The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés 16 Days
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The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés
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The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés
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The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés
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The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés
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The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés
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The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés
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The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés
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The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés
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The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés
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The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés
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The Patagonia: The Mountain Splendor of Paine and Fitzroy and the Whales of Peninsula Valdés
Highlights
- Duration: 16 Days
- Comfort: 66.6666666666667%
- Language: English
- Rating: 80.0%
- Trip ID: 88769
- Start Location: San Nicolas, Argentina
- End Location: Punta Arenas, Chile
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- Primary Activities: Hiking, Wildlife
- Other Activities: history, national parks
- Activity Level: Advanced
- DAY 1: BUENOS AIRES - A tour of this cosmopolitan city, including La Recoleta Cemetery and La Boca
- Morning arrival in Buenos Aires airport, where we are met by the Trip Leader
for the transfer to our centrally located hotel. This afternoon, we take a tour
of this cosmopolitan city, then gather in the evening for a welcome dinner and
orientation...D Please Note: Should you wish to arrive in Buenos Aires early to rest up from jet lag and enjoy the city, we are happy to book extra hotel nights for you (an “on your own” expense).
- Lodging
- Melia Buenos Aires
- Description
Located in the heart of Buenos Aires on a pedestrian-only street, this hotel allows for fun, safe, and easy access to some of the best areas of the city. Right out the front door there are many bars and cafes for unwinding after a day of exploring the city. A short walk brings you to the Puerto Madero, Florida, and Llave pedestrian streets as well as Plaza San Martin and many other urban classics. The hotel itself is solidly comfortable with large, modern rooms.
- DAY 2: USHUAIA / TIERRA DEL FUEGO NATIONAL PARK
- We take an early morning flight to the Patagonian outpost of Ushuaia on the
very tip of South America. In this austral realm just 600 miles from Antarctica,
we set out for an afternoon hike in Tierra del Fuego National Park, which
preserves a large stretch of the Beagle Channel’s secluded bays and shores. We
hike along the spectacular coast, walking through the native canelo, beech, and
wild cherry forests around Lapataia Bay. Our hike is a good introduction to the
natural history of the area and there is great birding en route. Tierra del Fuego
is known for its abundant birdlife, including austral parakeet, thorn-tailed
rayadito, Magellanic woodpecker (the largest woodpecker species in South
America), and the regal Andean condor. There are rolling hills on the hike, but
no sustained uphill climbs; trails can be slippery in places, with tangled tree
roots across parts of the trail. Overnight at hotel in Ushuaia…BLD
Hiking Time: About 3-3.5 hours, 4 miles- Lodging
- Hotel Tolkeyen
- Description
Right on the shores of the Beagle Channel outside Ushuaia town, this lodge built of local wood and stone offers a serene setting and good views of the southern Andes. There’s a small riverine area 100 yards from the hotel that’s good for birding.
- DAY 3: HARBERTON FARM / GABLE ISLAND HIKE
- Today’s full-day excursion starts with a drive across the peat-covered central
valley surrounded by some of the highest peaks on the island. Our destination
is Harberton Farm, a private ranch with strong ties to the early missionary
settlers of Tierra del Fuego. From Harberton, we board Zodiacs and head out
to the Beagle Channel, navigating through protected channels as we approach
Gable Island, part of the Harberton estate. After a picnic lunch, we set off for
an afternoon hike with 360-degree views of the archipelago, woodlands, cliffs
(or “gables”), and across the open Beagle Channel to the distant town of Puerto
Williams in Chile. Our trails are relatively easy, with rolling hills. At the end
of our hike, we head back to Harberton by Zodiac, with a stop to view the
budding Magellanic penguin colony on outlying Martillo Island. Overnight at
hotel in Ushuaia...BLD
Hiking Time: About 3.5 hours, 4.3 miles- Lodging
- Hotel Tolkeyen
- Description
Right on the shores of the Beagle Channel outside Ushuaia town, this lodge built of local wood and stone offers a serene setting and good views of the southern Andes. There’s a small riverine area 100 yards from the hotel that’s good for birding.
- DAY 4: CALAFATE / GLACIER NATIONAL PARK / FITZROY MASSIF / EL CHALTEN
- We fly to Calafate, a small town in the Santa Cruz Province on the banks
of glacier-fed Lago Argentino. Small chunks of ice (“bergy bits” calved from glaciers) frequently drift across this blue lake, driven by the winds coming
off South America’s massive continental icecap, or hielo continental. Calafate
is the gateway to southern Glacier National Park. It is named for the thorny
calafate bush, which blooms in the spring with yellow flowers and in summer
with purple fruits (and it’s said if you eat the fruit, you’ll return to Patagonia!).
