Chile and Argentina Highlights

Includes accommodations, transfers, meals and guided excursions as specified. Domestic air not included.

Day 1: Santiago de Chile
Airport reception and transfer to your hotel. Accommodations at the charming Hotel Orly, buffet breakfast included. This is a small, boutique style hotel which has 28 rooms. A converted mansion, the Hotel Orly is superbly situated in one of the city's more exclusive areas, Providencia. Everything you may want to see is close by - shops, restaurants, downtown, museums, banks, the cable car up the hill.

Day 2: Santiago - Punta Arenas - Torres del Paine National Park
Hotel pickup and transfer to the airport for your flight to Punta Arenas.

You'll be met upon arrival at the Punta Arenas Airport and set off on a 5-6 hour drive to Torres del Paine National Park. On the way, you'll stop at fjord-like Puerto Natales, at Ñandu Park and at the Milodon Cave. You'll also pass by Figueroa Lagoon and several beautiful lakes, keeping your eyes peeled for guanacos, ostriches, black-necked swans, flamingos and condors along the way. National Park entrance fee is included.

Upon arrival at Hosteria Las Torres, you'll be assigned to your comfortable superior room accommodations. After settling in you will be orientated to the lodge and the surrounding region. The impressive Andean massifs of Torres del Paine are surrounded by glaciers, waterfalls, lakes and lagoons, which together make this national park famous throughout the world for the richness of its natural beauty. Over the next few days you'll enjoy a variety of excursions in the park.

Included in the package are all meals and open bar (premium liquors and wines not included), daily guided excursions.

A variety of guided excursions are available every day. You can consult each evening and morning with the specialized guides about the various excursions. (B,D)

Here is a sampling of half and full day guided excursions offered at Hosteria Las Torres.

Days 3-5: Torres del Paine
Days to explore the park on guided excursions. (B,L,D)

Day 6: Torres del Paine - El Calafate
After breakfast. depart by overland transfer to El Calafate, Argentina. En route, you will stop at Cerro Castillo and pass through border formalities.

Accommodations at Hotel Kau Yatun, superior room with breakfast included. The hotel is located a few blocks from downtown El Calafate, on almost 4 hectares of land. The hotel features a bar and restaurant offering typical Patagonia BBQ and local specialties. - 3 nights (B)

Day 7: Perito moreno Glacier
The Park is located in the sub-Antarctic Continental ice-cap, known as the "third pole", which extends over 23,000 sq. miles and gives birth to several major glaciers along the Patagonian Andes. The main wall is over 200 feet tall and almost 3 miles wide. Every now and then enormous pieces of ice breaks off and falls with thunderous noise into the lake. Don crampons and hike on the glacier for 2 hours among breathtaking scenery. (No additional equipment nor previous experience needed!). (B, box-lunch)

Day 8: Estancia Cristina and Upsala Glacier
An early start takes you to the tiny port of Puerto Bandera. You board a comfortable modern catamaran for a cruise on Lago Argentino. The navigation first stops in front of the Upsala Glacier for wonderful views and then enters the channel leading to Estancia Cristina, surrounded by towering ice-capped mountains and glowing ice-blue bergs floating in the lake.

Once at the Estancia you can choose between 2 different programs: a lamb barbeque and relaxed afternoon around the Estancia or a beautiful hike to panoramic Cerro Carnero (*description below), from where you can admire the Andes and its glaciers. The hike departs the estancia upon arrival and includes a box-lunch.

For those staying at the estancia, you will enjoy a delicious and traditional Patagonic lamb barbeque lunch at the restaurant, which has been built on the base of an old wool drying spot and has a fabulous 360 degree view. Afterward, you will visit the main house, the chapel and the museum. You will discover the lifestyle of the first settlers of the Estancia and their relation with legendary explorers of the last century.

This afternoon, you will return by catamaran to Puerto Bandera pier and from there to your hotel. (B,L)

*Hiking Cerro Carnero: Mirador de la Cordillera
The hike starts from the Estancia's main house towards the southeast, approaching the lower peak of Cerro Carnero. The route is the original estancia path. The workers conducted the sheep and goats across these paths towards the pasture areas. While ascending you will gain a full view of the Estancia, the Cristina channel and the valley. After crossing through a forest of native trees, such as Ñires and Lengas, and passing many waterfalls, you arrive at the lower peak of Cerro Carnero. From here you will have a splendid view of the Andes Mountains and the glaciers that fall from it, such as Glacier Norte, del Cerro Mayo, part of glacier Onelli, glacier Heim Norte, glacier Bertrand, Bertachi and Cono. The most outstanding view is of the Continental Ice Cap and the Mariano Moreno mountain chain. If the weather permits, lunch will be served at this amazing place. Otherwise, in a more protected and lower spot. The return will be by an alternative route, along the Cristina Channel.
Duration: 3 - 4 hours

Day 9: El Calafate - Buenos Aires
Transfer to the El Calafate Airport for your flight to Buenos Aires.

Upon arrival, you will be met and transferred to your Buenos Aires hotel. Overnight accommodation at the Hotel LoiSuites in a Studio Junior, breakfast included. The LoiSuites Hotel is located in the Recoleta area of Buenos Aires. All rooms are suites with air-conditioning and two phone lines. The hotel has an indoor swimming pool, sauna, gym, restaurant, and business center and an atrium dining area where breakfast is served. The location in the heart of La Recoleta allows close access to shopping, restaurants and cafes and outdoor craft markets. Afternoon at leisure. You may want to see a play at the theater or take in a tango show and dinner. (B)

Day 10: "Four Balconies OF Buenos Aires"
Set off on a half-day, privately-guided tour of Buenos Aires in which a professor of the University uses four parks and plazas of Buenos Aires (Plaza de Mayo, Parque Lezama and La Boca, Plaza San Martin and Recoleta) to introduce visitors to Argentina, its history, contrasts, contradictions and the peculiar psychology of its inhabitants. This tour is a great way to introduce you to the different, colorful districts of Buenos Aires and determine where you may wish to return. (B)

Day 11: Int'l Departure
Day at leisure. At the appropriate time transfer to the airport for your departing flight. (B)

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