Chile - Patagonia

Patagonia Chilena and Argentina: photo and travel diary

This is the continuation of a long journey to South America. If you haven't read you again, take a look at travel information and the complete route map here: www.wildrips.net/chile-argentina.htm. Here you can find a long series of photos interspersed at the footing travel diary.

Patagonia: travel diary and photos

Once our travel route between Atacama and the Chile Centrale , with the arrival in Patagonia seemed to start a ' Another holiday.
we landed at one in the afternoon at Punta Arenas , the big city southernmost of Chile, and we immediately came from Europcar to pick up the car to Nolo booked on the Internet through L 'Chilean Agency Lys Rent a Car. Incredibly, however, our booking was non-existent. Andreas Gabor, the owner of Lys, was not traceable. In addition, there seemed to have no other cars available. In short, we were afraid of having been scammed and we were definitely on foot. Our Patagonic trip started great.
In general, I have to say that both the Europcar and Lys employee (when finally answered 15 days later) were very kind. Somehow, Europcar found at the end of another car and we put on the street.
We will never understand what happened, but everything ended well and then we were reimbursed by the disappeared booking. I don't feel like recommending LYS because an agency that, in case of problems, respond with 15 days late is not very reliable ... but Andreas Gabor was at least an honest person, which is not just nowadays. > From Punta Arenas Guidammo to the Pinguinera on the breast of Otway .

We saw about thirty penguins in a beautiful very popular landscape. The entrance to the Pinguinera is relatively expensive (8000 pesos each), but acceptable especially if, as happened to us, it happens there during the change shift and there is no one to pay for the ticket.

From Pinguinera, over two hours of cars through beautiful boundary landscapes took us to Puerto Natales . Here we employed at least half an hour to find a double with a bathroom as it liked us (some hostels were incredibly closed because it was the first of the year), but in the end, for 32000 pesos including a hearty breakfast, we settled in a beautiful inn . The next day, in a couple of cars, we reached the natural park of Torres del Paine . We had the good fortune to find a splendid day and the views were breathtaking.

Starting from the Laguna Amarga , we walked by car the dirt roads of the park to the Gray campsite, stopping in several panoramic points to make short walks. Along the belt itinerary hundreds of Guanachi, Armadilli and Nandù (a kind of ostrich).

The longest and most spectacular walk, a couple of hours between return, was the one that started from the big jump and arrived at a memorable viewpoint on the NORDESKJOLD LAKE .

Also remembering a nice walk on the Lake Gray : The Torres del Paine park is very rich in trekking routes.

We left the park through a new road that starts from the Rio Serrano, size several kilometers and also passes under the cueva of the Milodon (of which we settled with a view from afar). We returned to Puerto Natales to withdraw from the local office of Europcar the expatriation permits in Argentina. Among the remarkable hiking books there are the "W" circuit, so named for its path to W between the valleys, and the complete one around the towers: both allow you to walk for days in spectacular landscapes, sleeping in equipped shelters. Obviously it takes a long vacation between Chilean Patagonia and Argentina. With a day trek you can go to the Gray glacier, reaching the starting point by ferry (cost starting from 70 euros each); Or up to the glacial pond at the base of the towers of Paine.
Since it was raining, as often happens in the south of Chile, we walked 400 km by car to go to Argentina, at El Chalten (Meta that until then did not consider it in our travel itinerary in Patagonia Because too far away, but there forecasts gave sun!).

Splendid landscapes, no customs problem between Chile and Argentina, between Patagonia here and Patagonia from there . The last stretch of road to El Chalten ran along the Lake Viedma while in front of us the Monte Fitz Roy .

El Chalten is a small town where excursionists and climbers stay above all. So we made a nice Patagon Trekking , admiring the peaks of the Fitz Roy and the Cerro Torre .

Our destination was the basis of the imposing Cerro Torre, Monte Granitico that represents one of the most difficult mountaineering companies in the world. After ten kilometers of walking through beautiful mountain landscapes, we arrived at Laguna Torre , a glacial lake with little icebergs.

Alone, I continued towards the Mirador Masters , positioned just above the glacier that formed the lagoon. The wind, which two kilometers more downstream did not feel, reached crazy speeds there: he struggled to walk against the gusts, and when they took me risked to be thrown on the ground. I gently curse against Eolo, who turned his fault to God, who was currently busy and for that wind he couldn't do anything. Not bad, for charity, I was still on vacation.

I don't know if I reached the Mirador because the path was lost in a stone-free stone, but I certainly arrived in a beautiful panoramic point above the glacier. In the meantime, very fast clouds covered the summit of Cerro Torre. I returned to the lagoon, and from there we returned back off by bad weather, which, however, stopped in the mountains.

Arrived in El Chalten, we resumed the car and we headed towards El Calafate . Coasting the Argentine Lake we arrived in a couple of hours. El Calafate is the main center of Patagonic tourism, full of hotels, restaurants and shops, a metropolis compared to El Chalten. We found a double room in the enormous and cheap Calafate Hostel - if you can't find it there, you are in trouble.

In Argentina in 2015 the official change was $ 10 Argentine for one euro, but the local currency had so little value that at the black market (simply in shops or hotels) 15 dollars argentine were offered for one euro. In short, by changing cash instead of withdrawing in the banks you could just pay a hotel room from 300 dollars Argentine, or, to take another example, just 70 cents of euros for a liter of gasoline. A real luck.
The restaurants of El Calafate, on the other hand, had prices inflated from tourism, but at dinner we would not miss a pantagruelic Patagonic Asado .
The following day we woke up early for Visit the famous Perito Moreno , agility.

We arrived at 9am and there was still no one. We paid our 235 dollars Argentine each and driven to the highest point of the road, from the Mirador, and then descend to the comfortable walkways that allow you to admire the great glacier of the Moreno Perito. One of the seven wonders of the world, a must in every travel itinerary in Patagonia, albeit, from my point of view, less exciting than a walk in Torres del Paine or in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (that of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre). It will be the tourist atmosphere, they will be the comfortable walkways, but at the Perito Moreno there is less sense of immersion in nature, less adventure. It is true, however, that the view was wonderful and you can also make expensive guided tours to walk on the glacier, among the blue crevasses, in a unique environment.

From El Calafate went to Rio Gallegos , to get out of the most beaten itineraries, crossing the fascinating and suction cup, and for a long time to go flat and monotonous, Pampa Argentina.

Rio Gallegos is a commercial city, not attractive for a tourist. From there we crossed the border with Chile and we headed towards our next goal, the park Pili Aike , a strange place, made of craters, lava rocks, lagoons and guanachi scattered on grassy grasses.

He deserved a visit, but Pili Aike was certainly not to be at the center of a trip to Patagonia: Torres del Paine, Fitz Roy, Perito Moreno ... I am much better!

Continuing along the road that from the Argentine border leads to Punta Arenas, we met the burrasque Strait of Magellano , which connects Pacific and Atlantic Ocean and whose sight was fascinating, as well as fundamental in a travel itinerary in the South of Patagonia.

We then arrived in Punta Arenas, a modern commercial and tourist city full of bars, restaurants, shops, beautiful palaces, tree-lined squares and a charming waterfront on which we admired a rainbow. Cenammo with fish, crab and other typical place products.

Our holiday in Patagonia ended by flying from Punta Arenas to Santiago. For the last part of the diary of this South American journey, return to .

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