Marcela Huidobro

We had a fantastic week exploring Chile's lake district, Santiago, Valparaiso, and wine country. The process of working with Marcela to plan our hotels, activities, transfers, guides, etc was so easy. We gave her a brief idea of where we wanted to spend our time, as well as what kinds of activities we enjoy, and she did a fantastic job creating our itinerary. It was nice to have a knowledgable guide, from the area, give recommendations on hotels and activities, as well as line up drivers and guides. We enjoyed our time with Matisse in Vicente Perez Rosales National Park, had a blast river rafting on the Petrohué River and loved exploring Valparaiso with Soli. We highly recommend hiring Marcela to assist with planning an unforgettable visit to Chile.

South America Journey 2025

We are back in California after our two month journey in South America. Kimkim and Marcela assisted us during our first segment of the trip, Patagonia, and during our last segment of the trip, Peru. In between Patagonia and Peru, my wife and I completed a 30-day self drive trip from Puerto Natales to Santiago ..... 5,000 km. The entire experience was stunning, our weather was fantastic and we have returned with a lifetime of memories.

Marcella organized great adventures and accommodations for us during the 14-day Patagonia segment. We collaborated with her easily prior to this trip so that our plan was suited to our travel standards. She was most patient, knowledgeable and available during the planning process. There were no glitzes in this self-drive Patagonia excursion which included Torres de Paine, the El Calafate area and the El Chalten region. The glaciers, trekking, boat excursions and accommodations were wonderful. Marcela made it happen!

Our 30-day driving trip through Argentina and Chile was exciting. Though we planned and executed this part of our journey independently, Marcela was available to provide ideas for our "Carratera Austral" road trip. Additionally, we had the pleasure of having a rendezvous with Marcela in Puerto Varas and enjoyed a coffee together before we continued our journey to Constitucion and Santiago. She was very nice to meet after soooooo many planning communications.

Janice and I added Peru to our South American trip rather late during the planning stages. Marcela stepped up and did an awesome job at organizing our trip. The Cusco experience was epic and our guide, Mega, during those days was most wonderful. Her knowledge, organization, patience and grasp of Inca / Quechua history was so very impressive. We also just fell in love with her care for us as we traveled around Cusco, Machu Picchu and Sacred Valley. Our guide at Machu Picchu was Darcy and he really took care of us on that trip and had a wealth of knowledge regarding the site.

Iquitos and our stay at Pacaya Samiria Lodge was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us. Again the weather was beautiful ... we were very fortunate for our 2-months of good weather! We were picked up in Iquitos by Josiah and he was our guide for three memorable days at the lodge and on the water. We felt very fortunate to have such a scholar of wildlife as our guide. Josiah knows the birds and and environment ... and we felt very comfortable with him. The lodge was beautiful.

Our last segment in Peru was in Lima and again we had a very complete city tour with Lily (sp). Our free day in Lima was filled with many sights and again .... food.

The entire Peru experience assisted with great communications from Manuel, Ximena and Jennifer. Manuel Gordillo was particularly helpful with communicating our daily activities, planning for the next day and confirming our transportation.

Another big thank you to Marcela for helping us while we explored Argentina, Chile and Peru!

THANK YOU KIMKIM!

Bill and Janice Rolfing
South America 2025 Trip

Hotel Reviews

Ikonik Miraflores

Lima

Pacaya Samiria Lodge

Casa Morey

Ava Spot Sacred Valley

Urubamba

Hatun Inti Classic Machupicchu

Machu Picchu

Sueños del Inka Hotel

Cusco

Activity Reviews

Iquitos Adventure Day 2

Iquitos

Cultural City Tour in Lima

Lima

Iquitos Adventure Day 4

Peru

Iquitos Adventure Day 3

Peru

Iquitos Adventure Day 1

Iquitos

Pisac Market & Surrounding Ruins

Peru

Machu Picchu Excursion: Aguas Calientes - Machu Picchu

Peru

Sacred Valley Tour: Cusco - Chinchero - Ollantaytambo

Peru

City Tour

Cusco

Marcela did an amazing job of planning our family trip to Chile! Prior to the trip, she worked with us on making itinerary choices and was very responsive in answering questions. Marcela was in touch throughout the trip and even proactively rearranged the itinerary based on the weather forecast.

We visited Santiago, Atacama and Puerto Varas over 10 days. The local guides in each destination were friendly, knowledgeable and reliable. Transfers were smooth. Atacama is breathtaking and offers many unique experiences. While we didn't encounter many other families, we found the activities very family-friendly (worth mentioning most days were very early starts). Puerto Varas was beautiful as well, a little more laid back than Atacama.

