13-Nights Hiker's Patagonia

Punta Arenas

Punta Arenas is the southernmost city on Earth, overlooking the Straits of Magellan. Situated astride one of the world's historic trade routes, its prosperity has risen and fallen with that trade. Punta Arenas enjoyed its first great boom during the California Gold Rush, when it served as a haven for great clipper ships. Although the port's importance diminished after the opening of the Panama Canal, the city reached even greater prosperity early in this century as the center of Chile's international wool trade. Today, Punta Arenas reflects a great mix of cultures, from English sheep ranchers to Portuguese sailors, and it remains an utterly fascinating testament to the Chile's rich history. Punta Arenas is also the starting point for excursions to some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.

Torres del Paine

Torres del Paine is internationally recognized as one of the most beautiful, uncontaminated places on earth with natural lakes, rivers, waterfalls, glaciers, forests and diverse wildlife. This biosphere reserve dominates most of South America's national park and sits 2000 meters above the Patagonian Steppe, the granite pillars of Torres del Paine. 

El Calafate

In El Calafate you will find yourself at the gateway to the majestic world of glaciers. This town is near Lake Argentino, a green water surface covering 1,600 km2, with a length of 60 km and a width between 12 and 14 km. It also has great mysterious depths, like all lakes orginated from glaciers, ranging from 35 m in Feruglio, on the southern shore, to 300 m off the Avellaneda Peninsula.

Los Glaciares National Park

Glaciers National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site 1,300 mi/2,080 km southwest of Buenos Aires, has some of the most spectacular sights in Argentina. One of the planet's few advancing glaciers, Perito Moreno Glacier periodically dams the Brazo Rico of Lago Argentino, causing the water to rise. Eventually the melting ice below can no longer support the weight of the water behind it, and the dam collapses in an explosion of ice and water.

This spectacular event had been occurring, on average, every four years until a 16-year lull struck in the 1980s and '90s. In March 2004, a dramatic collapse took place, much to the delight of visitors lucky enough to be there. It subsequently ruptured again in 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2016.

The 22-mi-/35-km-long glacier is spectacular, and from a series of catwalks and vantage points on the Peninsula Magallanes you can watch and listen as tremendous chunks of ice crash into the Canal de los Tempanos. Visitors in good physical condition can hike on the iceberg itself. Buses run from Calafate to Moreno during tourist season (November-February). You can take a one-hour boat ride to get near the glacier's walls.

In the far north of the park are Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Torre, popular with climbers and hikers. Chalten, the village closest to the mountains, can be reached by bus from El Calafate, which is the best base for visitors to the area. El Calafate is also a good jumping-off point for tours to the Torres del Paine National Park, across the border in Chile.

El Chalten

El Chaltén is a small village in Santa Cruz Province, the Patagonian region of southern Argentina. Chalten is a native word of the Patagonian people that means ‘smoking mountain’ as they believed the clouds that covered the mountains was a volcanic peak. The town was discovered in between the 70’s and 80’s and is the gateway to Mt. Fitz Roy and Cerro Torres, two of the Patagonian Andes. Travelers visiting El Chalten can trek or backpack through the Patagonian Andes and other visited tracks. The national park welcomes its travelers with commercial camping, showers and beds.

Buenos Aires

Dynamic and bustling, a city which seems never to sleep, Buenos Aires is one of the most exciting cities in Latin America. Tango was born here, restaurants serve an all manner of world cuisine, bars play the latest music, cafés spill on to the streets and nightclubs allow dancing throughout the night. Cultural hub of a society which traces its roots to European immigration, it is famous throughout South America for its theatres, museums and galleries. Gucci, Armani, Prada, to name a few, line the boulevards catering for the fashion conscious porteños, their offerings as stylish as anything found in the cities in Europe or North America.