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Argentina

Best of Patagonia / Hiking the Patagonia Classics / More Patagonia Treks / Hidden Argentina
Buenos Aires / More Patagonia / Iguazu Falls / Lake District / Salta / Mendoza / Ibera / Valdes Peninsula
Antarctic Cruises / Expedition Cruises / Best of Northwest / Mountain Bike Tours / Winter Trips

Route 40 + Glaciares + Paine Adventure
16 days – 15 nights (Moderate trek)

Departures: Guaranteed all Wednesdays
Season: October to April
Starts at: Comodoro Rivadavia Airport
Ends at: El Calafate Airport

The Route 40 + Glaciares + Paine Adventure Tour allows us to travel the legendary Route 40, with its long rubble roads crossing the Patagonia steppe and continue visiting the most beautiful National Parks. We travel Los Glaciares National Park and navigate in front of the Perito Moreno Glacier, and we continue to Torres del Paine. You get the most from Patagonia, while traveling in a group where you will make new friends.

Day 1 Comodoro Rivadavia – Los Antiguos
Our trip begins 2 pm at the restaurant of Comodoro Rivadavia airport, which will be our meeting point. We travel southbound along the Atlantic coast skirting the Gulf San Jorge for 70 km to enter Caleta Olivia, main oil producing city in Patagonia. From here we turn west to leave the Atlantic behind and start our approach to the Andes. After 350 km (paved road) we reach Los Antiguos, on the shores of Lago Buenos Aires, the second largest lake in America after Titicaca. We are 2 km away from the Chilean border.
Lodging at Hosteria or Inn, double room with private bathroom.
Alternative: Single room with private bathroom.
Meals we provide: Dinner

Day 2 Los Antiguos – Lago Posadas
From Los Antiguos (famous for its cherry production) we travel south along route 40 to get to the Pinturas River Canyon and visit the “Cueva de las Manos” (Cave of the Hands, literally), ancient paintings 10,000 years old. We travel then west to Lago Posadas, small and picturesque town and gateway to Lakes Posadas and Pueyrredón on the argentinean side. We drive this day approximately 360 km, 60 of them paved.
Lodging at Hosteria or Inn, double room with private bathroom.
Alternative: Single room with private bathroom.
Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner

Day 3 River Oro Canyon – Lake Pueyrredón
Lakes Posadas (blue) and Pueyrredón (green), separated by a narrow stripe of land, are probably two of the most beautiful lakes of southern Patagonia. They lay in a large glacier valley, separating the Highlands of Lake Buenos Aires from Cerro San Lorenzo massif. We use this day to visit this beautiful valley and the surroundings of both lakes. We’ll see strange and colourful rock formations, wetlands and birds. We also visit the River Oro Canyon, which comes from Cerro San Lorenzo to Lake Pueyrredón.
Lodging at Hosteria or Inn, double room with private bathroom.
Alternative: Single room with private bathroom.
Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner.

Day 4 Lago Posadas – El Chalten
Alter breakfast we get on the bus for the final sprint to El Chalten, 550 km south. On our way, different birds and flowers will give life to the desert-type landscape. We have lunch in a Patagonian style stop-over place. The final 100 km westbound features lake and glacier Viedma and the spires of Fitz Roy massif and Cerro Torre group. Arrival to Chalten is scheduled around 7 pm.
Lodging in a Hostel room with shared bathroom.
Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single room with private bathroom.
Meals we provide: Breakfast and dinner.

Day 5 Laguna Capri
We start our 4 days trek from El Chaltén, by noon, in order to join our fellow travellers arriving from Calafate this morning. We carry in our packs only the necessary items for this 3 nights and 4 days in which we’ll overnight in our Full Camps inside the National Park.
We hike up a gentle slope on Fitz Roy trail to gain height over the River de las Vueltas valley up to the first viewpoints over Fitz Roy massif. Our hike to Laguna Capri will take us no more than 2 hours and a half, in a clear and easy trail. Once on our Laguna Capri Full Camp, we leave our stuff in our tent and we enjoy an afternoon walk to the sightseeing points around the lagoon.
Full Camps are pitched up early in the season, so we find the camp ready upon arrival. It offers comfortable 3 people igloo type tents for each 2 passengers, with mattresses and sleeping bags. An inside cotton sheet is provided as inner clothing for the sleeping bag. The camp also features a spacious dinning tent, a kitchen tent, tables, benches or chairs and a full set of table service and kitchenware. The sanitary services are latrine-type.
Lodging at Laguna Capri Full Camp in double or single tent (rural area)
Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner.

