Chile: Patagonia and Atacama

Patagonia was our first trip together, had been dreaming of a return for ages. We knew we had to head to Torres del Paine this time, the rest of the trip came together afterwards. Considering the climbing is way above our grade, and the weather unpredictable, we felt shoulder season, in November would be best time to go. Fall in Patagonia is also a great option in retrospect. Fall colours and more manageable golden hours for photography. We arrived in Santiago after a red eye. Decided to spend the morning walking around barrio Italia. Pleasant enough neighborhood but probably should have gone to park or museum. Low key dinner at hotel for very early flight south to Puerto Natalas. Beautiful day on arrival, we were tempted to head straight to las Torres hike but by the time we got rental car and snacks from grocery store sorted wasn't enough time (due to their closing of the trails in early afternoon). Instead we had a warm up hike on mirador cuernos and drove around the park a bit. Our accommodation for the next 5 nights was Konkashken lodge. Very friendly place, with helpful host, family style meals that were pretty good, warm fire in our cabin and a comfortable bed. It's just outside the park, about 25 minute drive from the good parts (lake pehoe). There was a nice viewpoint nearby for sunrise photos. Otherwise a bit of an early morning driving into park for sunrise photos and back for breakfast, clouds prevented me from trying a few times. Know that your probably giving up a few photo opportunities vs staying at say hosteria pehoe, but we had no regrets overall. For those staying connected, we had cell phone receoption the whole time at Konkashken. The good weather held for day two and we headed to Las Torres. We started the hike around 8am, not exactly an alpine start but early enough to beat the tour groups. There is an open section, followed by some time through the trees, then moraine and finally the towers. The hike is really about the end beneath the towers of course, which is spectacular. Cannot imagine how pounded by the wind some of the routes up the towers must be. There was only about a dozen folks up there with us, less crowded than expected. Although descending the moraine we frequently had to wait for groups to pass.  

We could have easily completed the hike prior to sundown the day before, but it seems they close trails with a very board safety margin, I guess there are a lot of visitors, not all of them fit, and limited SAR resources so I can understand, but still disappointing. Expect to be frustrated if you are a fit hiker. Most of the trail descriptions are geared towards beginner hikers. Folks doing a W trip over 5 days with huge packs. It's really 3 days of moderate hiking. Either use your own ultra light gear, or rent tents/bags at the sites, nothing else makes much sense, there is no reason to have a full 75L pack on this trek. One of the reasons we were not interested in O circuit is the minimum timing they require. The quesadilla we had at refugio on the way down was easily the worst we've ever had. The vibes at the W trail head were basically hostel style experience, in a nice setting. Did not at all feel like a backpacking or wilderness experience. Thank goodness we had the sense not to thru hike the W. 

The next day we decided not to commit to French valley as weather looked better the following day. Instead we did the beach hike on Lago grey, followed by the ferrier lookout as the weather ended up clearing. The latter was quite worthwhile. My photos don't do justice to the broad view from this angle overlooking the glaciers, lakes, and vast planes around the range. Also there were few other parties on this hike . Sign posted distances are off. On the way back we did a quick jaunt up mirador condor, beautiful views here as well and the light was improving. This series of day hikes, none crowded, with beautiful views was our favorite day. While the views of the towers are impressive, the perspective from the day hikes was more enjoyable. If we had camped or stayed at pehoe likely would have done mirador condor every morning/evening it was that worthwhile. 

Next morning was our trip into French valley. We got to caterman 45 mins in advance, was a pretty ride over to paine grande. The hike along the lake is unimpressive , gets interesting for the last 3km (again distance and elevation on signs wrong) . Here you are ascending up the forested valley along a glacial stream, with great views poking out towards the glaciers. At the final viewpoint there are remarkable views along the valley. We had a high ceiling of clouds just above the glaciers, so decided not to go on to mirador Britanico. Probably should have as ended up waiting a couple hours back at paine grande. We got quite used to the instant noodles vegetable soup, no longer trusting the refugio cooked meals after our quesidella experience. The nuisance of waiting around for caterman shouldn't be underestimated if you have low tolerance for these sorts if things -- as we do. The caterman returning was full (likely over capacity), theres no safety briefing and its standing room only. If doing glacier grey hike as well (the other prong of the W), could consider staying one night at paine grande instead of taking caterman twice, but then of course you have committed yourself to a schedule, which isn't ideal.

After this day our obvious solution was not to do glacier grey portion. The following day brought poor weather. I had awoken early to see if would be interesting sunrise but promptly went back to bed. Aided by reassurances from our host that he had gas, we decided to drive around looking for pumas. We saw many guanacos, but no pumas. We did find the guanacos cute and enjoyed watching them indeed they are more unique for us as pumas are around our province. Apparently the east side of the park is best for this, but it's a game of luck regardless. It sounds like if you enter the tracking programs on private land you have good chance if spotting them. Unfortunately they were booked out on our dates. We were offered a guide only (no access to private grounds) tour for $900 usd, this is still heavily luck based without trackers, so we declined.