Thank you Marcela!

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Cabaña Del Lago Puerto Varas

Puerto Varas

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Poblado Kimal

San Pedro de Atacama

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

NH Ciudad de Santiago

Santiago

Activity Review

Santiago City Tour - Private

Chile

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We had an amazing trip to Chile - the country is truly spectacular. Our travel coordinator Marcela was excellent, she listened to what we wanted and adapted the itinerary as needed when torrential rains and an injury required some shifts. She even brought over some medications and offered to help in the hospital with translation after a badly sprained ankle interrupted our plans. She also coordinated in-country travel for us after our initial start in Argentina and not having to worry about airport pick up and drop off was very helpful.

We enjoyed hiking, white water rafting and kayaking in Puerta Varas - Ko Kayak was awesome for rafting (we have done this a lot and the rain made this the best rafting trip we have ever done). Our guides everywhere were great - especially Catalina (rafting), Juan Miguel (hiking and planned biking until ankle accident) and Paz (kayaking on Reloncavi fjord). We stayed at the Kalfu Hotel which was a good location for walking and offered excellent breakfasts and comfortable rooms.

In Puerta Natales we did 2 days of trekking in Torres del Paine with W-Circuit and they were great. Tour guides Alex (3 shorter hikes of 2 hours each) and Pablo (Base Torres Hike) were very good. Come prepped with the right shoes and gear and be prepared for 4 seasons in one day. We saw quite a few people turn around on the Base Torres hike which is long (22km). We then kayaked and rock climbed with Jorge from Patagonia Adventures. He was superb and we especially enjoyed pushing our comfort boundaries with the rock climbing which was awesome (we have never climbed outdoors before). We stayed at the Weskar Lodge for most of the time (truly superb food) and had one night at the Best Western which was much better than that chain is in the US.

Our final night in Santiago, we had dinner in a local home with Gloria and Leo - great food and wine pairings and even better conversation. We highly recommend. We appreciated this idea that Marcela suggested!

Hotel Reviews

Casa Kalfu Hotel Boutique

Puerto Varas

Very comfortable hotel with a helpful and friendly staff. The only reason not to have a 5 star rating is that we were on the lower level with a patio (lovely) but it was darker as it was fairly rainy while we were there. Very good breakfasts. Great location for walking around town.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Easy walk to town and restaurants

Staff

Friendly

Cleanliness & Comfort

Weskar Lodge

Puerto Natales

Comfortable rooms with a great view. Really great service and fantastic breakfasts. Their meals were truly outstanding - we hadn't expected to stay at the hotel for dinner but the food was so good that we ate 3 dinners there. The only downside is being a bit far for walk to town but Uber was easy and available as needed.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Very friendly and helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Private Dinner Experience

Santiago

This was a cool thing to do for our last night in Santiago. We were picked up by our host and his friend Felipe who was our guide for the night. Gloria was the cooking whiz and Leo managed the wine and music. We drove into the city center and to Leo and Gloria's home where we had a 4 course dinner and wine tasting with Chilean music. The food was excellent and teh conversation was even better. They are warm and gracious hosts and very welcoming. Felipe did a great job explaining and translating as needed (we enjoyed practicing our Spanish) and we talked about all kinds of subjects. Highly recommend for people willing to branch out and try something new!

Quality of Experience

Great food and very welcoming and gracious hosts and guide

Food

Homemade empanadas, a ceviche, roast and potatoes and a tart with several Chilean wines

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Rock Climbing in Patagonia

Puerto Natales

This was AMAZING! Our second trip with Jorge was rock climbing. We have only done indoor climbing gyms before and this was awesome. This was our first ever outdoor climbing experience. We did 4 routes. Very well explained, safety conscious and exciting and Jorge involved us in everything- belaying etc. Tea mid-route was very neat! We were visited multiple times by condors checking out what we were doing. Our kids were amazed by our pics (one climbs and he was impressed). The rock formations were cool to see and climb on - we learned a lot and this definitely pushed our comfort boundaries which is what we wanted.

Quality of Experience

Jorge's knowledge and how he included us in jobs and taught skills was awesome. Beautiful location and the condors were really a nice lucky feature - about 7-8 were watching and circling as we climbed.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

See comments above - we felt safe and confident trying this with him as the guide.

