In our last post, we gave an overview of our Patagonia road trip in March – but it barely scratched the surface of the many fantastic sites, towns, and national parks we visited. This post is more of a love letter to Patagonia and a photo gallery of the places that moved us the most. And of course, we’ve thrown in a few tips for visitors.
LAND OF LAKES: Puerto Varas and Bariloche
Our road trip began in northern Patagonia at Puerto Varas, a scenic and charming town about a half-hour’s drive from bustling Puerto Montt. Perched on the southwest shore of Lake Llanquihue, Puerto Varas offers commanding views of two snow-capped but active volcanos: Osorno and Calbuco. Like many other towns in the area, Puerto Varas is known for its German traditions which date back to a big influx of German settlers in the mid-1800s. A scenic drive around the lake takes visitors through a couple of national parks and several other quaint towns, many of which feature the same traditional German-style architecture and a nice variety of restaurants.
Fun fact: Puerto Montt is named for Manuel Montt, a twice-elected president of Chile in the 19th century, and Puerto Varas honors Montt’s interior minister and most trusted adviser, Antonio Varas. The two were very close friends (some say more than friends), and many Chilean cities and towns have parallel streets named for them.
From Puerto Varas, we drove about five hours through the Andes and across the border into Argentina to reach Bariloche on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi. Nicknamed “Little Switzerland,” Bariloche has also been influenced by European settlement, especially in the 20th century. Today it’s a good-sized city of about 130,000 and is heavily touristed. We weren’t charmed by the town itself, but the surrounding scenery in Nahuel Huapi National Park was worth the drive.
CHURCHES AND CULTURE: The Islas Chiloé
We spent about a week exploring these colorful and culturally distinct islands, which seem a world away from mainland Chile. While we spent most of our time on the main island, Isla Chiloé, it was easy to hop over to some of the other islands on low-cost ferries that were basically extensions of the roadway.
The wooden churches of Chiloé are one of the island group’s biggest claims to fame. Many of them date back to the arrival of Jesuit missionaries in the 18th century, who worked together with the indigenous population to leverage local building materials and traditions. Most of the churches are built without metal nails and covered with distinctive wood shingles, reflecting centuries-old techniques borrowed from local shipbuilders. Representing a unique departure from classic Spanish colonial architecture, Chiloé’s churches are so special that 16 of them have been recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites.
BACK TO THE MAINLAND: Chaitén and Pumalin Douglas Tompkins National Park
After a strange overnight ferry ride from the Islas Chiloé (see our previous post for the full story!), we fetched up in the little town of Chaitén on the Chilean mainland. With spectacular views of the Chaitén and Corcovado volcanoes, Chaitén is known as the gateway to Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park. As such, it’s a prime destination for tourists and trekkers in central Patagonia.
The national park was created in 2018 through an extraordinary gift to Chile from philanthropists Douglas Tompkins, founder of the sportswear company The North Face, and his wife Kris, former CEO of the Patagonia sportswear empire. Through their foundation, the couple acquired property to create the world’s largest nature preserve. They then donated almost 725,000 acres to the Chilean government, which formed the nucleus of the present-day park. Tragically, Douglas died at 72 after a kayaking accident on Chile’s Lago General Carrera.
Parque Pumalín is a wonderland, with abundant hiking trails, campgrounds, and spectacular scenery both to the north and south of Chaitén. Although we spent a couple of days exploring both sides, we only scratched the surface of what this amazing park has to offer. It’s high on our list to go back, if we ever return to Patagonia.
SOUTH TO PUYUHUAPI: A Famous Hanging Glacier
From Chaitén, we headed south on the famous Carretera Austral to the small town of Puyuhuapi on the shores of a beautiful fjord of the same name. The drive down was one of the most scenic of our trip.
Puyuhaupi is a cute and scenic town that’s worth a stay for a couple of nights, especially if you’re looking to explore nearby Queulat National Park.
The main entrance to Quelat National Park is about a 45-minute drive south of Puyuhuapi. The name queulat comes from an indigenous word meaning “sound of waterfalls,” an apt description given the park’s many gorgeous waterfalls. The star attraction is the famous Queulat Ventisquero Colgante (Hanging Glacier), a high-country glacier that drains into the lake below via a spectacular cascade. It’s really easy to see the glacier; the highest and closest viewpoint is reached via a 3.2km hike. If you’re not up for that, you can take a short walk from the park entrance and board a boat that will take you across Lago Témpanos and right up to the foot of the glacier (about $16 US per person).
PUERTO RIO TRANQUILO: Spectacular Marble Caves
From Puyuhuapi, we continued our journey south to the town of Puerto Rio Tranquilo to see one of our most anticipated highlights: the Marble Caves of Lago General Carrera (yes, the same lake on which Douglas Tompkins sadly lost his life). Lago General Carrera is Chile’s largest lake, and it extends well over the border into Argentina (it’s known as Lago Buenos Aires on the other side). Puerto Rio Tranquilo is a cute little town on the shores of the lake that attracts hordes of visitors; as such, it’s chock full of hotels, inns, restaurants, and boat tour operators.
The Marble Caves are a group of fantastic natural caves carved into a solid marble peninsula that juts into the lake. On a sunny day when the light’s just right, the brilliant turquoise blue of the water reflects off the rock formations to yield an incredible palette of whites, greys, and yellows. One particular formation, the Marble Cathedral, is a large mushroom of rock that has become a symbol of the region.
TIPS: Timing is important to see the caves at their most spectacular and colorful, which is either early in the morning or late in the afternoon on a clear, sunny day (most of the boat operators offer tours at 9 a.m. or 4 p.m.) There are a host of boat operators to choose from and they all offer essentially the same tour, which costs about $30 US per person. Kayak tours are also available, enabling paddlers to venture even deeper into the caves.
ON TO ARGENTINA: El Chaltén
We continued on from Puerto Rio Tranquilo, driving many km along the shores of Lago General Carrera before overnighting in the little border town of Chile Chico. The lakeside scenery was spectacular!
The next day, we crossed into Argentina and began our journey down the lonely and sometimes desolate Route 40. After another overnight in the hamlet of Gobernador Gregores, we continued down and reached our next highly anticipated destination: the town of El Chaltén and its signature massifs, Mt. Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre in Los Glaciares National Park. Little did we know that we would never actually glimpse Cerro Torre, and we didn’t get a look at Fitz Roy until our final morning in El Chaltén. Such is the weather in Patagonia!
El Chaltén is a new town by Patagonia standards, established in 1985 as an outpost to combat potential Chilean encroachment on Argentinian territory (the border in that area is disputed to this day). In the meantime, the little town has become a premier trekking center, drawing hordes of backpackers and climbers from around the world. And you don’t have to be an ultra-trekker to enjoy the area’s beauty – there are scores of day hikes of varying difficulty whose trailheads are right in town.
We spent four days in El Chaltén, hoping for the sun to come out and burn off the low clouds. We were finally rewarded on our last morning, when we woke up to a sunny day and clear views of Fitz Roy, one of Argentine Patagonia’s most iconic mountains. We popped out of bed and drove to the scenic viewpoint a couple of kilometers out of town, and finally got our photos of this beauty!
Tip: As El Chaltén sits within the boundaries of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, all of the hiking trails require a park pass (price: around $35 US per person, per day). This can be purchased at the attractive visitor center just as you enter town.
EL CALAFATE: The Spectacular Perito Moreno Glacier
El Calafate, about a 2.5-hour drive south of El Chaltén, is a much larger town that attracts plenty of visitors in its own right. But the city’s main draw is the massive Perito Moreno Glacier, the crown jewel of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares.
Spanning about 250 square km, this monumental ice river flows 30 km before reaching Lake Argentina. It’s part of the Southern Patagonia Ice Field, the largest outside the polar ice caps and the third largest reserve of fresh water on the planet. Until recently, Perito Moreno was one of the few glaciers in the world that wasn’t actively retreating; however, thanks to climate change, that’s no longer the case. The national park has done a great job of making Perito Moreno accessible to visitors, with an extensive boardwalk that offers just about every viewpoint of this amazing sight.
Group tours are not usually our thing. But, to be honest, we needed a break from driving – and since the Perito Moreno visitor center and boardwalk are about 80 km from El Calafate, we decided to let someone else take us there. We signed on to a tour offered by Hielo y Aventura, which included the bus ride, ample time to explore the boardwalk, and a ferry ride across Lake Argentina to do a mini-trek across part of the ice field. It was a day-long experience that was well worth the $120 US per person.
Here’s a WOW moment from the tour, when a huge iceberg suddenly decided to upend itself. Spectacular!
BACK TO CHILE: Torres del Paine National Park
What if you make a visit to a national park named for its iconic torres (towers) but never lay eyes on the torres? We found out, but we have no regrets. Even with the low clouds that obscured the most spectacular views, Torres del Paine National Park turned out to be a huge highlight of our Patagonia adventure.
Torres del Paine National Park lies in the far south of Chile, in the Magallanes region. It’s a wonderland of towering spires, turquoise-hued lagoons, and thundering glacier-fed waterfalls. Like El Chaltén, Torres del Paine is a mecca for hikers and adventurers, with its highly popular multi-day “O” and “W” treks.
The park is quite isolated, located about 75 km north of the city of Puerto Natales and another 318 km from Punta Arenas, Patagonia’s largest city. To get there, we crossed the border back into Chile at the Rio Don Guillermo station, just east of the tiny town of Cerro Castillo on Ruta 9. We got pretty familiar with Cerro Castillo over the next few days (spoiler: there’s not much there, not even a petrol station), as the town is the gateway to the park through the Laguna Amarga entrance.
We spent four nights in the Torres del Paine area, making the trek up to the park three days in a row to try and glimpse the famous vistas through the clouds and gloom. We experienced all kinds of weather, from lots of rain and an early season snowstorm to some teasing bouts of partial sun. We never saw the torres, but the park was magical – offering breathtaking views of a different sort in which the lack of sun seemed to accentuate the brilliant colors of the water and the snow-streaked mountains. Plus, we were spared the famous high winds that Patagonia is known for. It was a win!
Tips:
- You will do a LOT of driving inside Torres del Paine. The nearest petrol station is down in Puerto Natales, about a two-hour drive from the Laguna Amarga entrance, so make sure your tank is full when you enter the park (we made a special trip down to Puerto Natales one afternoon just to fill up). And four-wheel drive is highly advisable, because most of the park roads are unpaved and some are pretty torn up.
- A park pass is required to enter Torres del Paine. The pass is around $35 US per person, and, unlike the other Chilean national parks, it allows entrance for up to three consecutive days. Park passes are best purchased online in advance,here. Otherwise, you’ll have to wrestle with a glitchy payment system at the visitor’s center, and you might get hit with a $15 PayPal surcharge like we did!
- There is very limited lodging inside the park, and not many options between Cerro Castillo and Puerto Natales. But we found a gem: Hotel Tres Pasos, about 20 minutes south of Cerro Castillo. We wrote at length about this great place in our previous post. It was one of our favorite stops on the trip!
- If you have limited time, you can SKIP the Milodon Cave National Monument. The cave is so named because 19th-century explorers found remains of a prehistoric milodon (giant sloth) inside. It was interesting, but (in our opinion ) not worth the $15 US per person admission. Here are some pics from the Milodon Cave – so now you’ve seen everything we saw!
LAST STOP: Punta Arenas, Chile
We didn’t expect to like Punta Arenas, Patagonia’s largest city. It was the final stop in our journey before flying home to Colombia, and we were a bit road-weary and ready for our own bed. But we were pleasantly surprised; this medium-sized city is filled with gorgeous architecture and a heritage steeped in southern Patagonia’s maritime, wool production, and coal mining past. It’s also provided an important jumping-off point for various Antarctic expeditions over the past couple of centuries. Punta Arenas is a bit scruffy around the edges but an interesting place to explore for a couple of days.
13 Comments
What a wonderful adventure! Thank you for sharing the highlights and your stunning photos.
Thanks for reading, Natalie! 🙂
Great trip and lovely pictures of Chile & Argentina. (Suzanne)
Glad you enjoyed the post, Suzanne! 🙂
I’ve only dipped my toes into Patagonia from the Argentinian side, from north in Puerto Madryn to the south in Ushuaia. I also visited El Calafate to see the Perito Moreno Glacier, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I’m glad you got to explore Patagonia from both the Chilean and Argentinian sides, and I look forward to reading more of your adventures elsewhere in the world, as you play catch-up!
Thanks, Rebecca. Glad you got to experience part of Patagonia and Perito Moreno (is that where you are in your profile pic?). I’m so far behind – ha! It’s hard to blog when we’re on the road. We enjoyed your great post about the Faroe Islands – we’ve got the bug to go there now!
Yes! My profile photo is at Perito Moreno! Such a gorgeous spot
I’m in awe of those gorgeous landscapes 🙂
Hi Henry – hope you’re well. Any plans to visit Colombia? We’d love to see you.
Oh my gosh! I can’t possibly pick a favorite thing from this post, because it all just looks and sounds so amazing. What an adventure! I did really enjoy the iceberg video… I didn’t know icebergs rolled over like that.
Thanks, Diana! That iceberg roll was so sudden and astonishing; we’d never seen anything like it either. I can’t believe I actually got the video turned on for once!
You two sure made the most of your time in Patagonia! These are some amazing experiences, sights, and photos. March is a tricky month for a visit, as you experienced. I’m glad you were spared the high winds – that would have been a good reason to be staying in hotels and not camped, though. 🙂
The first part of your post contains places we never visited during our lengthy time in Patagonia – either because it was too expensive (like the ferries to and from the Chiloe islands) or out of our way, or because Maya wasn’t allowed (like in every Chilean and Argentina national park!!). Luckily we did get around some of these restrictions on day trips and hikes.
Perito Moreno glacier and the Marble Caves were definitely two of my highlights. We had a sunny day for the caves, but arrived late in the day, so didn’t get the full effect of the azure blue water. The next day was going to be cloudy, otherwise we would have postponed our tour.
Sometimes you’re lucky with the weather in Patagonia, sometimes you’re not… Such is the way of that part of the world.
Sorry I just saw your comment, Liesbet! Yes, we feel we really lucked out on the weather, especially the lack of wind. But we’d read that this was a good time of year weather-wise (although there are no guarantees of anything in Patagonia, as you know!). I didn’t realize you two got to visit Perito Moreno and the Marble Caves. I’ll go back and look at your blog posts 🙂