The record of a journey through the rugged and endless wilderness of Chile and Argentina
“My adventure starts in Santiago de Chile, after a long 14-hour flight with Iberia from Madrid. A direct flight, short pain. Shortly after noon the last route to Calama in the Atacama Desert…”
Atacama
Atacama has his superlatives. It rains here for 15 minutes a year, during the day it is hot (35°- 40°), freezing cold at night (2 to 15 degrees below zero, depending on the season). During the trip to the geysers of Tolia – 7 km from the border with Bolivia – it was -15° at an altitude of 4,500 m after a drive of about 2 hours from San Pedro.
The landscape is worldly. A great panorama of volcanoes, oases, salt flats and of course the necessary special animals and birds. Vicunya at an altitude of more than 4,000 m, Andean gull, Andean and Chili flamingo, Horned coot etc. And even in this dry area a ramsar site, protected marshland.
A valley with cacti of 5 m high and in the background mountains and volcanoes of more than 6,000 m, a valley of dinosaurs and rock engravings of 5,000 years old of the Incas. Atacama is so dry. There are no trees, grass is only in some valleys, only gaucanos and thickets and water of the Andes. Fog here creates life formed by temperature inversion of the cold “Humboldt stream” that comes from Antarctica.
San Pedro de Atacama is a nice little town with a variety of hotels. Draws are highly recommended if you take into account the high altitude.
Patagonia
After the desert adventure, my journey continues in a southerly direction: Patagonia is my destination. Immense plains, pampas in Argentina, snow-capped peaks, Fireland and Cape Horn, mythical! (980 km from Antarctica.) Patagonia I have experienced before in all its glory. A rough area, small stocky people, hard workers but always friendly. Gauchos, millions of sheep and cows, crooked trees of the rough wind. And also flowers, many birds and the grandness of nature.
“Glaciers and wildlife”
A 4,200 km flight followed by a 300 km car ride take me to Puerto Natales. The scenery is insanely beautiful. Rough and ferocious. It is a virgin wilderness, hardly disturbed by human activity. My first destination in Patagonia is El Calafate, via Puerto Natales in Argentina, where I stay overnight and enjoy a delicious meal (centollo).
A five-hour drive takes me into the city known for Perito Morenogletsjer. A boat trip on Lago Argentinia introduces me to this huge ice mass 70 m away. It’s bad weather but the environment is magical. We maneuver skilfully between the ice floes. Wow… the effect of the glacier, frozen in the Andes.
Then with the guide to the vantage point. Beautifully landscaped hiking trails under the Lenga trees, beautiful! Miles long with different stops. The trees shoot in bud, spring is in the offing. And it gets even more beautiful…
The next stop is Usuhaia. The location on the banks of the Beagle Canal is divine. The view from the hotel is second to none. This should be experienced by any traveller! It is not the southernmost city in the world as is often claimed, which is Port William in Chile on the other side of the Beagle Canal. Ushuaia is a city from which you can do many excursions, boat trips and by train “fin del mundo”.
To discover this land, you have to go out on the water. I booked a cruise on the Stella Australis. I don’t like cruises but this is different. Between the islands of Vuurland, Magellan street, Beagle canal to Cape Horn. Expert guides and mates will guide you around in this avalanche of information – excursions in a tangle of fjords.
What an experience! I’m going through all the weather types. Sun, snow, storm, waves of 10m high. Penguins, whales, petrels, petrels. And of course history! Darwin, Dutch explorers, the many ships that have perished here… You can feel their presence. A church, the momument with the albatross and the South Pole at 980 km, rough sea, wind of 70 km/h. I’m a Cape Horn graduate from now on!
Torres del Paine
My next destination is Torres del Paine, via a drive through the pampas of Patagonia, Chile: from Punta Arenas via Puerto Natales to Torres del Paine. Sun, rain and snow alternate again. It’s a splendour of a drive to “fin del mundo” Torres del Paine past beautiful hotels in impressive scenery, rugged and deserted. Top five national park in the world, and rightly so.
Along the way again gaunacos, rhena and Andean fox. Cougar not yet seen but one of the guides in the lodges tells us that a cougar is spotted every week. Parks are better protected, animals no longer feel threatened.
It can really haunt here, today too. After lunch, the wind blows… The sound of the wind reminds me of my childhood, at my aunt’s on the farmland… Great. I love this, I enjoy every moment. It completes the image of Patagonia. You can not only feel it and see it, you can hear it. Torres del Paine is a mix of the Alps and Simien mountains in Ethiopia. THIS PLACE ROCKS! Breathtaking. Sensation everywhere. Hard to describe.
At my farewell to Torres Del Paine a herd of up to 500 guacanos and rhena’s on the way! I can’t see Cougar. My driver Willy hands me some great pictures. “A week ago I saw a cougar in this roadside place,” he says proudly.
Valparaiso
Last stop of my wonderful trip is the beautiful UNESCO-listed Valparaiso on the Pacific Ocean. A fantastic ending to a very adventurous trip! What an incredible adventure and what a change of culture, scenery etc. Tasting wine at a boutique winery in the Casablanca Valley and getting lost in the alleys of the old town…
Chili is not chilly! I love it.