Calafate has a bit of a wild west feel to it, an intriguing outpost on the edge of a
great wilderness. From Calafate, a 4-hour drive brings us across the vast Patagonian steppes. We sightsee and look for wildlife en route to the small town of El Chaltén (1,150’), a world-famous climbing destination set within sight of the imposing form of the Fitzroy Massif. El Chaltén serves as the gateway to the northern reaches of Glacier National Park. On arrival we check into our lodge, with its great views of Fitzroy. The Fitzroy Massif and the surrounding peaks rise at spectacular and seemingly impossible angles, sculpted from solid granite into fantastic spires and towers by the tremendous force of the region’s glaciers. This complex of peaks and “needles” captivates experienced mountain climbers from all over the world. Overnight at lodge...BLD
- Lodging
- Estancia El Pilar
- Description
A charming 10-room country inn surrounded by native lenga forests on the edge of Glacier National Park, this is the best place to stay in the Chalten region. Its location seven miles from town makes it a peaceful place to relax after a hiking day, and there’s great star-gazing at night. The rooms differ a bit from one another, but they’re all comfortable. There’s a sitting area with a fireplace, great for reading or enjoying a cup of tea or an evening cocktail
- DAYS 5-7: GLACIER NATIONAL PARK / FITZROY MASSIF / VIEDMA GLACIER / EL CHALTÉN
- Based at our comfortable lodge, day hikes bring us to stunning perspectives
of Fitzroy (11,703’) and the needle-like spike called Cerro Torre (10,280’),
one of the world’s fabled wall climbs. Forty percent of this strikingly beautiful
park is covered by the gigantic icefields of the Patagonian icecap, and there are
some 47 major glaciers. Weather dictates our choice of hikes each day, but we’ll
make the most of our time in this exquisite wild place. We are accompanied
by two guides, so a shorter option is available for each hike. Typically, we hike
5-7 hours each day on moderate to steep trails at altitudes below 4,000 feet.
Overnight at a comfortable lodge...BLD each day Hiking Options: On one of our days at Glacier National Park, we offer the classic hike to Laguna Torre, 11 miles round trip. The hike takes 7 to 9 hours and is on a well established trail. The elevation gain is 2,400 feet with a descent of the same amount, but the whole hike is at a relatively gentle incline. On another of our days here, we offer two hiking options for fantastic views of Fitzroy, the best in the park. The easier option is 3.7 miles (900 feet elevation gain and loss) and offers beautiful views of the Piedras Blancas Glacier and the huge rock walls of Fitzroy. With stops for rest and photography, it usually takes 5 or 6 hours round trip. The challenging option is a tough hike of 12 miles, with an elevation gain and loss of 3,800 feet; this is a steep 8- to 9-hour hike but the rewards are amazing. All our hikes offer a fine balance of glorious peaks, glacial lakes, and flower-carpeted valleys. On one day we have the opportunity to hike on the Viedma Glacier. A boat ride on Lago Viedma grants us close-up views of icebergs that have calved from the glacier. Later, we approach the glacier itself on foot, a hike of great geological interest as it reveals all the exposed rocks that were covered by ice until very recently. Reaching the lateral moraine, we view ice caves and overhangs in this dramatic and ever-changing landscape. Hiking time on the glacier is about 2 hours.
- Lodging
- Estancia El Pilar
- Description
A charming 10-room country inn surrounded by native lenga forests on the edge of Glacier National Park, this is the best place to stay in the Chalten region. Its location seven miles from town makes it a peaceful place to relax after a hiking day, and there’s great star-gazing at night. The rooms differ a bit from one another, but they’re all comfortable. There’s a sitting area with a fireplace, great for reading or enjoying a cup of tea or an evening cocktail.
