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The tip of the travel iceberg? Getting up close to Patagonia’s ice fields
PATAGONIA
Mary Drury & Richard Dibling traveled to Chile & Argentina with Audley
P
anoramic photos of Torres del Paine on a calendar were what inspired our trip to Patagonia, and we were not disappointed. We started our journey with two nights in Santiago. We found plenty to explore in the one-and-a-half days we had there and were delighted with our boutique hotel, Le Reve – a lovely green oasis of calm in a very busy city. The first day we visited the house and museum of poet Pablo Neruda. On the second we joined a walking tour with a very knowledgeable guide. From here we flew to Puerto Montt and were then escorted to our hotel, Casa
Molino, by Isabel, our guide, and our driver, Manuel. Our room had views through the floor-to-ceiling picture window overlooking Lake Llanquihue and the Osorno Volcano. We spent four nights here, and each day we were taken on a wonderful excursion. Isabel was a delight – full of local stories and a wide knowledge of the local flora and fauna. On the first day we walked in the Alerce Andino National Park rainforest, stopping to watch the birds and enjoy our picnic. On the second day we visited the Vicente Perez National Park and saw the beautiful Petrohue Falls and then hiked through the forest to the Green Lagoon and on up the
slope of Osorno. Our last day was spent on a day-long trip to Chiloe Island – the land of the seals – where we stopped off to visit some of its ornate and beautiful wooden churches and the famous palafito homes built on stilts over the sea. We had a delicious seafood meal one evening overlooking the lake, and on another occasion we had the best steak of our whole trip – together with a surprise birthday cake, as Isabel had tipped off the manager that it was Richard’s birthday. On our final day we said our goodbyes and were driven back to the airport for our flight south to Punta Arenas. Here we were driven
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