Transport

Great driver - Jorge - and location was spectacular

Kayaking in Eberhard Fjord

Puerto Natales

We did two trips with Jorge. He is probably the best guide we have ever had—extremely knowledgeable on local wildlife, culture etc, speaks really excellent English and very personable. We did a kayak trip on the Eberhard Fjord on a fairly windy day. First time in dry suits! Mid trip we stopped for a 1km walk with spectacular views of the mountains, lakes and fjords. We finished with a lovely meal of wonderful homemade foods in a Chilean home.

Quality of Experience

Jorge was great, incredible views and a wonderful meal at the end

Guides, Drivers and Staff

We learned a lot about Chile and the area from Jorge - super knowledgeable.

Transport

Jorge picked us up

Base Torres Hike

Chile

Excellent trip. We were on a tour run by W-Circuit. Bus driver was speedy but safe and we did two tours with the same company two days apart. We were picked up at 6:30 am and the bus was comfortable. Trekking poles were provided which helped a lot (we had never used before). After that we did the Base Torres Hike but with a different guide named Pablo. Great hike but long (6 hours minimum) and very crowded at times. The hard thing is that people hike at vastly different rates. Our guide had us go ahead and wait in places (great system). We saw tons of birds and even a puma at the end! Again, breathtaking scenery and rewarding. Some people may not be prepared for the steepness of this hike and be unable to finish as were several folks on our tour. Acclimate a bit, have good boots, and be used to hiking—this is 22km (13.7miles) RT!

Quality of Experience

Beautiful park with stunning scenery.

Food

Nice to have options to buy food along the trail (we got drinks on teh way down) and snacks at the end before our bus ride home.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Pablo was good and allowed us to divide up so we weren't waiting all the time.

Transport

Very good - comfortable and good driver - plenty of space with 6 of us in the van

Trekking Torres del Paine Active

Chile

Excellent trip. We were on a tour run by W-Circuit. Bus driver was speedy but safe We were picked up at 6:30 am and the bus was comfortable. Trekking poles were provided which helped a lot (we had never used before). The first trip we went on 3 roughly 2 hour hikes to the cave paintings, the waterfalls near Las Cuernas, and the Mirador Condor. We hike a lot and enjoyed these. Great start to our stay in Puerto Natales. These hikes were moderate but challenging in terms of vertical gain and strong winds (at one point we were bent over nearly double at the Condor hike!). Our guide Alex was knowledgeable and funny and very good pointing out plants and animals. A herd of guanacos came out right by us and we all got stellar pics. Beautiful intro to the park which truly has stunning scenery at every turn.

Quality of Experience

Food

Box lunches ordered in advance - noting terribly exciting - sandwiches, fruit, juice nuts and bars.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Alex was knowledgeable and funny - excellent English

Transport

Comfortable for ride to and from park.

Kayaking on Reloncaví Fjord

Puerto Varas

Fantastic fjord kayaking trip Our travel agent arranged a full day kayak trip on the Reloncavi Fjord from Puerto Varas Our guide, Paz was outstanding. She has a passion for the region and outdoor education and knew a ton about plant and animal life. Her English was very good and she just radiated positive energy and enthusiasm. The truck was comfortable for the ride (1.5? Hours) and we wore full wetsuits and this was our first time in a double kayak with a rudder. The fjord and surrounding towns were lovely. We had perfect weather for pics, saw seals and birds and turquoise water. One of the highlights was our guide Paz who was very passionate about the area, the people and the natural surroundings. Highly recommend. We had lunch at a Chilean family’s home and got to tour their small farm. Really fresh food (lamb stew, greens and bread) before continuing our trip. This was a friend of Paz and seeing the relationships between Paz and the people whose home we visited and ate in was lovely! A bonus was our driver then took us up the Osorno volcano as the previous days had heavy rain so we couldn’t see anything. What a truly gorgeous location!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Paz (and our driver) were outstanding!

Transport

Trekking in Alerce Andino National Park

Puerto Varas

Adaptable and energetic guide for hiking Great guide from La Comarca who was able to adapt to multiple changes to planned hiking and biking trips. Juan Manuel picked us up and took us to a great breakfast place after our early morning flight from Santiago. It was pouring when we arrived and the road to the Alerce Andino national park where we were going to hike was blocked by mudslides from the rain. We went to plan b which was hiking near the Petrohue cascades (good to see) and then plan c which was going up the Mount Osorno Volcano where we had our lunch. We were at the TeSki chalet. Great food and snacks. Juan Manuel is extremely knowledgeable and fun to talk with. Highly recommend for adaptability, tremendous local knowledge and great personality. We were disappointed that due to weather and a sprained ankle we couldn’t do a planned bike tour with him.

Quality of Experience

Different than planned but Juan Miguel was amazing!

