 |
|
 |
LOCATION  |
| |
Patagonia
is located in the south of Argentina, from the 42th
south paralel to the Cap Horn |
|
|
|
| |
SPECIAL PARTNER |
| |
|
|
|
Trekking
Patagonia
PROGRAM Trekking Patagonia
Zekeseven Adventure proposes a different way of travelling in Patagonia, enjoying your hikings at El Chaltén, Mount Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre bases, the Perito Moreno Glacier, trekking at Torres del Paine National Park (Chile) and hiking in Tierra del Fuego National Park. This full adventure trekking tour covers all the spectacular landscapes of Southern Patagonia.
Duration |
|
Departures
2008-09 |
|
Season |
17
Days
16 Nights |
|
-Each friday from Buenos Aires
Next Departures:
10/10, 17/10, 24/10, 31/10, 07/11, 14/11, 21/11, 28/11, 05/12, 12/12
Departure
guaranteed - Private departures available.
|
|
Austral
Spring-Summer.
October to April. |
|
Group size |
|
Physical
and technical level |
|
Prices |
| from
2 to 15 people. |
|
intermediate
physical level. Moderate Trekking
This travel doesn't require any special technical level. |
|
- From
1570 Euros.
- From 2370 USD. |
Take advantage of Zekeseven special group offers: out of 5 group members, 1 will have 20% discount.(only for ground services).
ITINERARY
Day 1
Morning arrival at Buenos Aires airport where our staff will welcome you. Our driver will lead you to your 3-star hotel.
Optional: Lunch in one of the best restaurant of Buenos Aires, City Tour and Tango Show.
Accommodation: 3-Star Hotel
Meals: lunch, dinner.
Day 2
Flight to El Calafate. Reception at El Calafate Airport. Guides´ introduction and briefing. Accommodation at a hostel or hotel.
Meals: breakfast, dinner.
Day 3
After breakfast we take our bus for the 220-km-long drive to El Chaltén, a small and picturesque village at the foot of Mounts Fitz Roy & Torre. We make a half way stop to delight on local pastries and hot coffee. Once in El Chaltén, we’ll meet fellow travellers coming from up North (Route 40) and start our trek. We carry only the necessary items in our packs for these 3 nights and 4 days. Nights at Full Camps in the National Park.
We hike up a gentle slope on Fitz Roy trail to gain height over the Río de las Vueltas valley up to the first viewpoint of the Fitz Roy massif. Our hike to Laguna Capri will take us no more than 2 ½ hours, on a clear and easy trail. Once at our camp at Laguna Capri, we leave our stuff in our tent and enjoy an afternoon walk to the sightseeing points around the lagoon.
Full Camps are set up early in the season, so we find the camp ready upon arrival. It offers comfortable 3 p. igloo type tents for every 2 passengers, with mattresses and sleeping bags. A cotton sheet is provided as inner clothing for the sleeping bag. The camp also features a spacious dinning tent, a kitchen tent, tables, benches or chairs and a full set of table service and kitchenware. The sanitary services are latrine-type.
Accommodation in Full Camp at Capri Lagoon (rural area) double o single base
Meals Included: breakfast, lunchbox and dinner.
Day 4
Early in the morning, before the first cup of coffee, we can try to match up with the pinkish morning light on Fitz Roy granite walls. You only need this to feel the trip is worthwhile, but obviously, the day offers much more.
After breakfast, carrying only day personal items such as our parka, gloves, camera, water bottle and lunchbox, we hike along Fitz Roy trail up to Río Blanco, climbers´ basecamp on the east side of the mountain. From here a steep 1 h trail leads us to one of the most spectaculars viewpoints of the National Park: Laguna de los Tres, with its zephyr blue coloured waters, lies at the foot of the massif, offering full close up views of Fitz Roy massif spires and glaciers. Each wall rises as from 600 to 1500 m above the surrounding glaciers. Fitz Roy, with its 3405 m above sea level, is considered the “King of Patagonia” and one of the three most beautiful mountains on Earth (together with Alpamayo in Perú and K2 in the Karakoram). We hike back to Laguna Capri in the late afternoon. Walking time is around 5 to 6 hs.
Accommodation in Full Camp at Capri Lagoon double o single base.
Meals Included: breakfast, lunchbox and dinner.
Day 5
Mount Torre
This morning we hike skirting down Capri Lagoon on the trail to Madre e Hija Lagoons (Mother and Daughter lagoons) through a dense forest following the Fitz Roy River. We reach the Mount Torre Valley to glacier-fed Laguna Torre where Fitz Roy river begins. This lagoon, contained between moraines, generally piles floes that come off from the Grande Glacier that falls in its West extreme. The impressive group of Mount Torre needles with its slender 3128 meters/10262 ft height, frame the landscape.