Day 6 Cerro Fitz Roy, Laguna de los Tres
Early in the morning, before the first coffee, we can try to match up the morning Light getting pink in Fitz Roy granite walls. You only need this to feel the trip is worthwhile. But of course the day offers much more.
After breakfast, carrying only day personal items such as our parka, gloves, our camera, water bottle and box lunch, we hike along Fitz Roy trail up to Rio Blanco, climbers basecamp to the east side of the mountain. From here a steep 1 h trail leads us to one of the most spectaculars viewpoints of the National Park: Laguna de los Tres, with its zephyr blue colour, lays at the foot of the massif, offering full close up views of Fitz Roy massif spires and glaciers. Each wall rises something from 600 to 1500 mts above the surrounding glaciers. Fitz Roy, with its 3405 mts above sea level, is considered the “King of Patagonia” and also considered one of the three most beautiful mountains on Earth (together with Alpamayo in Perú and K2 in the Karakoram). We hike back to Laguna Capri in the late afternoon. Walking time is 5 to 6 hs.
Lodging at Laguna Capri Full Camp in double or single tent (rural area)
Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner.

Day 7 Cerro Torre
Today we make it around Laguna Capri to get to the Lagoons Madre and Hija Valley and down to Fitz Roy river valley, where we meet Cerro Torre trail and we get to Cerro Torre Full Camp. The trail runs along beech forest, bogs and shrubland. From the camp, a short hike takes us to Laguna Torre, enclosed by morraines and with the Glacier Grande calving in its west side. It is usual to see icebergs pushed by the wind in the coast of the lagoon. The thin and elegant 3128 mts of Cerro Torre group and the Adela range in the background complete this spectacular view. Walking time 3 to 4 hs.
Lodging at Cerro Torre Full Camp in double or single tent (rural area)
Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner.

Day 8 Lagoon & Glacier Torre – El Chalten
In the morning we visit Laguna Torre again to reach the old Maestri basecamp, located in a high site up along the north morraine of the lagoon. For keen hikers, we offer an optional excursion, the so called “Holiday on Ice”: early start, crampons and harnesses, a tyrolean (horizontal fixed rope attached to both sides of a river) to cross Fitz Roy river, and we visit Glacier Grande, where we will visit crevices, ice caves and we’ll practice ice climbing with the proper advice of experienced mountain guides.
Late in the afternoon we walk back to Chaltén along Fitz Roy river valley. Total estimated time of the standard day: 4 to 5 hs. If you go on the “Holiday on Ice”, it is 7 hs plus the trail back to Chalten which is 2 and a half hours more.
Lodging in a Hostel room with shared bathroom.
Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single room with private bathroom.
Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch and dinner.
Optional excursion: Holiday On Ice

Day 9 El Chalten – El Calafate
Morning at your own to visit the picturesque village or to make optional excursions such as Lago del Desierto (in spite of its name, its a beautiful, beech forest surrounded lake, with hanging glaciers in its west side), or to see very interesting information at the National Park Visitor Centre.
By 5 pm we take our bus to our next destination, El Calafate, gateway for the glaciers area of the Park. Arrival time is scheduled for 9 pm. Driving distance: 220 km
Lodging in a Hostel room with shared bathroom.
Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single room with private bathroom.
Meals we provide: Breakfast.

Day 10 El Calafate – Perito Moreno Glacier
We dedicate this day to one of the World’s Natural Wonder: the Moreno glacier. This ice field- type glacier flows down from the Patagonian Icefield, a big sheet of ice that with its 22.000 square kilometres is the third largest glacier area in the world, after Antarctica (14 M sq km) and Greenland (1 M sq km). Because unusual favourable local conditions, this glacier is the only one in the world that shows a closure and rupture process. The road leads to the very front of the glacier, which will be only meters away from your eyes. A beautiful, short trail, will lead us from the shores of the lake to the upper viewpoints. The roar of the chunks of ice falling inside the glacier or from the glacier into the lake, the frequent collapse of the front seracs into the turquoise water, makes out of this day a very special and unique experience. We will drive 80 km (1 and a half hour) to get and come back from the glacier across the steppe, watching a wide variety of birds.
Lodging in a Hostel room with shared bathroom.
Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single room with private bathroom.
Meals we provide: Breakfast.

