|
PATAGONIA - THE WILD BEAUTY
|
 |
PATAGONIA
Season: October to April
Flight hours: Puerto Montt - Balmaceda: 50 minutes
Puerto Montt - Punta Arenas: 3 hrs
Transfer time: Apt. Punta Arenas - Hotel Punta Arenas: 40 min.; Apt. Punta Arenas - Hotel Puerto Natales: 3 hrs; Airport Punta Arenas - Hotel Torres del Paine: 7 hrs;
Note: Rainfall in Coyhaique & Lakre General Carrera is far less than in Lake District. The Carretera Austral is an unpaved gravel and dirt road; therfore much more time is needed than travelling on common roads.
Recommendation: Warm clothes; trekking shoes; sun-block; rain coat; wind suit.
|
The most famous region of Chile, Chilean Patagonia offers all the dramatic
landscape one would expect from the world's ultimate land's end.
Here the South American continent falls away in a dazzling explosion
of islands, glaciers, icebergs and mountains. It is one of Mother
Nature's grand finales. Chilean Patagonia consists of sub regions: the
northern Aisen Region and, to its south, the Magallanes Region. Aisen
is home to Laguna San Rafael National Park and the Austral Road (Carretera
Austral). The Carretera Austral has become one of the most important
attractions in Patagonia because it allows you to enter into a territory
that still is open to discoveries: Northern Patagonia with its large
extensions of cold forests, national parks, glaciers, gigantic ice fields,
lagoons, fiords, rivers, and lakes. It is an ideal territory for adventure
tourism, fishing, trekking, hiking, kayaking, rafting, and observing flora
and fauna in its most natural state. Southern Patagonia hosts the incomparable
Torres del Paine National Park.
|
Isolated from the rest of Chile
by fierce storms and impassable mountains, Torres del Paine National
Park is the crown jewel of the Chilean national park system. In 1978 it
was designated Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage. The
park is internationally known for its trekking and hiking opportunities.
The Paine Massif is the centerpiece of the park, few places on this planet
contain so many diverse attractions within such a small area. The park
consistently exceeds expectations. "The Paine massif is unrivaled...In its
colors and forms it is without doubt one of the most fantastic and spectacular
sights that human imagination can conceive." -- Salesian missionary
Padre Agostini In the uttermost south, the land is full of beauty and
historically renowned places like the Straits of Magellan, the Beagle
Channel, Tierra del Fuego and the mythical Cape Horn.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
