Description
Day 1:
Reception at El Calafate airport and transfer to the hotel. Accommodation. Free time.
Day 2:
In the morning, after breakfast, departo on full Day Excursion Perito Moreno Glacier: This is one of Patagonia’s most extraordinary excursions. Some moments etch themselves into memory, and seeing the grandeur of the Perito Moreno Glacier is undoubtedly one of those life-defining experiences.
The departure from the hotel is due at 8 am. You will start the way bordering Bahía Redonda of the Argentino lake, from where you’ll observe the Solitaria Island. After a short while you’ll be touring around the steppe, in which you will get to visit several interesting locations such as: Comisión or De Los Elefantes hill, the Centinela river, Frías hill; some Patagonian estancias, ‘Alice’, among the famous ones.
Once you crossed the Mitre river, you will enter the Glaciers National Park. Thence a 35 km passage begins, it goes through the coasts of Rico branch of the Argentino Lake found in the middle of abundant vegetation. You will find this passage in the middle of the forest amazing. There are many immense tree specimens such as ñires, lengas, notros and sour cherry trees. The famous Curva de los Suspiros, along the road, will show you the first panoramic view of the Perito Moreno Glacier, thus making it a must stop (in order to take photographs). A short while after, you will reach the viewpoint of the glacier and there will be a new chance of getting amazing shots of the landscape with your camera.
Towards the end of the tour, you will come across the footbridges which are very close to the ice wall. There will be enough time for you to enjoy the spectacle of the glacier, and you will also get to witness the famous ice detachment phenomena, hear the hollow sounds of ice falling and thus becoming smaller floating glaciers.
The approximate time you will spend in the footbridges is two hours.
Note:
Even though the visit to the footbridges is unrestricted, it is important to point out that a big part of the bridges have steps, so people with reduced mobility can tour through the balconies and the parts with ramps, but not the whole structure of the footbridges.
The departure may vary from 8 am in summer, to 10 am in winter and depending on climate conditions. The return is due approximately at 5 pm. Lunch is not included. Near the footbridges area there is a small bar where you can buy a light snack, and there is also a restaurant offering more complete menus. You could also ask us for the inclusion of a boxed lunch at a small charge.
It allows you to observe, from a completely different perspective, the stunning walls of the glacier and the permanent detachments of blocks of ice, which later become icebergs and float by, very close to the boat, tingeing the reflexes of the channels and lakes with that peculiar blue color they have had since immemorial times.
The craft, which offers room for up to 70 people, takes a prudential position, close enough to the wall as to be able to cover its whole extension.
Duration: 1 hour.
Day 3:
At early morning, departure for Full Day Excursion Torres del Paine National Park: It is a full day excursion which may include walks through some of the simplest paths of the park.
The outing begins early in the morning leaving from El Calafate through the route that leads, from north to south, to the crossing in the frontier from Cancha Carrera – Cerro Castillo. It consists of two hours of travel in the middle of the Patagonia’s plateau.
From the frontier, you’ll start to tour the beautiful south of Chile, among lakes and forests, until reaching the main entrance of the Torres del Paine National Park. The meaning of this word, in tehuelche, is blue. This is the preponderant colour in the place which dyes the lakes, the forests and the stones. The arrival to the park’s entrance is scheduled at approximately 10.30 hs.
Once inside the park you’ll visit diverse panoramic viewpoints, among them:
- Sarmiento de Gamboa Lake viewpoint
-Blue Lagoon – panoramic viewpoint of the Towers
-Paine river falls, there is the possibility of descending to the river and it takes approximately 30 minutes.
-Almirante Nieto hill / Cuernos del Paine from the Superior viewpoint.
-Amarga lagoon
-Nordenskjold lagoon viewpoint
-Salto Grande viewpoint
-Cuernos del Paine Nordenskjold lagoon viewpoint
-Pehoe lake
-National Park interpretation centre, where the geological phenomena of the massif formation, the characteristics of the flora and fauna as well as the glaciation are explained.
-Toro Lake viewpoint.
A brief walk for the visitors is offered in one of these places if there is enough time.
Note:
The return to El Calafate begins at 7 pm. in order to be able to arrive at dinner time to the hotels. The distance between El Calafate and Torres del Paine is 210 km. The trip takes approximately three hours, back and forth, but there is an aggregate due to customs duty.
The National Park is quite big and most of the trekking paths require and hour and a half by foot thus, if serious hiking is your goal, taking a different excursion which includes two nights lodging inside the Park is necessary.
Day 4:
Free morning to recover from long excursion to Paine. In the afternoon Nativo Experience: Half day tour in which aboard 4x4 Land Rovers you will skirt the shores of Lake Argentino, being ideal for the day of arrival or departure from El Calafate. The activity offers an anthropological and historical focus on the passage of man in these lands, rediscovering the experiences of the first expeditions that ventured into the unknown through the Santa Cruz River and Lake Argentino.
The tour focuses on the history of the first contacts of the expeditionaries with the Tehuelches (natives of the region), crossing cliffs and marveling at views of Lake Argentino and the Andes.
After being pcked up at your hotel in El Calafate, the first stop is along the lake where native flora and fauna will be interpreted and an explanation on glaciology and geology will be given.
The second stop will be on the cliffs facing the lake, from where you will have magnificent views of the surroundings.
Finally, at the third stop, you will visit the archeological zone. Here, you can appreciate the innovative art through paintings in the caves on the shores of the lake, where for thousands of years the Tehuelche culture has left its marks on the rock and that today we can interpret. It is there, inside the cave, where you will have lunch or dinner, enjoying a unique experience in a totally natural environment that will transport you to the remote years of the first explorers.
After the tour and lunch, you will return to El Calafate.
Day 5:
At scheduled time, transfer from the hotel to the airport.
End of our services.
