Angel Gutierrez

I gave Angel an almost impossible task, which was to see all the best places in Chile in 30 days. So, he delivered, and then some! To get it all in, we ended up at 32 days, and we covered so many amazing places in this amazing country!

We started our journey in Vina del Mar. This beautiful area is right on the Pacific Ocean, with numerous great choices on where to dine. It was a nice place to recharge after the long flight to Santiago. Our next day was right next door, with a tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Valparaiso. Our guide was Grex, and he led us through this famous city, showing the architecture and street art across this unique colorful town. We tasted local foods, and met many of the famous street artists. Very cool!
Next we did some wine tasting in the Casablanca Valley, and had a cooking class in Santiago with Angel's awesome wife, Jennifer. The food "we" made was wonderful!

Our next leg of our trip was flying to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) for 5 nights. What an incredible place! You just have to see the island to appreciate how special it is. Our guide was Andres, a lifetime resident and island researcher. His knowledge and insight made the tours exciting. We stayed in the in town so we could walk to dinner, and meet the locals, and see the indescribable sunsets. We also scuba dived and saw the local dance show...something I did not expect to enjoy, but really did!

Atacama was next! What a contrast to Rapa Nui! We had another strong tour guide (Marco) who took us to Laguna Cejar (salt lagoon), where we had some amazing pictures of the valley, and floated in the salt waters! The next day we hiked a little known canyon with Andrej. The river was flowing strongly, with lots of small waterfalls. We had to scale the walls in a few spots. It was a blast, and we saw no one the entire hike! We finished one day with a horseback ride during sunset. Our last day we traveled to Puritama Hot Springs, high up in the mountains. It is a series of pools fed by warm spring waters. Really nice!

Next we flew to Balmaceda, got a rental car, and drove to Puerto Rio Tranquilo. This drive was one of our favorites, as the area is a series of gorgeous valleys, mountains, and rivers. It is lightly populated, and 2/3 of the roads are dirt. We stopped a lot. We saw the endangered huemul deer, and 3 condors. The town we stayed in was very small, but had a wonderful restaurant. The highlight here was kayaking to the Marble Caves. The water in these glacial lakes is so clear, and our guide, Victor, was outstanding...we did not even get wet! From here, we drove to Coyhaique, where we took a catamaran to some hot springs on the side of a fjord. Incredible!

We then flew to Puerto Montt, and drove to Huilo Huilo Reserve. Note that these roads were very easy to drive. The few hour drive was beautiful, and the scenery was great. In Huilo Huilo, we stayed in a very unique hotel (it was round, with trees in it and a stream running through it!), with a great restaurant. We hiked a lot here. The rivers were flowing strong, and the numerous waterfalls were amazing. A very relaxing area. We then drove to Puerto Varas next. It is a popular tourist town for both Chilean and international visitors. The lake is the 2nd largest in Chile. From our hotel we could see the amazing volcanos and snow capped mountains. Here we did a challenging and fun hike at the base of a volcano called Desolation Pass. And we ended this leg at the hot springs in Termas del Sol.

We then flew to Punta Arenas. For being so far south, we were surprised by the size of the town, as well as the beautiful architecture downtown. Here, we boarded a catamaran, and headed out to Magdalena Island, where we spent time with penguins! We then took a bus to Puerto Natales, about a 3 hour ride. Here, we had a boat ride to visit Serrano Glacier. Very nice! From here, we drove to Torres del Paine, the iconic view of Patagonia. The hotel was wonderful (Hotel Lago Grey). where we had endless views of the mountains, and sat right on the edge of the glacial lake.

We then flew back to Santiago, where we had a special dinner high up on a rotating restaurant (Giratorio). The next day we drove our rental to Colchagua, where we visited VIK. We had a wonderful 7 course lunch here, which lasted almost 3 hours, with plenty of wine tasting! The next day we visited Vina Santa Cruz, another beautiful winery in this area. Before heading back to Santiago, we visited the lush and beautiful Maipo Valley, where we hiked and rode horses.

Our last day we visited downtown Santiago. This took us to main plaza, as well as walking through the fruit and vegetable markets. We ate and enjoyed the afternoon, and had a final light snack and wine with Jennifer at a hillside with a great view of Santiago. A great way to end a great trip!

A couple of thoughts-
1) We used private tour guides in a number of places. We found them to be very good, and they could focus on us. With so many international visitors, many tours end up repeating things in at least 2, or more, languages. This obviously takes more time.
2) Car rentals were easy, and allows you to stop where you wanted. We found the road infrastructure to be very good.. While roads in some areas were not paved (including Torres Del Paine), they were still maintained.
3) With Angel as our specialist, he could set up just about anything we wanted...and he also set up things we did not know we wanted! He and his staff, especially Gabi, responded to questions and requests immediately. We were very happy with how they set up and guided us through our adventures!