Day 11 El Calafate – Torres del Paine National Park
Early start for a 6 hs drive to our camp in Paine. We drive across the steppe, still following by parts the legendary route 40, to get around Sierra de los Baguales, an impressive range in between Calafate and Paine. We cross the Argentinean Chilean border at Cancha Carrera/ Cerro Castillo. After the border crossing, we start our final sprint to Paine National Park, World Heritage by the UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization). Approaching the Park, we start to see the different mountains that feature the area: Paine Grande, the Horns, Admiral Nieto and the Towers. We enter the Park by Porteria Sarmiento. A rich wildlife: guanacos, lesser rheas, condors and all types of wetland and buzzard birds, will be available for our eyes and cameras. We’ll stop in the Lake Nordenskjöld and in Salto Grande viewpoints for short walks. In the afternoon we continue to visit the westernmost side of the National Park, lake Grey area, where a short and easy hike along the south shore of the lake allow us to enjoy the blue icebergs that calving from the glacier in the northern side of the lake are pushed by the wind to this side.
Lake Pehoe Full Camp keeps the style of Laguna Capri and Cerro Torre Full Camps, but combined with the first class facilities provided by the campsite: good and clean bathrooms and hot water showers, water and electricity in each camping site.
Lodging at Camping Pehoe Full Camp in double or single tent (area with sanitary services)
Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner.

Day 12 Paine Towers – Ascensio River Valley
We drive an tour to get to Estancia Cerro Paine, headtrail for the world famous Paine towers. We “warm up” hiking a steep one hour slope, to get inside the Ascensio river valley, a narrow “V” shape alpine valley coming from inside the Paine massif. A gentle downhill leads us to Refugio Chileno, a cozy and comfortable mountain lodge, which can be a good turnaround point for those not willing to make a full day hike. We then walk in a gentle slope along the river side and inside beech forest. A final climb on moraine take us to the Towers viewpoint: a glacier origin lagoon and the three towers rising vertically 1000 mts from the glacier. The lack of breath will be either because the climb and the sight!!!! We go back to our camp on the same way we came. Walking time: 7 to 8 hs.
Lodging at Camping Pehoe Full Camp in double or single tent (area with sanitary services)
Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner.

Day 13 Lake Pehoe crossing – French Valley
Early in the morning a short drive takes us to Port Pudeto to board the catamarán that cross lake Pehoe twice a day. We carry only the necessary stuff to be 2 days and 1 night away from our Camping Pehoe Full Camp, where the rest of our luggage will stay. One in the far side of the lake, we leave unnecessary items in our tents and we set out to the French Valley trail. The trail skirts Paine Grande south slopes and lake Skottberg, to take us after 2 hs and a half of continuous ups and downs, to the hanging bridge upon the French River. This breathtaking location is at the foot of both the 2700 mts south east face of Paine Grande (to the west) and the Horns, with its characteristic black sedimentary topping, to the east. Keen hikers can go on and reach the upper viewpoints of the valley, from where you see the whole group of spires that feature the high valley: Hoja (Blade), Máscara (Mask), Espada (Sword), Catedral (Cathedral), Aleta de Tiburón (Shark Fin) and the magnificent Fortaleza (The Fortress).
Walking time for those who reach the upper viewpoints: 8 to 9 hs. For those reaching the lower viewpoints: 5 to 6.
We retrace our steps back to Refugio Pehoe Full Camp.
Lodging at Refugio Pehoe Full Camp in double or single tent (area with sanitary services)
Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner.

Day 14 Lake & Glaciar Grey viewpoints
Lake Grey trail leads from Pehoe Valley across ridges to reach Grey valley. This magnificent valley flows down somewhat of 60 km from the Patagonian Icefield, featuring the huge glacier calving down in the grey colour lake. Our trail skirts the lake, going up and down the westerns slopes of Paine Grande, offering some of the most impressive sights of the Park. From the high sections of the trail, many different viewpoints allow us to see the south end of the lake where the blue icebergs gather, the mountains rising far in the distance above glaciers Grey and Tyndall, and of course lake and glacier Grey. The trail reaches a close up point to the front of the glacier. We come back along the same trail, crossing bogs, shrublands and forest. In the evening we take the boat to cross lake Pehoe back to Pudeto and get back to our Camping Pehoe Full Camp.
Time to walk 8 hs. To the half way viewpoints, round way from our camp, 4 to 5 hs.
Lodging at Camping Pehoe Full Camp in double or single tent (area with sanitary services)
Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner.