Accommodation in Full Camp at Torre Lagoon double o single base (rural area). Meals Included: breakfast, lunch box and dinner.
Day 6
Torre Glacier and Lagoon – El Chaltén
Morning visit to Laguna Torre again to reach the old Maestri base camp, located in a high site up along the North moraine of the lagoon. For keen hikers, we offer an optional excursion, the so called “Holiday on Ice”: early start, crampons and harnesses, a tyrolean (horizontal fixed rope attached to both sides of a river) to cross Fitz Roy river, and then to Glacier Grande, where we will visit crevices, ice caves and we’ll practice ice climbing, always under the supervision of our experienced mountain guides.
Late in the afternoon we walk back to Chaltén along Fitz Roy river valley. Total estimated time of the standard day: 4 to 5 hs. If you go on the “Holiday on Ice”, it is 7 hs plus the trail back to Chalten which is 2 ½ hours more.
Accommodation at Hostel Room with shared bathroom.
Meals Included: breakfast, lunchbox and dinner.
Day 7
Morning on your own to visit the picturesque village or to make optional excursions such as Lago del Desierto (“Desert Lake” is, in spite of its name, a beautiful lake surrounded by beech woods, with hanging glaciers on its West side), or to get very interesting information at the National Park Visitor Centre.
By 5 pm we take our bus to our next destination: El Calafate, gateway for the glaciers area of the Park. Arrival time is scheduled for 9 pm. Driving distance: 220 km
Accommodation at Hostel Room with shared bathroom.
Meals Included: breakfast.
Day 8
El Calafate – Perito Moreno Glacier
After breakfast we depart by bus to the Magallanes peninsula, where is located the entrance of The Glaciers National Park. Its centerpiece is the Perito Moreno Glacier, which, because of unusually favorable local conditions, is one of the world’s few advancing glaciers. Huge icebergs from the glacier wall collapse into the De los Tempanos Channel. The roar of the gigantic ice rocks falling and crashing into the waters of the channel is an unique experience.
Our bus will leave us just in front of the Glacier, allowing us to walk along the gangplanks to view the Glacier from different points.
We return to El Calafate by a different route.
Accommodation at Hostel Room with shared bathroom.
Meals Included: breakfast.
Day 9
El Calafate – Torres del Paine
Early start for a 6-h-drive to our camp in Paine. We drive across the steppe, in parts still following the legendary Route 40, to get round Sierra de los Baguales, an impressive range between El Calafate and Paine. We cross the Argentinean-Chilean border at Cancha Carrera/ Cerro Castillo. After the border crossing, we start our final sprint to Paine National Park, World Heritage by the UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization). Approaching the Park, we start to see the different mountains that feature the area: Paine Grande, the Horns, Admiral Nieto and the Towers. We enter the Park by Portería Sarmiento. A rich wildlife: guanacos, lesser rheas, condors and all types of wetland and buzzard birds, will be available for our eyes and cameras. We’ll stop at Lake Nordenskjöld and at Salto Grande viewpoints for short walks. In the afternoon we continue to visit the westernmost side of the National Park, lake Grey area, where a short and easy hike along the South shore of the lake allows us to enjoy the blue icebergs that calved from the glacier in the northern side of the lake and are pushed by the wind to this side.
Lake Pehoe Full Camp keeps the style of Laguna Capri and Cerro Torre Full Camps, but combined with first class facilities: good and clean bathrooms and hot water showers, water and electricity in each camping site.
Accommodation in Full Camp Camping Pehoe double or single base (area with bathroom facilities)
Included meals: breakfast, lunchbox, dinner.
Day 10
Las Torres – Ascensio River Valley
We drive and tour to get to Estancia Cerro Paine, headtrail for the world famous Paine Towers. We warm up hiking a steep one-hour slope, to enter the Ascensio river valley, a narrow “V” shaped alpine valley coming from inside the Paine massif. A gentle downhill leads us to Refugio Chileno, a cozy and comfortable mountain lodge, which can be a good turnaround point for those not willing to make a full day hike. We then walk on a gentle slope along the riverside and in the midst of beech woods. A final climb on moraine takes us to the Towers viewpoint: a glacier origin lagoon and the three towers rising up vertically 1000 m above the glacier. Your lack of breath will be both from the climb and because of this marvellous sight!!!! We go back to our camp the same way we came. Walking time: 7 to 8 hs.
Accommodation in Full Camp Camping Pehoe double or single base (area with bathroom facilities)
Included meals: breakfast, lunchbox and dinner.
