CHOOSE YOUR TRIP

• Patagonia Encompassed
  This hiking tour takes in the best that Buenos Aires, and Patagonia has to offer – Tango that will spark your passion for Latin music, a glimpse of the spectacular coast of Chile, walking in magical Torres Del Paine and Glacier National Parks. See mountain peaks and valleys so beautiful you’ll feel like you’re in a dream, the Beagle Channel lures you to explore further, and the incredible diversity of wildlife of the Valdez Peninsula are all sure to leave you breathless.
• Amazing Patagonia Kayak Tours
  Our new kayak tours in the remote the Chilean Fjords will give you a complete wilderness experience. You don't need and previous kayaking experience, just a passion for the outdoors and nature. Along with a support vessel, guides, chef and crew, this will be an unforgettable expericence.
• Wine and Food Lovers Tour
  A great trip for anyone who has an amateur interest in wine and food. Argentina and Chile offer a great variety of wine and cuisine, with breath taking scenery along the way. In march we always try and combine the tour with the Mendoza Vendimia, that largest wine festival in Argentina. This is not a trip for professional wine connoisseurs, but rather a unique way to travel and visit Chile and Argentina

ABOUT PATAGONIA

PATAGONIA a unique and undisturbed wilderness, lies at the southern tip of South America, and is a region which extends both over Argentina and Chile. It’s spectacular scenery and wildlife, is without a doubt a highlight for any traveler seeking the path less traveled by. Our adventures in Patagonia take us from the cosmopolitan city of Buenos Aires sitting on the shore of the River Plate, to the alpine resort town of Bariloche and the Chilean Lake District, on down to one of the largest ice fields on earth and on to the world’s southern most city Ushuaia. With plenty of glaciers, mountains of surreal granite pinnacles, pristine lakes and wildlife along the way. This is a place of big sky and even bigger scenery.

ARGENTINA: BUENOS AIRES
This is the second giant of South America, with a landscape nearly as varied as its people. Buenos Aires is the ultimate cosmopolitan city. Travelers find that it has more in common with the cities of Europe than the rest of South America. Nearly 40 per cent of Argentina’s 33 million citizens live in Greater Buenos Aires, and the Porteños are justifiably proud of their home. The city is comprised of a number of distinct neighbourhoods, some of which have become top tourist draws. For many, the highlight of their time in the capital is a visit to San Telmo for the weekend antiques market and street artist’s displays. La Boca was originally settled by the successive waves of immigrants that contribute to the capital’s unique character. Its brightly coloured walls and buildings draw Porteños and tourists alike. It is also home to one of Argentina’s most famous soccer teams, the “Boca Juniors”. Posh Recoleta, with its cafés, museums, mimes and cemetery, is a pleasant place to spend an afternoon.

BARILOCHE
The urban centre of the Argentine Lake District, San Carlos de Bariloche in many ways resembles alpine resorts of Europe. During winter ski season the town fills to capacity with jovial Argentine and Brazilian vacationers whose favourite pastime seems to be eating and drinking. Their gusto is understandable; Bariloche has some of the best food in the country. Sample a beefy parillada, or a variety of fresh salmon or lake trout, then work it off during a day hike around Cerro Catedral or while practicing your salsa at one of the town's salsotecas.
There are few areas in the world, which can match the Chilean Lake District for scenic grandeur. South of the Rio Tolten and sprawled across the provinces of Valdivia, Osorno and Llanquihue, you'll find everything from snow-capped mountains to deepblue and emerald lakes, smoking volcanoes, forests and glaciers. Outside noisy cities, such as Puerto Montt, the loudest sound you're likely to hear is the roar of waterfalls streaming down cliff faces into crystal clear pools. This is a favourite vacation ground for national tourists, visitors from across the Andes and around the globe. You will have the opportunity to do a relatively easy day hike to the refugio on Osorno Volcano based out of Puerto Varas. This is a beautiful region with bright flowers and wooded mountain slopes. The hike up to the ice-clad volcano is an exhilarating one, providing stunning panoramic views of the Petrohue River valley below and the surrounding peaks.
The region's architecture is unique in that older structures are wooden and resemble European homes and churches of the 19th Century. This is due to the significant number of immigrants from central Europe (largely Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy) who settled here over the last half of that century. The regional cuisine also reflects this, with many restaurants specializing in kuchen and other baked delicacies. Seafood dishes abound in this region. Of particular interest to visitors is the curanto Chilote, a hearty seafood stew that'll leave you ready for a siesta.

EL CALAFATE
On the shores of Lago Argentino, this town at foothills of the Andes is named after the local Calafate berry,a type of barberry. It is only 80km from the South Patagonian ice field, the second largest on the planet, after that of Greenland, and the source of all the areas glaciers, including Moreno, Onelli, Viedma and Upsala. Moreno Glacier is one of the most dynamic and only one of a few advancing glaciers left in the world. This deep blue, enormous relic of the Ice Age is 3 km (about 2 miles) wide and 60m (196 ft) high. Parque Nacional Los Glaciares has some of the most spectacular natural sights you will see in your lifetime.