Day 15 Torres del Paine – El Calafate
We leave early in the morning our camp, as our fellow travellers are going south in a long drive today and we are getting back to the border to reenter Argentina and drive back to El Calafate. Upon arrival to El Calafate you will be met by our local representative and transferred to you hostel. The rest of the day is at your own to visit town.
Lodging in a Hostel room with shared bathroom.
Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single room with private bathroom.
Meals we provide: Breakfast.

Day 16 El Calafate - Aeropuerto El Calafate
Alter breakfast we transfer to El Calafate airport where our services ends.
Meals we provide: Breakfast.

Included Services

* Bilingual Spanish-English guides during all the program’s activities.
* Mountain Guides during the trekking activities.
* Transfer Comodoro Rivadavia Airport – El Chalten with private transportation.
* Transfer El Chalten – El Calafate – Torres del Paine – Puerto Natales – El Calafate –El Calafate Airport.
* Perito Moreno Glacier Excursion including Navigation.
* Pehoe Lake Navigation.
* 15 breakfasts, 10 lunch boxes and 12 dinners, as detailed in the chart below.
* ACCOMMODATIONS -
3 nights Hosteria double room with private bathroom, 4 nights Hostel room with shared bathroom, 8 nights camping or
7 nights Hosteria double room with private bathroom, 8 nights camping

Services Not Included

* Entrance ticket to Cueva de las Manos
* Entrance ticket to Los Glaciares National Park
* Entrance ticket to Torres del Paine National Park
* Medical and Life Insurance
* Tips
* Air flight tickets and Airport fees and taxes
* Optional Excursion Holiday On Ice
* Services not detailed in the program

Accommodations Description

Full Camp is a camp previously mounted with wide igloo type tents we use in double or single base. Inside it each passenger has high mountain sleeping bags, individual sheets and insulating mattresses. The Full Camp comes with dining room tents, table, benches and complete kitchen with a cook in charge. Sanitary services in Capri Lagoon are solved with chemical bathrooms and Camp Pehoe has bathroom facilities.

Mountain Refuge: It is used in Tierra del Fuego. It is very similar to a hostel, but the beds are "cuchetas" (two superimposed simple beds). They provide sheets but not towels. The refuge is a cabin immerse in the forest with the aspect of a children´ story house. Almost all travelers will love to stay there. The refuge has two plants, the superior plant is the bedroom, where 20 beds are located in a single room. The lower plant is a warm and cozy dining room. The heating is obtained through a firewood kitchen, which is lit almost the whole day and has always a recipient with hot water on it. Over the kitchen there is also a wooden grill that is used to dry the shoes after each walk. There are also two individual bathrooms with plenty of hot water. People can take a hot water shower once a day, and one person at a time. A generator provides the electric light, therefore lights at night are on until 12 PM.

Hostel Bed: It's a bed in a hostel room. It has rooms with individual beds. It has complete bathrooms with sanitariums to share (there are bathrooms for ladies and bathrooms for gentlemen). They provide sheets but not towels. They have facilities to heat water or to cook something if you want. The hostels meet the standards of all the Youth Hostels, which assures a level of hygiene and appropriate comfort corresponding to your demands.

Hostel Room Double Base: It's a room in a hostel we reserve for only two passengers. We use it in El Chaltén with shared bathroom and in El Calafate with private bathroom.

Inn: It's a room at Inn with private bathroom. It can be double or single base, depending your choice.

Details of Foods
During the periods that we lodge in camp the four foods are served in abundant form achieving a menu that contemplate the tastes of the passengers but also their energy necessities, based on fresh foods.
Breakfasts: We provide hot water and options to choose like tea, coffee and milk; accompanied by cookies, sweet, fruits and cereals.
Lunches: They consist on a main plate and dessert or a lunch box that is enjoyed in a panoramic point; always accompanied with juices. The lunch box is compound by a potent salad or a sandwich, accompanied by a fruit and a candy or chocolate.
Snacks:Infusions to election with cakes or cookies They are served when people return of the walks.
Dinners: It includes Entrance (salads or soups), Main Plate (pasta, rice with squids, meats, stews, etc.), and Desserts as Pears with chocolate, Fruits, Fondue, accompanied by juice, wine and later the coffee.
During the periods when passenger lodges at hostel or hotel the beverages are not included.

Group's Size
Usually our groups are between 8 to 14 people, with a maximum of 20.