Day 11
Pehoe Lake Navigation, Del Frances Valley
Early in the morning, boarding at Puerto Pudeto, we sail 45 minutes across the Pehoe Lake, arriving at the Pehoe Refuge area. We walk from there untilwe reach e Del Francés Valley. It’s a beautiful mountain valley descending from the middle of the massif toward the Nordenskjold Lake. Flanked by The Horns to the East and by the impressive Paine Grande (3050 meters/10006 ft) to the West. We ascend the valley until the upper viewpoints, located in a natural amphitheater surrounded by some of the most wonderful needles and walls of the massif: Cuernos, Espada, Máscara, Hoja, Aleta de Tiburón, Catedral, and Paine Grande. The forest and the suspended glaciers that cause continuous ice and snowfalls, give an unique atmosphere to this walk. We descend by the same trail and turn West rounding Skottberg Lake until we reach Pehoe Refuge, our Camp for this night. It’s a total 7-hour trek.
Accommodation in Full Camp Pehoe Refuge area double or single base (area with bathroom facilities)
Included meals: breakfast, lunchbox and dinner.
Day 12
Lake Grey trail leads across ridges from Pehoe Valley to Grey valley. This magnificent valley flows down some 60 km from the Patagonian Icefield, featuring the huge glacier calving down into the grey colored lake. Our trail skirts the lake, going up and down the westerns slopes of Paine Grande, offering some of the most impressive sights of the Park. From the high sections of the trail, many different viewpoints allow us to see the south end of the lake where the blue icebergs gather, the mountains rising far in the distance above glaciers Grey and Tyndall, and of course lake and glacier Grey. The trail reaches a close up point to the front of the glacier. We go back along the same trail, crossing bogs, shrublands and forests. In the evening we take the boat to cross lake Pehoe and then to our accommodation in Puerto Natales, a picturesque fishermen town located on the shores of the Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope) fiord.
Walking Time 8 hs. To the half-way viewpoints, a round way from our camp: 4 to 5 hs.
Lodging at a Hostel room with shared bathroom.
Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single rooms with private bathroom.
Included meals: Breakfast, lunchbox.
Day 13
Puerto Natales – Río Grande
After breakfast, we go South to reach the legendary Magellan Strait, which we will keep on sight up to Primera Angostura, where we board the Ferry to cross the Strait. This water pass, discovered by Hernando de Magallanes in 1520, was the natural and logical way to the Pacific for all vessels until de Panama Channel was opened at the beginning of the XXth century. You will find yourselves wondering how those brave men dared to sail those waters on such fragile caravels!!!
Once in Tierra del Fuego (literally, Land of Fire, due to the fires on the coast seen by the first white sailors, lit up by the local natives for cooking and warmth), we enter Argentina through Paso San Sebastián. A couple of hours more to reach Estancia Las Hijas, where our Full Camp will be waiting for us, as well as a lamb barbecue in true Patagonian style! A dinning saloon, toilettes and showers are available tonight.
Lodging at Full Camp in double or single tent (area with sanitary services)
Included meals: Breakfast, lunchbox, dinner.
Day 14
Tierra Mayor valley
In the morning we learn about the ranch activities and how dogs herd the sheep. By mid morning we continue South to Solar del Bosque, a small and cozy mountain refuge located in the Tierra Mayor valley, where we spend the rest of the day. After lunch, we go hiking to Laguna Esmeralda, a beautiful lagoon with Glacier Ojos del Albino in the background. We walk back to our lodge across terrain that has been modified by the beavers, which were brought from Canada middle of the last century.
Lodging in Mountain Lodge with shared bedrooms and bathrooms.
Included meals: Breakfast, lunchbox, dinner.
Day 15
Ushuaia – Tierra del Fuego National Park –Beagle Channel Navigation
In the morning we travel to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. In the island corner that limits Argentina and Chile, The Andes go underwater, being the foremost spectacular landscape of this island.
After our hearty lunchbox we navigate the Beagle Channel, the water border of Argentina and Chile. In this incredible scenery, we are to see many species of marine mammals and birds. We enjoy our last dinner in the most Austral City in the World.
Accommodation at Hostel Room with shared bathroom
Alternatives: double or single base Inn Rooms with private bathroom (please consult us for this option)
Included meals: breakfast, lunchbox.
Day 16
Ushuaia City – Ushuaia Airport - Buenos Aires
Morning on your own to visit the town, located in the north coast of the Beagle channel. Then town features interesting museums and its typical architecture.
Flight to Buenos Aires
Transfer to your hotel at Buenos Aires.
Accommodation: 3-star Hotel.
Included meals: breakfast.
Day 17
Transfer to the airport. End of services.
Included meals: breakfast.
BOOKING
To book this trip, please fill the
booking request form or simply contact
us by e-mail
|
|
