Patagonia

Our adventure begins in the busy and engaging city of Buenos Aires, before flying south to the small town of El Calafate, in the heart of Patagonia and on to Puerto Natales, gateway to Chile’s Torres Del Paine National Park.

For the next three days we explore this spectacular national park, a wonderland of craggy, granite peaks, snow clad mountains, glacier-fed lakes, waterfalls and rivers, pampas and thick Magellanic forests. We enjoy splendid views of the celebrated Cuernos (horns) and spend a day hiking around Lake Pehoe and Grey Glacier.

Driving north, we reach the celebrated Perito Moreno Glacier and continue into the Los Glaciares National Park, one of the most scenically impressive reserves in South America. This vast region protects around 2300 square miles of the Patagonian Andes, including over 40 major glaciers. The northern section is dominated by the unmistakeable Fitzroy Massif, which rises some 6000 feet rise above the glaciers and lakes at its base. Two day fullday walks give us a real sense of this dramatic environment, which is quite different to the region around Torres Del Paine. We return to El Calafate, where our trip ends.

Accommodation throughout is in comfortable Hosterias and Refugios and local mountain guides will accompany us while trekking.

Dave says, “Ever since reading Bruce Chatwin's book "In Patagonia" some years ago, the area's been on my radar as a stunning walking destination even though it wasn't visited by my boyhood hero, the extraordinary swashbuckling explorer Colonel Fawcett. He confined his travels to the area further north, the Matto Grosso in Brazil, land of amazing jungles and huge anacondas and put South America firmly on my radar.

This Patagonia tour will enable all of us to discover a uniquely beautiful part of the world on the southern tip of that mighty continent and possibly also to do some South American add-ons, either north to the heartland of South America or south to the Antarctic.

Onward travel is available to Buenos Aires and other parts of South America – or alternatively continue south to Ushuaia to board a memorable 10-day expedition cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula. If interested, please contact Active Travel who are also the agents for this Patagonia tour.

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Patagonia
Dates and costs
12-23 February 2012
COST: A$3950. Single supplement A$350
Please note: these prices do not include flights from and to your home country

Full brochure with detailed itinerary available from Best Travels
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