- DAY 8: ESTANCIA HELSINGFORS
- A morning drive brings us to Estancia Helsingfors in the western region of
Glacier National Park in time for lunch. Once a sheep ranch, the lodge was
built in a spectacular location by Finnish pioneer Alfred Ramstrom at the turn
of the century. It lies on the shore of Lago Viedma, with wonderful vistas of
the Viedma Glacier. With its welcoming warmth, delicious cuisine, and historic
ambiance, our stay at Estancia Helsingfors is, for many, a highlight of the
trip. This afternoon we enjoy a hike up to a beautiful overview of the Viedma
Glacier. Overnight at Estancia Helsingfors...BLD
Hiking Time: About 3 hours, 4 miles.- Lodging
- Estancia Helsingfors
- Description
This century-old estancia has a magnificent setting on Lago Viedma surrounded by world-class Patagonian scenery. There’s nothing else like it for a unique taste of Patagonian hospitality. The off-the-beaten-path location is one of its many charms, and the dining room serves excellent meals (the Patagonian lamb prepared outside over a fire is heavenly), often with ingredients fresh from the estancia’s garden. The eight guest rooms are small but cozy.
- DAY 9: ESTANCIA HELSINGFORS / LAGO AZUL
- Today’s spectacular hike brings us up to stunning Lago Azul, a pristine
lake with magnificent views of the distant Fitzroy Massif. Overnight at
Estancia Helsingfors...BLD
Hiking Time: 6-7 hours, 10 miles; 2,200-foot elevation gain and loss- Lodging
- Estancia Helsingfors
- Description
This century-old estancia has a magnificent setting on Lago Viedma surrounded by world-class Patagonian scenery. There’s nothing else like it for a unique taste of Patagonian hospitality. The off-the-beaten-path location is one of its many charms, and the dining room serves excellent meals (the Patagonian lamb prepared outside over a fire is heavenly), often with ingredients fresh from the estancia’s garden. The eight guest rooms are small but cozy.
- DAY 10: CALAFATE / LAGO ARGENTINO / MORENO GLACIER
- We enjoy fine vistas of the steppes and watch for wildlife, including rheas,
Patagonia’s large flightless bird, and the elusive Patagonian fox, as we
drive to Calafate and on to the shores of beautiful Lago Argentino. Here
we discover a spectacular sight: the massive Moreno Glacier, one of the
few glaciers in the world that is still advancing. The sounds here are as
amazing at the sight of the glacier’s 10-story-high icewall dropping huge
chunks of ice into Canal de los Témpanos (Iceberg Channel) below. We
hike along a trail with phenomenal views of the towering wall of ice and
the immense Patagonian Ice Cap stretching into the distance, then return
to Calafate in the late afternoon...BL
- Lodging
- Hotel Kau Yatun
- Description
Located on the outskirts of El Calafate town, the hotel has attractive grounds and gardens, two restaurants, and a wood-paneled bar. The rooms are simple but comfy, and there is often live music in the barbecue house out back.
- DAY 11: TO PAINE NATIONAL PARK, CHILE
- A scenic drive brings us across the vast Patagonian steppes, and we stop along
the way to view wildlife such as rheas and guanacos. Crossing into Chile, we
reach spectacular Paine National Park, where granite spires tower above the
steppes. Our accommodation is a small, comfortable lodge just outside the
park boundary with fantastic views of the Paine mountains. The lodge is also a
working estancia (ranch)...BLD
Driving Time: 7 hours- Lodging
- Estancia Lazo
- Description
A converted estancia on the banks of the Lago Verde, this place offers one of the very best panoramas of the Paine Massif. There’s also private trail access into Paine National Park right from the lodge. The rooms are basic but comfortable and the meals simple but good. We hike right from the front door of this estancia to our next hotel, with spectacular Paine views all the way!
- DAY 12: PAINE NATIONAL PARK
- Paine National Park, one of the scenic masterpieces of the planet, was declared
a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1978. The park protects a breathtaking
landscape of stupendous granite towers, huge azure glacier lakes, tumbling
waterfalls, massive glaciers, and unique wildlife. The most famous peaks are
known as cuernos (horns) for their knife-edge ridges and torres (towers) for
their sheer vertical walls—a world of stone carved by ice. Paine Grande tops
10,000 feet, its steep rock pinnacles rising from snow and ice, and at its east end
are three magnificent rock towers with staggeringly steep faces. The east face
of the Central Tower of the Paine Massif is a 4,000-foot-high rock wall that
challenges the world’s mountaineers. Today we enjoy a fantastic 5- to 6-hour lodge to lodge hike, a great introduction to the park. We depart the lodge for the trailhead and set off through lovely rolling terrain studded with small blue lakes. Weather permitting, we should enjoy fantastic views of the Paine Massif most of the way as we make a gradual ascent of about 800 feet in the first few hours. When we reach Mirador Toro, we can feast our eyes on grand vistas that stretch across Paine’s stunning landscape of braided rivers and sparkling glacial lakes all the way to Mt. Balmaceda. From here, we make a steep descent of about 1,700 feet to the river, where we are met for a short ride to our next night’s accommodation. Overnight at a hosteria in Paine National Park...BLD
Hiking Time: 5-6 hours, 7.5 miles; elevation gain 500 feet, elevation loss 1,700 feet- Lodging
- Hosteria Lago Grey
- Description
This hotel has a magnificent setting along iceberg-dotted Lago Grey in Paine National Park. The rooms don’t have views, but from the dining room there is an absolutely stunning view of the lake and the calving ice of the Grey Glacier. There are great places on the grounds of the hotel to relax and watch the sunset and sunrise.
