Chile Forum

We didn't go as far down as Rio Grande, our camp was situated at Rio Chico in roughly the centre of our prospect which extended from Onaisin across to the border. Being quite elevated, it was colder and windier than the northern part of the island, we were still getting snow flurries in November.
Parts of our camp are still being used as temporary accommodation for the people building the Isla Riesco permanent base.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/espectroau ... otostream/

Okay, here's the new plan.

Arrive in Santiago Nov 17. Due to flight availability, we can't get a flight to Punta Arenas until the 18th. We'll be through immigration and such by 1:00 PM if all goes well, so we'll probably rent a car for the day. Any suggestions on what to do? Our initial instinct is to go to Paso Libertadores.

Flight arrives in Punta Arenas at 2:00PM on Nov 18, flight out leaves at 3:00PM on Nov 28. 10 days, almost precisely. My day count before was wrong, it was actually 11.5. I would say that math isn't my strong suit, but I'm an engineer so that's not right either!

Right now our destinations are as follows, counterclockwise:

Ushuaia
Punta Tombo
Carretera Austral - Ventisquero Colgante
El Chatlen (hike to Laguna Torre, overnight for morning photos of Cerro Torre)
El Calafete (Glacier Perrito Moreno)
Torres del Paine (hike to Mirador Los Torres, overnight for morning photos of the Torres)

Total for that loop is 5655km, give or take a little bit. First to go is Carretera Austral, second to go is probably the hike to see Cerro Torre. We would consider moving Punta Tombo to somewhere with fewer penguins if we don't have to worry about tour guides and schedules. Are there any places like that further south?

Right now we're flexible on loop direction. If it's sunny when we get to Punta Arenas, we may make a bee-line for the Torres. If the weather is poor, we start heading to Ushuaia and doing the loop in reverse.

Does this sound better to everyone?

Now that I can actually post links...

We can deal with snow. This was on the Alaska Highway trip, on the way back. We took a detour to the Icefields Parkway, and it was snowing. Hard.


There were two separate points on this stretch where none of the wheels of the car were touching the ground, and we were going only with our momentum pushing us on the undercarraige. This was in a Carolla, and we're looking for a 4x4 for this trip, so in theory we're better off. Keep in mind that my friend and I have both lived in Boston for significant portions of our lives, and we defenitely have to drive in the snow.



Penguins - My guide book (and I know your opinion on Lonely Planet) says that there are two in/around Punta Arenas, one needing a boat tour and one that is better seen in the morning for lightning purposes. We're arriving at 2:00PM, so we'll see what happens. Punta Tombo is even in lattitude with Ventisquero Colgante, or at least close to it, so if we're going that far north it makes at least some sense.

Torres weather - Understood. Is there really any forecast that we can go with, or do we just go and pray? I understand that seeing something only once has the risk of weather not permitting you to see it at all. That's part of the risk of travel photography. Sometimes you get lucky...

And sometimes you do not. We'll do what we can to maximize our odds, of course. If we take multiple stabs at the Torres, that would be better, but we'll have to weigh that in our trip plans.

Schedule - Understood about border crossing times. It probably won't help that my travelling companion and I have different country passports. However, again, it's worth pointing out that an 18 hour day is *short* for us. Driving to 2-3am is normal, and all-nighters will happen on occasion. We're probably only coming here once in our life (maybe a time or two more if we're lucky, but you never know), so why would we waste more time than is absolutely necessary with sleep? Besides, some of the best photos are taken at night. We will probably only stay in a hotel for two nights on the trip - the first midway through to shower, shave, etc, and the second to make sure we're not committing crimes against humanity on our flights back to the US.

I will prepare a potential detailed schedule tonight.

Jake here - I am the mysterious travel partner whom Dan has been mentioning...

thanks for all your help, PX; when we get down there we will have to buy you N beers

Seno Otway - where is this? google maps is being useless.

cute penguin. I would like it as a pet. I believe I can stuff it down my pants and exit the country without anyone asking questions... correct?