Indeed costs in Torres del paine for activities and accommodation are stratospheric. We had initially considered luxury options, but frankly they seemed like a terrible value proposition. You are there to hike, not spending much time in the hotel. The group hiking activities at tierra + explora are a terrible idea for fit experienced hikers which was the final straw for any consideration of these properties. The location of awasi is not ideal (explora is to be fair). It's a long drive just to get into the east side of the park, let alone the heart of it. At least they offer a fully private experience, would have considered it for two nights but minimum stay was 3. Instead had two nights booked at singular in Puerto natalas. To get there from serrano we drove thru the park again the long way, looking for wildlife en route. Weather was too cloudy to have any views hiking. We did some souvenir shopping (better here than atacama) and hung out in the spa awaiting our room. They have a nice sauna/steam room great for r&r, they also structure bookings so that you don't have to pay for excursions if not interested and no minimum stay. Whomever designed the repurposed cold storage facility did a fabulous job. The restaurant was reasonably good, with a warm fireplace. We did end up doing an excursion with them, sierra baguales, instead of revisiting the park. It was a fun snowy day, and got a more off the beaten path patagonia vibe that I recalled from our time in Argentina. It's a hard zone to visit without a guide as have to get thu locked gates.  

We had already visited El chalten and perito Moreno in the past. Otherwise would definitely suggest seeing both sides on your trip down here. The views of cuernos and lake pehoe are slightly more impressive than fitz-roy massive , but the overall experience on the Argentina side is probably superior.  

We flew up to Calama where we picked up a rental car and headed to San pedro de atacama. We stayed in hotel desertica, a cute little hotel in town with some distinctive local decor. Again passing on the group activities at explora and tierra. Not sure how the luxury market has evolved to these in Chile. Awasi again has the private option. However their hard product looked nearly identical to our hotel so we passed . In retrospect, if you want a completely care free experience I can see chosing this option. The bureaucracy involved in visiting the parks/sites is mind blowing. Buy online, vs in person, opening hours, checking in en route, conflicting instructions on pathways, arbitrary closed areas, good luck, I won't offer any advise beyond that as it will likely be out of date by tomorrow. But if you are prepared to be patient it's manageable. We like to have a sense of exploration at times just the two of us roaming around, which can be fun and rewarding just as much as fully catered experience so overall enjoyed our self drive choice, saving enough to do another trip helps too.  

In terms of what we visited, day 1 was valley of the moon. The long route on the first stop (dunes) was really nice. Rest of the park was less impressive. We headed back to the lookout that evening for sunset, but they closed it due to winds (which were not that bad) . So instead went to the free viewpoint a couple minutes away.

Following day we visited laguna chaxa, unfortunately the government issued cheat sheet with opening times was wrong, they opened at 8am not 7am. Sadly missed the best photography light, when we did get in they suggested that we do this long walk around the flats, we declined to get straight to the better light for flamingo photos. We headed back to our hotel for breakfast. In the afternoon we took a drive on highway 27 up into the altiplano plateau. The scenery on this drive was really impressive. Lots of wildlife too. You definitely have to be careful with the altitude on this one. That evening we walked around town, unfortunately its not very nice, nor was the recommended local restaurant. Overnight we did some stargazing and took a few photos. Hotel recommend we go back to the sunset viewpoint, it was probably a bit too close to town. If your not a serious star tracking astro shooter I'm not sure it lives up to the hype as a must do.

The next day we visited the red rocks and lakes south. More impressive landscapes. The bright blue skies, turquoise lakes and white salt flats make it look like a living watercolor. On our way back to calama airport we did a quick hike just north of guatin, nice valley with cacti, then stopped in at rainbow valley again great colors. We had one last night in Santiago ( which we should have just stayed at the airport for) before departing home.   

While overall ot was overall a great experience, We definitely had mixed feelings on this trip to Chile. Two very beautiful landscapes that we really wanted to see. Crowds never felt overwhelming, we maintained a reasonable budget, skipped the group activities everywhere and dodged a couple money pits on the luxury side. On the other hand, the general level of service isn't high, the bureaucracy and overall experience for tourists could be vastly improved. For those of us who don't pick up languages easily it's a bit surprising to see how limited the English was at touristy locations. In must be said as well that Chile is not a food destination by any stretch of the imagination. Now that we've seen the highlights, if we returned to Chile would definitely be looking at using a destination expert and getting some more curated experiences off the beaten path (elsewhere in Patagonia or tierra del fuego perhaps) .