Our Patagonia Sea to Mountains 14-day adventure is the only one of its kind where you can experience the best in coastal Patagonia's marine natural history from the intimate level of a kayak, in conjunction with trekking amongst what many consider to be the finest mountain scenery in the world and marveling at immense glaciers spilling into sparkling lakes.
Your introduction to Argentina begins with an overnight stay in the cosmopolitan city of Buenos Aires before departing on a southbound flight to Patagonia the following morning to begin an incredible whale watching and sea kayaking journey on the wild coast of Patagonia, where you can gape in awe at the enormous Southern Right Whales nursing their 20-foot-long newborn calves in the brilliant-blue waters. The Peninsula Valdes, a spit of the Patagonian steppe that juts out into the South Atlantic Ocean, is a protected nature reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site teeming with endemic wildlife. The lagoons here are the calving ground for the endangered Southern Right Whale. On shore, armadillos, ostrich-like rheas, maras (Patagonian hares) and llama-like guanacos roam the sweeping landscape.
Starting from Puerto Piramides, an Argentine village situated inside the reserve, your guides take you on a four-day paddle following the rugged shoreline of Gulfo San Jose. You’ll paddle six miles a day in stable sea kayaks, past the nursing levithans, playful sea lions, and giant petrels, and camp under towering cliffs of fossilized marine life, where the guides fill your glass with malbec wine while tender beef and piles of sausages sizzle on a wood-fired grill. Afterwards, the hollow resonating blows of the whale lull you to sleep.
On the fifth day you’ll tour the peninsula’s wildlife hot spots including a visit to a nearby Magellanic penguin colony before an evening of dinner and lodging at a historic turn-of-the-century sheep ranch located in the park. The final highlight of our tour of Peninsula Valdes is visiting a nearby elephant seal rookery before leaving Peninsula Valdes for a night in the beach side city of Puerto Madryn.
The second half of our Patagonia Sea to Mountains adventure begins the following morning with a flight further south almost to the bottom of the South American continent, where you'll experience firsthand some of the most spectacular hiking and breathtaking mountain scenery in southern Patagonia on this trekking adventure in Argentina's famed Los Glaciares National Park. You may find yourself spellbound by close-up views of immense rivers of blue ice juxtaposed against Andean peaks, sculpted into thin spires by the tremendous force of glaciers. Towers and pinnacles of every size and shape punctuate the skyline here while enormous condors soar above cascading-river canyons in the valleys below.
Starting from El Chalten, a small village catering to trekkers inside the Park (think Banff Alberta), for three days you'll hike with light packs on mountain trails through windswept groves of twisted beech forest, past milky-blue glacial lakes, andaire sloping moraines that will lead you to base camps tucked below the towering granite spires of Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Torre. You'll return to our lodge each afternoon, with the exception of one overnight at a comfortable base camp where you can catch the rosy-glow of sunrise lighting up the Fitzroy massif and surrounding peaks.
The final day in El Chalten begins with a short boat journey on Lago viedma to the pristine Viedma glacier, where you'll don crampons and hike on the glacier before going overland to El Calafate to visit yet another highlight of Patagonia: the Perito Morena Glacier. A spectacular day excursion brings you right to the front of the massive glacier for an up-close perspective of its 200-foot-high icewall calving blue-white icebergs into beautiful Lago Argentino. You'll bring home a lifetime of memories of Patagonia's surreal landscape and endemic wildlife.