Enchanting Chile with Desert and Patagonia
Chile
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Oct 3 - Oct 13, 2023
This was one of our life time trips. Overall this trip was wonderful. Local specialist Angel put together a very good trip plan for us. He listened well to my wants and expectations as he designed the trip and made changes to the plan as I communicated with him during the planning process. During the trip, he was always there and ready to jump in to facilitate any last minute situation. We speak zero Spanish. Communications had created glitches through out the trip. As much as we tried to use Google Translate, sometimes it was just hard to get our points across through an App. Angel would always come online through WhatsApp to talk to people on our behalf when we needed it.
In the middle of the our trip we had planned a free day in Santiago, and it was a Sunday. I wanted to visit the top of San Cristobal to get a view of the city and snow-capped mountains. Because it was a free day, we were supposed to handle the day on our own. Not until we got to the Pin No No entry of the park did we find out the top was closed that day for a certain event, and the cable cars were not running. We struggled to communicate with the park staff who was trying to tell us what was going on. So we called on Angel and he came to our rescue. In a few minutes of time he came up with a different way for us to access the hill from a different entry, which was open for walking. As it turned out, we were able to get very good views of the city skyline as well as the mountains in the background.
This trip would not have been as smooth and successful without Angle.
Hotel Reviews
We showered in lukewarm water during our stay.
Activity Reviews
This was an OK tour in and of itself, not as impressive as it was marketed. But the guide and the driver were very nice. For us, what made this trip good were the tourists who did it with us.
The sunset was the best part of this tour. The lunch was very good. The guide could be a little friendlier.
These lovely birds were worth it!
I really appreciated the way our guide always repeat her presentation for us in English. We were the only two members of the tour who didn't understand Spanish. So she had to rerun all her presentations for the two of us. The photographer was professional and nice. We loved the chilean red wine served at this tour. It was our best red wine experience in Chile. In my mind what can be improved of this trip was the location of the showing. It was too close to the town San Pedro and the town's light had some negative impact on the view of the Atacama starry night sky.
This was one of our lifetime trekking experience which will stay with us in our memories. It might be a bit too challenging for us (10 hours of almost nonstop trekking and a good part of it involved steep ascending). My husband and I are in our high fifties. We were the oldest of the five members of our team. From the start the younger part of our team had to frequently stop to let us catchup. At one point we almost decided to turn back. We had to let the younger members move on without us. We eventually finished the hike, albeit at a much slower pace than our younger team members. I think one thing that could make our experience better is if we were grouped with hikers that were closer to our age. It would definitely take some stress off of us trying to keep up, and it would improve the younger members' experience too. It would make the guide's job a bit easier too, as he tried to get the team to stay together. We only got to spend 10 minutes at the base of the towers to snap some quick picture, because our guide was so concerned that we couldn't get back to the bus by 6pm. But it was one heck of hike! We were glad we did it.
Torres del Paine is amazing. We were vowed again and again. This was definitely the highlight of our trip.
Amazing scenery. The highlight of this tour was the lunch serving BBQ lamb and Chilean red wine.
It was a pleasure to have you in Chile Fan!
Thanks for your kind words I'm happy to hear this was an unforgettable experience
I'm sure I will see you again back in South America! Keep traveling amigos!!