Food

Stopped at a great local cafe for breakfast and had super sandwiches, hot chocolate for lunch when we stopped at TeSki!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

36 days in Chile was wonderful and as all human endeavors, one cannot anticipate and plan out everything detail without having some surprising like adverse weather along the road. Our kimkim people were always available to answer our questions and as weather and road conditions required, we had very fast help to adjust our itinerary to continue onward safely for our fun filled adventures. Thank you Marcella and all of our local guides and drivers for you customer service focused approach to our travelling needs.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Bellavista

Puerto Varas

Nice facility in a picture-perfect location, but cold water in a shower without doors to hold the water back was not fun at the end of a long day.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hot water showers

El Refugio - La Casa de Don Tomas

San Pedro de Atacama

Loved the hotel between our adventures. Great food and all of the staff were fun and helpful.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Santiago Cooking Class

Santiago

Best way to end and savior our 36 day adventure end.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Torres del Paine National Park - Lago Grey

Chile

Loved it

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Penguin Colony on Magdalena Island

Chile

YES do it again

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Excursion to Chiloé Island: Castro & Dalcahue

Puerto Varas

Long all day trip with not much to do, a day off would of given more energy fro the next leg

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

San Rafael National Park & Glacier Boat Trip

Chile

Yes it was a top adventure

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Hike in Devil's Throat

San Pedro de Atacama

Red rock hike was great and the guide was a world of info

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Hike to the Summit of Toco Mount

San Pedro de Atacama

Wow, Gudelia took control and got us to the top. So glad wd made it for the pics

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Valley of the Moon Tour

San Pedro de Atacama

Quick action from local agents saved our trip from an accidental mistake…….turne doubt to just add to the fun

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Trip to Socorama with Overnight in Putre

Chile

Guide and driver helped us soooooooo much and we has a great adventure

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Santiago City Tour - Private

Chile

Guide and driver were wonderful and fun

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I was concerned about investing in the Kimkim service. It was perfect for us. The planning and execution were exactly what we needed.

We had great time in Patagonia, enjoying the beautiful landscapes and nationsl parks and the good logistic of the trip thanks to Marcela . Absolutely stunning and the highlight in the trip was the Mini trekking in Perito Moreno. Brilliant recommendation for a hotel was Arakur in Ushuaia, Rest of the hotels / Xelena in El Calafate and Hotel Lago Grey in Torres del Paine/ were middle range hotels although I can not hide the magnificent view to Grey Glacier from the restaurant of the hotel, but not from the rooms. Our first trip with Kim Kim was to Colombia where we experienced exclusive service and guides from Aracanto agency there. We expected similar with the budget we spent here but maybe there are different standards between the countries. Anyway I would recommend Patagonia to everyone who enjoys outdoor and sceneries that you could see on very few places on the Earth.

Had a really great time on my trip to Patagonia! In particular, I enjoyed my time in Puerto Natales, Torres del Paine National Park, El Chalten, and Tierra del Fuego National Park. It was also a lot of fun to see some huge glaciers and beautiful wildlife (especially penguins in Beagle Channel). My hike to Cuernos del Paine with Daniel and Sebastian as guides was amazing, as was my kayaking experience with Jorge in Eberhard Fjord. Weskar Lodge in Puerto Natales and Los Acebos Hotel in Ushuaia were amazing places to stay, in particular. Overall I think the trip was quite expensive, and would have been a lot cheaper if I had taken care of the arrangements on my own - I would've appreciated more transparency into what items in particular were driving the price of the experiences and had more of this in my past Kimkim trips. That being said, I really appreciated very much having the help from Marcela and Kimkim overall in arranging things so I didn't have to think about logistics. Would highly recommend Patagonia to anyone who enjoys outdoor trekking and adventures, one of my favorite trips.

Activity Reviews

Outdoor Adventures in El Chalten

El Chaltén

El Chalten was perhaps my favorite location on the entire trip - doing the hikes solo of Laguna Torre and Laguna de los Tres was amazing.

Quality of Experience

Perito Moreno Glacier Mini-trekking

El Calafate

Hiking on the glaciers was surreal - really wonderful.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Trekking Torres del Paine Active

Patagonia

Had a really fantastic experience with Daniel and Sebastian, being taken around Torres del Paine national park, with the Cuernos del Paine hike in particular

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Base Torres Hike

Patagonia

Amazing hike. Very intense, over a period of 10 hours with lots of ups and downs and temperature changes, but really lovely.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Kayaking in Eberhard Fjord

Puerto Natales

Fantastic experience with Jorge. He's a great guide, and the private kayaking tour and hike were amazing.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff