Patagonia Holiday in 2007

Patagonia, torre del paine

Our holiday in Patagonia started by flying from Santiago, Chile to Puerto Montt in Chilean Patagonia. Here we rented a 4*4, well more a small 4*4 truck (we found out later why were had been put in a truck - the roads are seriously bad!).

After exploring around Puerto Montt, we took the truck on the Navimag Ferry to Puerto Natales in Southern Patagonia. The road runs out of anywhere to run not too far south of Puerto Montt, and Chile has the choice of either using Argentinean roads to service the towns in the deep south, or keeping the ferry going - they keep the ferry going, perhaps the memory of various wars with their neighbour over the years have been a lesson.

Then from the ferry's destination at Punta Natales, its a short drive to the Torre del Paine National Park. The park is the reason the most people make the journey to this part of Patagonia. Chiseled rocks towering up into the sky, and snow capped peaks.

The road (a dirt track for most of the way north) runs through Argentina. We paused at the towns of Calafate to see the Perito Moreno Glacier, at El Chalten to admire Mount Fitzroy,at the Cueva de los Manos (a World Heritage site) and at Lago Posada, before re-entering Chile on a tiny mountain road.

The north through Chile via Coihaique, the thermal springs and hanging glacier at Puyuguapi, and the small town of Futaleufu. The road in Chile runs out near here, so we followed the track back into Argentina.

We stopped at the "Welsh Colony" at Trevellin and Esquel. The Welsh really did set up a colony here in the 1870s, and their culture is still clearly vi sable. Then north again through the pampas to Baraloche, Villa Angostura and St Martin de los Andes.

Returning to Chile for the final time, a short detour up the Osorno Volcano, before arriving back at Puerto Montt and the flight back.

You can click on any of the points on the map to get more information and photographs of that part of our trip. Or there is a brief photographic overview available with all on one page. And I have included a page on the history of Patagonia.