that the park will not be reopened until the end of January.  We are pleased to report that as of today, over 80% of all trails within the park have been reopened to the public.

Nonetheless, our thoughts and prayers go out to those to lost their homes over the past month.  As a result of the fire, over 170 homes and 70 acres of land were destroyed.  Many more were forced from their homes.  It’s very unfortunate that a piece of this beautiful scenery was destroyed by fire.  This serves as a mental note to us (and hopefully to you as well) to be very diligent when setting fires in parks.

More information can be found here.

After learning about the Bariloche airport closure to complete repairs from the June 4 eruption of the Puyehue Volcano, we have been keeping a closer eye on natural events in South America.  Today, the Patagonia hotel where we have a reservation at notified us that the Torres del Paine park will be closed at least until the end of January.

More details can be found on the US State Department or the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office website.

We had just re-routed our travel due to the Bariloche airport closure.  Hopefully the Torres del Paine closure will not be extended since we are planning to be there Feb 1st!

Are you impacted as well?  Let us know your alternative plans.