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change in itineray for the tours becasue of the volcanoes

ESHESH
in Essence of South America
Disappointed that we wont be able to continue through the Andes and go to Bariloche because of the volcanoes and hoping that Mendoza will be worthwhile. Wondered what others experience has been since the change. Hoping there are no problems getting into Puerto Montt. Also heard there have been safety issues in Mendoza......has anyone else heard this?

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    polinipolini
    Do you know the revised itinerary? Have youreceived anything from Tauck?
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    pax411pax411
    The revised itinerary consists of day 1-3 as normal, but on day 4 instead of staying at the hotel Natura in Peulla, Chile we stay for a second night at the hotel cumbrea in Puerto Varas. On day 5 we fly via santiago to Mendoza, Argentina for two nights at the Llao Llao hotel and resort...sightseeing and a fun interactive wine blending and cooking experience in the Piatelli vineyards...also includes two dinners at highly regarding local restaurants..then on day 7 we fly to Buenos Aries where the trip goes as originally planned.

    Received this new itinerary from Tauk back in november...I am assuming that it is the same now since I have not heard of another change. Hope this helps! Mike
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    pax411pax411
    The revised itinerary consists of day 1-3 as normal, but on day 4 instead of staying at the hotel Natura in Peulla, Chile we stay for a second night at the hotel cumbrea in Puerto Varas. On day 5 we fly via santiago to Mendoza, Argentina for two nights at the Llao Llao hotel and resort...sightseeing and a fun interactive wine blending and cooking experience in the Piatelli vineyards...also includes two dinners at highly regarding local restaurants..then on day 7 we fly to Buenos Aries where the trip goes as originally planned.

    Received this new itinerary from Tauk back in november...I am assuming that it is the same now since I have not heard of another change. Hope this helps! Mike
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    cajun1cajun1
    We just received our notification of the change of itinerary for Essence of South America on December 22 from our travel agent, six days after our final payment was made--not too happy with Tauck for making this change so it it too late for us to change our plans. Very disappointed that this itinerary is different than the one we planned on having. Understand the problem with the volcano but wish Tauck had made this change earlier so we could perhaps have planned another trip.
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    AESWESAESWES
    We were on the November 13 trip and followed the revised itinerary with minor exceptions. You will have fabulous views of volcanoes on your one day crossing. While not the LLao LLao in Bariloche, the hotel in Puerto Varas has a beautiful view and fine restaurant. I would suggest you look on Google Earth and see what you would miss on the second day of the lake crossing. It seemed to us(looking at Google Earth) that the best scenery was on the first day. RE: Mendoza. We stayed at the Park Hyatt...lovely hotel, good food. I do not believe there is a Llao LLao in Mendoza. The trip to the winery was a lot of fun. Much more fun than the visit to the winery in Chile. At least you were told about the change before leaving the US. We didn't hear until we got to Santiago.
    Unfortunately, the ash cloud is unpredictable. Our trip back to Santiago from Puerto Montt was delayed by 6-7 hours; Tauck chartered a bus to take us from Santiago to Mendoza through the Andes. That turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. The ash cloud reappeared on our departure from Buenas Aires to Iguazu; Tauck chartered two private 18 seat propjets to get us to Iquazu. Our pilot took two sweeping circles over the falls to give us a fantastic aerial view of the falls. In short, yes, it is disappointing not to do the original itinerary; we really wanted to do the full crossing and stay at one of the great hotels of the world. But, this is still a great trip. We were very impressed with the resources that Tauck used and the lengths they went to salvage what was at times frustrating circumstances for us and our guide.
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    CessCess
    We just received notification of the revised itinerary and were very disappointed that we won't be going to Bariloche and won't get to stay at the Llao Llao Hotel. It looks like the revised itinerary has been in effect as early as November and Tauck did not notify us then. We were also looking at Bariloche pictures online and checked the Llao Llao website and they are far better than the pictures of Mendoza and the Diplomatic Hotel that we saw online. It is really quite disappointing.

    This is a question for Tauck -- Is the revised itinerary final? If flights to/from Bariloche resume by the time we start our tour, will we revert back to the original itinerary? Our tour starts in late February.
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