- DAYS 13-14: PAINE NATIONAL PARK
- Since Paine is such a vast park, we base ourselves at a different hosteria for
these two days so we can explore another area of this spectacular landscape of
lakes, glaciers, and mountains. On Day 13, our morning hike (about 3 miles, 2
hours) brings us along the beach on Lago Grey, dotted with icebergs of fantastic
form and boasting magnificent glacier views. Later, we hike along the shores
of turquoise-hued Lago Nordenskjold (4 miles, 2 to 2.5 hours) for a wonderful
panorama of the imposing Paine Massif. The following day we can make the
classic ascent through the Ascensio River valley to the base of the three massive
Paine “towers,” below which is a beautiful glacier lake. This is a challenging,
all-day hike of 8 hours (14 miles round trip), with an elevation gain and descent
of 3,000 feet. The weather will dictate our final choice of hiking routes while we
are in Paine. All the hikes take place at altitudes below 4,000 feet. As we have
the company of an assistant Trip Leader, a shorter option is available for each
hike. Overnights at park hosteria...BLD each day
- Lodging
- Hosteria Las Torres
- Description
Las Torres has an ideal location in Paine National Park and direct trail access to the Paine Towers. While over the years the hotel has grown to be a rather large complex, it can still only be reached at the end of a 30-minute ride on a dirt road and offers the perfect location for beginning the classic hike to the Towers. The restaurant has good food and there are spa services on site.
- DAY 15: PUNTA ARENAS
- A scenic drive of about six or seven hours take us to Punta Arenas, set on the
shores of the legendary Strait of Magellan. Punta Arenas began as a stopping
off point for clipper ships during the California Gold Rush. Although its
importance declined after the construction of the Panama Canal, it is still a
thriving port town reflecting the many nationalities that settled in this remote
corner of the world. We gather for our farewell dinner this evening. Overnight
at hotel...BLD
- Lodging
- Hotel Cabo de Hornos
- Description
Located on the Punta Arenas town square, a beehive of activity, this European-style hotel is the best in Punta Arenas, with a stylish lobby of glass and stone and a cozy bar. Rooms are very comfortable, and many have views over the harbor and the Strait of Magellan.
- DAY 16: PUNTA ARENAS / DEPART
- Afternoon transfer to the airport in Punta Arenas to connect with homeward flights via Santiago...B
Trip Includes
- Expert leadership of a Wilderness Travel Trip Leader and local guides
- Accommodations in comfortable lodges, inns, and hotels
- All meals included except 1 lunch and 1 dinner
- Land and boat transportation, airport transfers, and baggage handling as noted in the Full Trip Brochure
Trip Excludes
- International airfare
- Internal flights
- Meals not specified in the Full Trip Brochure
- Travel insurance
- Airport departure taxes
- Optional tipping or gratuities to leaders or staff
- Additional hotel nights that may be necessitated by airline schedule changes or other factors
- Cost of medical immunizations (if any)
- U.S. citizen “reciprocity” visitor fees (currently $131 each for Chile and Argentina—collected upon entering Chile and Buenos Aires)
- And expenses of a personal nature (alcoholic beverages, laundry, etc.).
Trip ID#: 88769
CANCELLATIONS: 20% cancellation fee applied if cancelled 60 days prior to departure. Cancellations within 60 days are 100% non-cancelable
Kelly Tompkins
About Kelly
Kelly is the Founder of AdventureLink and a passionate adventure traveler. He specializes in cycling and trekking tours but can help you in a wide variety of activities and destinations.
- Destination expertise All Countries
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