April 2-16 – Santiago and Patagonia
Re-grouping in Santiago
With Chilean wine country firmly in our rear view mirror, we came back to Santiago to re-group. Two months of devouring extra-fine meals and delicious Chilean wines had taken its toll and we needed some down time to jump-start our fitness and work on strategy for the quickly approaching European leg of this journey. Time for salads, exercise, laundry and, of course, visits with Natalie.
We moved ourselves to the Solace Hotel Santiago (http://www.solacehotel.cl/santiago/?lang=en), a very nice hotel in the Providencia section of Santiago. Not too big or too small and a wonderful rooftop pool and bar. It shares a very nice tree lined neighborhood with a few embassies (French, Turkish, Indonesian, etc.) and is next to a big park with a cool sculpture garden. Providencia also houses many great restaurants and is within walking distance to the tallest building in South America, the Costanera Center.
There’s also a huge mall at the Costanera center so I went there and bought some running shoes. My first jog lasted about twenty minutes and rewarded me a lot of pain. A rude awakening. At the end of the week I was up to about twenty-two minutes – not good – but on the positive side, 10% improvement in one week was not that bad 😛. Shawn hit the hotel gym and we both tried to eat a bit more healthy.
Fitness inspiration soon arrived as my brother, Dave, came to town to run the Santiago marathon on April 8. He has a goal of running a marathon on every continent. After this week, he only has Africa to go – and yes, he has run a marathon on Antarctica! We all went to dinner at an acclaimed restaurant – Aqui Esta Coco (http://www.aquiestacoco.cl/?lang=en) and delighted in having this very, very random family gathering in Chile.
The decor at this restaurant is fantastic. Its’ a swanky, impressive place. However, the food was just good, not great. And for the price – this is a pretty expensive restaurant in Santiago – I expected better. If you are in Santiago, and looking for a great meal, I recommend Bocanariz (http://bocanariz.cl/?lang=en) in the Lastarria section of town. The decor is not nearly as flashy, and in fact quite plain, but the food is excellent and the Wine Spectator award winning wine list is as good as you’ll find anywhere in Chile!
OK – I said we were going to “try” and eat a bit more healthy. Not always succesful – but oh so good!
Patagonia
Then it was off to Patagonia. Our trip was arranged by travel agent extraordinaire, Tammy Cane (tammycanetravel@gmail.com) through a luxury travel provider called Quasar Expeditions (https://www.quasarex.com/patagonia). It was a complex trip and superbly orchestrated with three exquisite hotels, a great Jeep, GPS guidance, satellite phone and an iPad loaded with info on the particulars of our expedition. It was a pricey trip – very much a budget-buster – but I give Quasar extremely high marks for both organization, selection of the hotels and excursions. If you want to experience Patagonia in style, Quasar is the way to go.
We took a three and a half hour flight from Santiago to Puerto Arenas, a city in the extreme south of Chile, and were picked up at the airport for a two and a half hour drive down the “Ruta del Fin del Mundo” (literally, the road to the end of the world”) to Puerto Natales. The reward at the finish of this six hour journey was the Singular Hotel Patagonia (https://thesingular.com/en/hotel/patagonia).
This is an amazing hotel. Built around restored remains of a historic meat processing, storage and shipping facility, the place is a marvel of design and luxury. All of the rooms face the water. The restaurant and bar are magnificently decorated and the food is fantastic. (My pics do this hotel absolutely no justice). The Quasar package includes all meals and open bar (except for “premium” wines and liquor – but the “non-premium” is very good). This is definitely one of my favorite hotels anywhere in the world and a great gateway to the Torres del Paine national park. Even though we had our excursions pre-arranged via Quasar, the hotel can also provide excursions.
Estancia La Peninsula is a working Patagonia ranch (http://estanciaspatagonia.com). On our first morning, we boarded a cool boat from a dock directly behind the Singular for a thirty minute cruise to the 7,000 acre ranch. It’s a beautiful, serene place on the shores of the Fjord of Last Hope with views of the mighty Mt. Balmaceda. We learned that morning that we’d be exploring the ranch on horseback. Having not ridden horses in decades, we were a bit freaked out. But the place was super professional, the staff really cool and the horses were so gentle – and beautiful. Within minutes we felt like gauchos.
After the ride we had an amazing lunch of lamb cooked over an open fire by a guy who looks like he’s done this before. Perhaps the best lamb ever with some really nice Chilean wines.
Then we got to watch the gauchos bring in a herd of sheep with assistance from their working Magellan sheep dogs. So fun to watch these dogs work!
Then there was a sheep shearing demo – which was pretty cool – if you’re a city boy and never seen a sheep get sheared before.
A great, fun day at the ranch.
The next morning we fire up the GPS in our sweet Jeep Rubicon and make our first voyage into Torres del Paine National Park. Shawn insisted on driving – over my gentle protest – but she did very well. I was the navigator and DJ. Which was an important job cuz there were quite a few road closures that the GPS did not know about. So we did have to go to the actual paper map. Old- people skills sometimes come in handy.
Torres del Paine is likely the most amazing, jaw-dropping place I’ve ever been. Mountains, glaciers, brilliant turquoise lakes,
wild animals, and never ending open space. Our first stop was a hike along the banks of Lago Grey.
It was pretty cold and windy that day. Shawn – who lost her rain coat in St. Thomas (we think) – bought a rain poncho that morning which was ripped to shreds by the wind.
Afterwards, we made it back to the Jeep for a run to Mirador Santo Grande – a meaty waterfall surrounded by mountains.
