Thought I’d give a quick recap of an excellent trip. I’ll get the wine and food out of the way first - this was decidely NOT a wine & food trip! We had a bunch of cheap and mostly decent Chilean wines chosen mostly by the hotel restaurants we were at. Several local beers. A few mildly interesting local spirits. Nothing of note TBH. The culinary highlights of the trip were discovering merken, which is an aji ahumado seasoning that is really fantastic - a nice amount of heat but lots of flavor and smokiness. I’d put it above Spanish pimenton ahumado as far as my preferences - more robust, typically a flakier/chunkier level of grind. Supposedly it is sometimes mixed with oregano and salt, but the versions we had were (I think) pure aji. The other fun one was on the somewhat remote island of Chiloe, where the local specialty is called curanto - a hot-stone-in-the-ground pit covered with the massive local nalca (Chilean rhubarb) leaves to steam piles of mussels, clams, chicken, sausage, potatoes, etc. We had the real thing at our hotel and also a pot steamed version at a local restaurant. Simple and good.
First five nights: Torres del Paine
This is the real attraction - the staggering towers and horns of Torres del Paine, surrounded by deep blue lakes, studded with glaciers, pumas prowling the landscape, guanaco all around grazing (and hoping to avoid the puma). We stayed one night in the nothing-to-see entry town of Puerto Natales, then headed into the park, working with Cascada Expediciones (who owns Ecocamp Patagonia ,where we stayed) to do a kayaking trip on the Grey River, then hikes to the French Valley, the base of the towers (which is a serious hike, especially in gusty winds, but truly amazing), and nearby Cuernos and Condors lookouts over consecutive days. Ecocamp was a great option for us as we wanted to have a base and weren’t interested in doing the full W trek (staying in tents/refugios along the way). We stayed in a four person family dome which is basically “glamping,” and the communal meals were actually fun and very good, using some vegetables grown on the property (truly excellent salad greens included). The weather forecast was consistently abysmal, but we got lucky, enduring heavy gusts but mostly under sunny skies that allowed good views of the mountains. This area is kinda crazy expensive - you pay to be in the park, and for guide expertise - but we felt it was worth it. We had done El Chalten / Calafete in Argentina a few years back, and the two areas are quite similar (equally awe inspiring), about 3-4 hours drive apart if you wanted to combine the two.
Next three nights: Chiloe Island
We rolled the dice on going to this less-visited area of the lake district, mainly because it came recommended, offered a bit more culture vs pure nature, and because it had a really cool looking hotel called Refugia Chiloe, where we stayed three nights after flying into Puerto Montt and renting a car for a roughly 3.5hr drive (including car ferry) south. The hotel’s architecture and setting absolutely lived up to the hype, though the service and dining were not close to the level expected given accolades from Michelin and Conde Nast. We did a day out on our own to hike in Tepuhueico Park, which involved some rough dirt roads. I would advise skipping the rainforest section, not worth the effort, but the Pacific coastal area was really stunning in a northern California/Oregon kind of way. The town of Castro is quaint with its stilt houses and rows of mussel farms in the bays. Then we did a really nice full day boat excursion through the hotel on their own boat, including visits to nearby islands with historic churches and a unique architectural style using the local cedar for shingles. Also kayaked among penguins, dolphins, and sea lions, which was fun and beautiful. All in all I’m glad we went, but wouldn’t necessarily recommend vs something like Atacama (which we have not done) or even some of the Chilean wine areas, which can be fun.
Next three nights: Ensenda/Puerto Varas area
Back north past the airport, we drove into Puerto Varas for lunch, then on to a fantastic little Airbnb with a world class view outside the town of Ensenada, facing the Osorno Volcano overlooking the Petrohue river. Wow. Las Cascadas hike was nice if not spectacular, and the Mirador Picada was a lot of effort (among swarming horse flies) for a view that was not much better than what you could get from the lake below. We did a really fun “onces” (local afternoon tea tradition, involving German immigrant inspired kuchen and cream, plus a really nice local salmon spread) at a place called Bellavista that had their own alpaca and peacocks overlooking the lake and volcanoes. Also visited the very cute little town of Fruitillar, worth a quick stop if you are nearby. Then it was back to the airport to fly to Santiago and then back home!
Would flying into El Calafate and then finding a local tour operator make sense? If so, where can I find reputable ones, in addition to Cascada Expediciones?
I read that non-local tour operators tend to charge huge mark-ups to reserve local hotels and tour operators, but are unresponsive or uninformed when travelers encounter problems.
You could definitely do that, depending on what you’re hoping to do activity-wise. We did the El Calafate / El Chalten area about 7 years ago, completely on our own other than hiring a driver to take us to and from the airport up to Chalten. We hiked Lago de Los Tres on our own, and back in Calafate had booked the boat out to Perito Morena, the glacier trekking, and a half day at an estancia on our own. We did the glacier boat and trek bookings well ahead of time because they do sell out. I typically just use a combo of Tripadvisor and Reddit to find operators when needed.
About 15 years ago I spent a week in Torres del Paine national park. One of the great trips of my life.
I know it has gotten expensive. IIRC, I paid ~$350 per night for a couple, breakfast and dinner included at Hotel Las Torres, really wonderful. I think it’s about 5x that now, a lot of inflation for 15 years.
BTW, at that time they had a reasonably nice selection of wine, including some really good Carmenere with a little bit of bottle age (~5 - 10 years) as well as a few upscale Argentine bottlings.
To anybody: If you are thinking about going to Torres del Paine, stop thinking and go!
IIRC, the hotel had a long list of the various hikes and excursions available, with prices that included the guides. I think any good hotel in Torres del Paine would have the same. You will not need or want to hire private guides unless you are camping solo.
Eileen on the left with our guide on the Cave hike. This hike was just the two of us plus the guide, about 4 hours round-trip. I think the hike including the guide cost ~$50 and we tipped her another ~$25.
The cave has paintings from about 800CE.
If you would like, I can send you a photo album. We had three significant hikes… the Cave, the Towers and the Horns.
I sent you my photos of the Cave Hike, will be happy to send the other two if you want.
If there is general interest, I would post these on the board, not quite sure how to put that many up.
I was younger than you will be when I did this trip, but not by much. I also am not into risky hiking.
Here’s my description of the Towers Hike, the longest one I did:
Torres del Paine
hike from Hosteria las Torres to the base of the towers
This is the classic hike, 10 miles roundtrip, from Hosteria Las Torres to the pond at the base of the towers.
Hosteria Las Torres - 400 feet above sea level.
1.9 miles mostly steady uphill to 2000 feet and the entrance to Ascencio Valley
0.6 miles steep downhill to 1300 feet and Refugio Chileno in the Valle Ascenscio
2.0 miles steep sidehill at first, then some level, then some short steep ups and downs through the Ascencio Valley, to 1650 feet and the start of the rockslide
0.5 miles up the rockslide to 3000 feet and the towers view
The rockslide is 45° but neither difficult nor dangerous.
5.0 miles back
This is easier than hiking Mt. Katahdin up and back in one day from Roaring Brook campground.