Guides and Coordination
All groups have assistance from their arrival to El Calafate.
In Usuahia the Guide receives the groups at the Airport and it accompanies them during the whole program and back to the Airport.
All the groups will be guided by a professional Mountain Guide, who belongs to the Argentine Association of Mountain Guides and authorized by National Parks, in the journeys that requires it.

Activities
You will walk along a unique landscape, among lakes, mountains and glaciers, and the idea is to enjoy the journey, so there are no rush or hurries, no difficulties neither risky steps.
When trekking in the El Chalten zone, where people spend two nights in Full Camp in Capri Lagoon, each person will carry his/her light backpack, only with personal equipment necessary for those two nights. The rest of the luggage will be stored in individual bags in the place where lodging in El Chalten, where we return after those two nights.
We always walk slowly with some rests, enjoying the landscape and the environment while walking, with time to discover the flora and the fauna of the area.
Although it's a mount region, the average altitude of our trekking will be 450 meters, with a maximum possible altitude to reach of 1500 meters, which should not negatively affect reasonably fit hikers.

Security
The trip doesn't include medical assistance. The guides will carry a basic first-aid kit along the walks and VHF communication equipment for any emergency that could take place.

Transports
Transports will be done combining private and regular services.

2008-2009 Prices per person in US$:

Valdes Peninsula Extension

Can start on any day of the year - CA

Day 1 Trelew Airport – Puerto Madryn
We arrive to Trelew flying 1200 km/745 miles to the south from Buenos Aires. We transfer by Bus to Puerto Madryn, where we spent the day enjoying this historical town. Populated from 1886 as a railway junction, immigrant workers flooded in from Europe as the railway network expanded. Both Welsh and Italian language and traditions are still very strong here.
Lodge at Inn double base with private bathroom
Included meals: none.

Day 2 Puerto Madryn, Peninsula Valdes
After breakfast, you will be driven to Peninsula Valdes, a paradise for wildlife lovers with World Heritage status. We start our journey visiting the Interpretation Centre, located in the Florentino Ameghino Isthmus, from where we have a panoramic view of both gulfs, Nuevo and San Jose. We continue to Puerto Piramide, a village on the south side of the Peninsula. Here you may enjoy a whale watching boat expedition (optional) to observe the magnificent Southern Right Whales that remain in the area from June through December. We visit Caleta Valdes, a natural canal with great variety of marine and terrestrial wildlife; a sea lion colony, and the landscape at Punta Delgada lighthouse. We continue to the Salinas Chica and Grande, the biggest depressions in South America, and to Isla de los Pajaros (Birds’ Island) with their impressive birdlife variety.
We return around 6 pm to Puerto Madryn.
Lodge at Inn double base with private bathroom
Included meals: Breakfast, lunch.

Day 3 Punta Tombo Magellan Penguin Colony. Gaiman.
You will be driven to Punta Tombo, the biggest continental breeding ground of Magellan penguins. There, you will have the opportunity to walk along the park trails and see over 200 thousand live nests, and more than 600 thousand penguins. In the afternoon, you will visit Gaiman, a picturesque small town settled by Welsh immigrants in the 1870s, and that still maintains much of its original architecture. We may savor a delicious Welsh tea with pastries at one of the traditional teahouses of Gaiman (optional). In the evening you return to Puerto Madryn.
Lodge at Inn double base with private bathroom
Included meals: breakfast.

Day 4 Transfer to Puerto Madryn Bus Station or Trelew Airport
After breakfast we transfer you to the Bus Station, if you are going by bus from Puerto Madryn to Comodoro Rivadavia, where you meet at 2 pm the group to continue our adventure traveling the Route 40; or to Trelew Airport, if you are flying from Trelew Airport to El Calafate, where you meet at 7 pm the group to continue our adventure.
Included meals: breakfast.

2007 Price in US$ $456 per person double, $569 single

Included Services
Bilingual Spanish-English receptive services.
Bilingual Spanish-English guides during excursions
Transfer Trelew Airport – Puerto Madryn – (Puerto Madryn Bus Station or Trelew Airport)
The program includes 3 breakfast and one lunch.

Services Not Included
Bus transfer Puerto Madryn - Comodoro Rivadavia for start of 18 day tour
Air flight ticket Trelew to elsewhere if not doing other tour
Whale Watching Navigation at Peninsula Valdes
Welsh Tea at Gaiman
Medical and Life Insurance
Tips
Air flight tickets and Airport fees and taxes
Services not detailed in the program