It was so windy there that it nearly blew us off our feet.
Afterwards we headed to our next home, the Tierra Patagonia (http://tierrahotels.com/patagonia/).
This is a luxury lodge – again with all meals and beverages included. While not as elegant and luxurious as the Singular, it’s architecture is incredible and the view from the rooms and restaurant/bar is unbeatable. There is a wonderful spa with steam rooms, sauna, massages, jacuzzi, and an indoor pool.
We booked a fly fishing expedition which started great – nice ninety minute drive, excellent hour hike to a private lagoon full of trout – but unfortunately, it was just too cold to fish.
Fly fishing requires the use of ungloved hands – who knew? Temperature at the lagoon was probably in the 20s – it did start to snow – so after about an hour, and no fish, we abandoned, hiked back to the car and returned to the Tierra Patagonia for a sauna and a steam.
The next day, however was epic. Our Quasar guide told us that we were scheduled for the eight hour hike – “the long one”. We accepted without a lot of thought or research and just followed the GPS to the Mirador Las Torres trail head. Las Torres means “towers” in Spanish and the hike is named after the three iconic granite towers which are the reward for this pretty difficult climb. My take is that if you are going to travel to Patagonia, this is an absolute “must do” excursion – although Shawn let loose more than a few colorful phrases on the way up.
The trail starts out gently, but after about an hour the grade starts to ratchet up. The scenery is amazing as well.
After about three hours of uphill trekking we were pretty worn out. But that was just the appetizer. The final 45 minute ascent gets pretty brutal. It involves very steep – feels like almost straight up at times – boulder scrambling up a rocky moraine. Notwithstanding the sweat and pain, the view is clearly worth the climb.
OK – it was difficult for us. My knees and quads were groaning pretty loud. Perhaps not so bad for someone in their 20s or 30s. (Natalie and her friends did this hike a couple of months ago in the dark to get there for the sunrise).
Also, at one particularly grueling uphill section there was a guy (total stud) coming down on crutches and one leg. Yes, one leg. Incredibly inspiring and humbling. Where does this rate on my all-time favorite hikes? Without question, numero uno.
BTW, it takes another four hours to get down – which hurt almost as much as the up – but then happily back to the Tierra Patagonia for a jacuzzi with some Chinese guys I met – SK and Daniel – (hmm, that sounds worse that it really was) and another fantastic meal.
Torres del Paine also teems with wildlife. The most populous is the the guanaco, a cousin of the llama, alpaca and camel, but wild and with deer like agility. The park is full of these. They have great faces, with long eyelashes and are really fun to watch as they leap fences made to corral sheep and cattle (sorry to admit but they are also a food source and taste pretty good too!)
Another cool animal is the rhea – a small cousin of the ostrich. These guys are running all over the place. We also saw condors, eagles and strangely, pink flamingos. I thought those were tropical birds, but apparently they like the lagoons of Patagonia.
The following morning we bade goodbye to the Tierra Patagonia and headed across the border to Argentina. It takes about 5 hours to make the trip – depending on how long it takes to navigate the rustic Chilean and Argentine border controls. We made it pretty quickly – probably because Quasar had provided a folder with all the right documents, with all the right stamps and signatures. Honestly, I had no idea what was in that folder.
Again, the trip is worth the destination – the Hotel Eolo (https://eolopatagonia.com). Eolo is like your really rich friend’s Hacienda. It’s located between the city of El Calafate and Los Glaciares National Park on a 10,000 acre cattle ranch. 17 well-appointed rooms and an incredible dining room. It’s doesn’t have the avant-garde design of the Singular or the edgy architecture of the Tierra Patagonia but it has a subtle elegance coupled with fantastic service that is the hallmark of a superb hotel.
The food at Eolo is unbelievably good and we had trouble again not over-indulging. And the wines – now all Argentinian are incredible. Of note, the DV Catena Chardonnay from Mendoza is particularly nice. And, the Angelica Zapata – the Catena winery’s next version up – highly recommended by the hotel’s sommelier, is even better. Shawn says she would stack it up against Flowers – or even Kistler – and it’s only about $27 a bottle!
Los Glaciares National Park is one of the major reasons for coming to the Argentine side of Patagonia. We took the 45 minute Jeep drive from the hotel to the park for a boat ride to the Perito Moreno glacier. Upon arrival, the guides get set us up with crampons for a trek on the massive ice field – the third largest in the world behind Antarctica and Greenland.
Next is a trip under the glacier into an ice cave – super cool. Like the Blue Grotto in Capri, but all ice.
After the glacier trek we made our way to the Perito Moreno boardwalks. An engineering marvel, these massive walkways provide truly spectacular views of the glacier.
And if your patient and really lucky you’ll see “calving” – huge chunks of ice that fall off the glacier. We were so fired up when we got this video!…….Click on the link below and zoom in on what looks like a huge cave and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
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Finally – and if you’re still reading, thankfully – our last day in Patagonia. Shawn started the day with a hike. Made some new friends.
Then a horse ride on the ranch. We were pros by now.
And then to cap it off, a bit of zip-lining. Being relatively afraid of heights, I was a bit scared. But it was pretty awesome!
And then, it was back to Santiago, via Buenos Aires. Fun fact – did you know that Buenos Aires airport was right on the water. We did not. Had a four hour layover there. After about two hours we realized we were in the wrong terminal. Walking outside, we discover an ocean!
Wow – that was a lot. Now it’s back to Santiago for a few days. This time we really will have some salads, exercise and plan. Then, off to Peru and Machu Picchu!