6.14.2011

drama in south america (if you don't want to read it-my parents are stuck in chile. if you do-find out why)

my parents and taylor are supposed to be touring buenos aires right now. but, the parents are stuck in chile and taylor is stuck in buenose aires. the reason: the puyehue volavno in chile has decided to spew volcanic ash. perfect timing. 

lets back track to sunday night shall we? on sunday night i find out that my parents were not sitting on a plane, but in the JFK airport hilton (a party i'm sure). the flight was cancelled due to mr. puyehue (it's a male, obviously).  they were optimistic they would be able to leave the following morning. 

monday morning i check my email. i'm relieved when i don't see an email from my dad. they made it. woohoo!  false. they ALMOST made it. with one hour left in their flight (they had made it 9 hours. so close!) to buenos aires they get a dreadful announcement. mr. puyehue was at it again. they had to be diverted to santiago chile. i imagine this is where my mom started to cry. 

i get an update from my dad. "one hour before landing in BA we were diverted to santiago chile because of the volcano. mom is falling apart. not sure what is happening now. sitting in a bus in chile being sent to a a hotel for the night. :)" yes, he ended it with a smiley face. how? i'm not sure. 

an hour later i get a call from colleen (my dads assistant) calling to give me an update. she told me that she had to call taylor and be the one to tell him that my parents were not coming to pick him up. that made me sad. taylor was in good spirits and told her not to worry about getting them to BA but to just get them back home.   

tuesday morning i check me email as i always do when my alarm is beeping and i don't want to get up. i got another update:

"Dear family,
I thought I would update you on our situation in picking up Taylor.  Our flight to Argentina was cancelled and delayed a day due to the volcanic cloud that has erupted in southern Chile, closing the airports in Argentina.  We boarded a plane yesterday morning with an “all clear” sign and headed to BA.  45 minutes prior to landing in BA the captain came on and told us we had to be diverted to Santiago Chile because the airport had just been closed again.  I wont bore you with all the details and painful travel experiences that transpired in the following several hours.  Suffice it say that Gayle and I eventually ended up at some dumpy hotel around 10 pm last night in Santiago Chile, where we now sit.
Fortunately, the mission home has been great and we have spoken several times to Taylor.  He and his fellow departing missionaries are all sleeping on the floor of the mission office trying to figure out how to leave a country which has closed its airports.  It has been chaos for the poor mission.  The missionaries, as you would expect, are taking it in stride and all laughing about it….
Where things stand right is that Taylor is likely to board a bus for Santiago, a journey that will take approximately 20 hours.  Hopefully  that will work and we will be reunited in Chile and then fly home together.  AS for Gayle and I we plan to relocate form the lovely Regal Pacific hotel provided courtesy of American Airlines, to the Ritz Carlton and patiently await our son.  Oh, by the way, we have no luggage.  It is being held captive on flight 955 bound for BA should it ever depart…we will work on that one today too.
We are most grateful that Taylor is safe and well cared for and we will see him soon…somewhere.
Love Bruce"

about an hour into work i get another email from my dad:


"Latest update….
Perhaps there is reason Gayle and I were sent to Chile!
Taylor is now boarding a bus with 8 other missionaries from his mission all trying to get home.  They will do the 20 hour ride across the Andes together and I will meet them all at the bus depot and get them all to the airport in Chile where they will be able to board flights home!

Stay TUNED……"

only my dad can look at things like that. so rather than touring beunos aires, my parents will be touring the ritz and taylor will be touring the andes as much as one can by bus. 




(the 20 hour bus ride)

1 comment:

  1. wow! What an ordeal! We're thinking of your parents and Taylor.....hope all works out soon....

    ReplyDelete