EL CHALTEN
Parque Nacional Los Glaciares has some of the most spectacular natural sights you will see in your lifetime.
The town of El Chaltén is located in the north end of the park about 5hours from El Calafate, and is the site of the awesome spires of Fitzroy and Cerro Torre which rise to 3375m. Here we devote 2 days to hiking among the glacier valleys and moraines of Fitzroy. The town of El Chalten itself is tiny, only around 250 people live here, and less during the winter.

CHILE
Chile encompasses a narrow strip of land between the Pacific Ocean and the high peaks of the Andes, approximately 180 km (112 miles) wide, but with a coastline stretching over 4300 km (14104 ft), Chile’s “geografia loca” (or crazy geography). It includes the driest desert, the Atacama in the north, the agriculturally-rich Central Valley, snow-covered volcanoes, forests, and lake district of the near south, and the wild and windswept glaciers and fjords of
the far south. It is within this last region that you’ll discover magnificent trekking country, where guanacos, ñandues (rheas), condors, pink flamingos and magellanic penguins abound.

PUERTO NATALES AND TORRES DEL PAINE
A town of brightly coloured corrugated tin houses, Puerto Natales lies on the Seno de Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope Sound, so named by a group of desperate early explorers) and is home to the once large and important Bories meat processing plant. Now most of its residents rely on tourism as a source of income. It is the jumping off point for our excursion to Torres del Paine National Park. The granite Towers of Paine make a dramatic appearance on the horizon in the midst of a flat, dry, windswept plain. They’re so unbelievably beautiful that superlatives soon fail you. Despite the almost constant summer winds, this is some of the finest trekking country in Chile. With majestic peaks, sparkling lakes, waterfalls and glaciers, as well as herds of guanacos, condors, flocks of pink flamingos and large Patagonian hares, Torres Del Paine National Park is the jewel of Patagonia. We spend 4 days exploring the park, from an “up close and personal” hike on the Grey glacier, to being dwarfed by the grandeur of the Torres and Horns of Paine.
Once a large sheep estancía, the park was established in 1959 as the Parque Nacional Lago Grey. Prior to this,
baqueanos (cowboys) grazed their flocks here and fires occasionally burnt out of control. The devastation wrought near
Lago Grey with large areas of burnt forest and charred logs remains visible. More land was added to the park
in 1962 and the name was changed to its present one. It is said that the Towers and Park were named after an early
Welsh settler named Payne, although paine is also the Tehuelche word for blue. The Torre (Tower) Sur rises 2900m
(9512 ft) above sea level, the Torre Central is 2850m (9348 ft) high and the Torre Norte measures 2600m (8528 ft). As spectacular as the towers themselves, are the Cuernos (Horns) del Paine, massive blocks of various rock layers, visible from great distances.

PUNTA ARENAS
Looking across the Straits of Magellan, Punta Arenas a city of about 100 000 people, and the capital of the 12th region (Magallanes). It is an important Chilean naval base, and the discovery of offshore oil and gas, as well as a burgeoning adventure tourism industry have fuelled much of its recent development, although the traditional sheep estancías remain a significant part of the economy and culture. Monuments to the early Yugoslav settlers and to the hardy ranchers and explorers who pioneered the area are scattered throughout the city, and the enormous cemetery contains the crypts of many of the city’s historically leading citizens. An hour’s drive from Punta Arenas, the Otway Sound penguin colony is the result of a successful protection program that has brought back to healthy numbers the once endangered population of Magellanic Penguins. These comical and charming birds are here from October to April, with chicks hatching in early December. Rheas, flamingos, and a variety of other birds, along with foxes and skunks occasionally make an appearance as well.

USHUAIA
Back into Argentina, we head to Tierra del Fuego (the land of fire) and Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world on the shores of the Beagle Channel. Ushuaia actually means “the bay facing westward” in the language of the original Yamná inhabitants. Once a penal colony (the presidio was disbanded in the 1940s) for political prisoners as well as hardened criminals, Ushuaia is now a major tourist attraction, particularly for people cruising to Antarctica. The town of 40 000 is also a ski resort area for both alpine and cross-country skiers and offers magnificent hiking in Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, the only coastal national park in Argentina. The town itself takes on a magical atmosphere in mid summer as the sun sets around 11pm and it seems almost a sin to go to bed before dark at nearly midnight! Here you will experience some of the most beautiful twilight ever seen and maybe, just maybe you will be drawn to an adventure in Antarctica. For those on a flexible schedule, there are often last minute fares available at heavily discounted prices, which we will endeavour to help you find.