Dan is drugs...

Regarding smuggling penguins out of the country in your pants; yes, it is done commonly, though with difficulty, since penguin flatulence on aeroplanes is not to be taken lightly.

I will gently wean the penguin off of its all-bean diet.

I assume the penguin would be happy living in San Diego. we can feed it cat food. or cats. then when it reaches its full height of 80 meters, I will take it to Tokyo.

patagoniax wrote:Would you believe he used to get paid for doing this go-fast stuff?

oddly, yes.

Dan, how many kilometers did we do in Iceland in 4 days? also, what is our new plan if we eliminate Punto Tomba?

get out that #2 pencil...

Iceland - about 3000km in 4 days. 750 km/day. With fairly reasonable sleep patterns (only less than 4 hours once that I can recall).
With multi-hour stops at multiple waterfalls and other attractions.
And with a broken car door.


I'll reiterate - 16-18 hour days without lunch? That's nothing.

DBrim wrote:And with a broken car door.

Dan likes to make stories up.

generally, though, I feel like our driving patterns in Chile and Argentina (ratios of paved road, good dirt road, lousy dirt road) will be similar to what we did in Iceland. we'll just have more random orneriness at border crossings and what-have-you.

Dan is a US citizen: how many visa fees will he have to pay? just to land in Santiago, or will he pay an extra one to cross into Argentina?

(I'm a Hungarian citizen... free visa, whee!)

patagoniax wrote:

DBrim wrote:
I'll reiterate - 16-18 hour days without lunch? That's nothing.

Ventisquero Colgante to Punta Tombo via La Tapera, Apeleg, Tecka . 1100 km. 18 hours. Looks simple in 2 dimensions. But it makes no sense if you are just going there to see the penguins you can see more easily at Otway.

duly noted. we will eliminate Punta Tombo. here is what our itinerary looks like at the current moment, then.

land at Punta Arenas.
Punta Arenas to PENGUINS: 80km
PENGUINSto Tierra ferry: 165km
Tierra ferry to end of the road past Ushuaia: 490km
end of the road past Ushuaia to Tierra ferry: 490km
Tierra ferry to Coyhaique - 1324km

and then after this is Dan's previous itinerary which he posted yesterday

carretera austral crossing to other crossing: 804km can be shorter if needed
other crossing to el chatlen (cerro torre): 641km
el chatlen to glacier perrito moreno: 289km
glacier perrito moreno to random point in torres: 463km
random point in torres to punta arenas: 352km

looks like 5098 kilometers.

patagoniax wrote:Why do I have the feeling I am dealing with the ghost of Tim Cahill here?

a bit of Wikipedia research.

Along with professional long-distance driver Garry Sowerby, Cahill set a world record for speed in driving the entire length of the American continents, from Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego in southern Argentina up along the Pan-American Highway to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in twenty-three days, twenty-two hours, and forty-three minutes. This trip was the source material for his book Road Fever.

Tim Cahill is very much alive. so are we. we will revisit this topic of conversation upon our return in November!

(obligatory Darien Gap question remains unasked.)

doing a little math ... using the 40mph average rule of thumb. 5000 km is about 3000 miles, so we're looking at driving 75 hours. assuming 15 hours a day driving, that is 5 days of driving, out of 10.

seems like we're converging nicely on a sensible plan. (I won't tell anyone if you won't either.)

this is beginning to look like two Iceland trips, back to back. except with fewer aurora. this is the only relevant photo I could find in my google search of "aurora patagonia":

http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/vv35 ... AGONIA.jpg

so that's gonna be quite unusual - about the equivalent of seeing aurora from Wisconsin or Denmark.

anyway, it is a well-known fact that Dan and I ritually murder each other on day 6 of any trip we take. for the purposes of reducing our legal liability, should we do that in Chile or Argentina?