PATAGONIA COLLECTION: MULTISPORT ROUTE OF THE PARKS (11 DAYS)

Today you should fly into Temuco airport (ZCO) and take any of the morning flights that arrive at Temuco between 9am and 9:30am. In Chile, domestic flights are operated by 3 airline companies: Latam, Sky Airline and JetSmart.

Upon your arrival at Temuco airport (9:30am), we all get to know each other for the first time. Our local team will pick you up and bring you to our first destination. We’ll drive approximately for 1 hour and 40 minutes, passing through old-fashioned little towns like Cunco and Melipeuco until we get to Conguillio National Park, one of the most outstanding parks of the Lake and Volcano District in Chile. This wilderness protected area is also part of Kütralkura, the first UNESCO Geopark in Chile.   

During the visit, you will witness how the Llaima volcano has permanently shaped the landscape of the area with its eruptions, and you will have the fantastic opportunity to walk on the lava flows that once came from the heart of the Earth. As soon as we enter the park, we’ll stop and register with the park rangers. Then, we visit the Truful-Truful Canyon and its waterfalls. This is the most important geosite of all the geopark, where you can see 13.000 years of eruptive activity of Llaima volcano.  

After our first stop, we continue driving another 20 minutes to La Baita Lodge, the first eco-friendly accommodation in Chile. We’ll check-in, relax and eat lunch together. After a good coffee or the locals’ favorite “yerba mate”, we’ll get ready for our afternoon hike towards a viewpoint that faces the Llaima volcano and a huge valley completely covered in lava flows. The locals call this valley the “devil’s field”. Finally, we hike back to our lodge, take a shower and relax by the fireplace with a good book. 

In the evening, a nice Pisco Sour (traditional Chilean drink) will be served and our local guide will introduce you to the following days. Enjoy a nice welcome dinner in the lodge.

After breakfast at La Baita Lodge, we will have a short drive passing by two lakes: Verde (green) and Arcoiris (rainbow), and with us immersed in a jaw-opening landscape (the same landscape that inspired the awarded BBC documentary “walking with dinosaurs”). We’ll begin hiking along the Sierra Nevada trail surrounded by native trees, including ancient monkey-puzzle trees or araucarias. We will hear and spot many endemic birds such as the chucao tapaculo, the Magellan woodpecker and the noisy slender-billed parakeet. The trail is equipped with 3 viewpoints and we’ll use them all. Each one of them with different angles to take-in the views of the Conguillío Lake, Llaima and Sierra Nevada volcanoes. After spending some time eating our packed lunch, taking pictures and enjoying the amazing view, we’ll hike back to the bottom of the trail and visit Playa Linda (pretty beach).

Later we will take our van and drive for about 2.5 hours until we get to the city of Pucón, Chile’s capital of Adventure Travel. This lakeside city is flanked by a smoking active volcano and a big glacial lake, both named Villarrica.

Your hotel is located right next to the lake and a pedestrian area with a bike lane. We’ll check-in and then have the evening at leisure. Tonight, dinner is on your own. There are plenty of good restaurants and bars within a 5-10-minute walk, just ask our guides for recommendations.

Each day brings new beauty on this tour, and today is no exception. We’ll start the morning with our bike fitting. Our guides will adjust the bikes to your satisfaction, so you can enjoy the next three bike rides across Chile’s first Scenic Route. Before we start pedaling, our guides will conduct a short briefing session with a safety talk. This is a very well-supported bike ride, with a “sag-wagon” following the group for assistance all the time.

Today we will ride one of Chile’s most scenic roads: The 7-Lake Circuit. We’ll pedal alongside the shores of three beautiful lakes, Villarrica, Calafquén and Panguipulli, and cover three-quarters of the way around Villarrica, a majestic, snow-capped active volcano. This road is smooth and with little traffic, with rolling hills and a couple of climbs along the route. At one point we should be able to see five volcanoes: Villarrica, Quetrupillán, Lanin, Mocho and Choshuenco. <

Our first stop is at Villarrica (km 26.6), a small lake-side city located next to Villarrica Lake. Here we can eat some snacks and refill our water bottles. We’ll have a short shuttle to avoid a busier patch of traffic, and then resume cycling. The road passes through green prairies, fruit farms and native forests. The lakeside road presents gentle rolling hills and gets quiet as almost no vehicles drive on it.

As we ride this scenic route, we make the lunch stop at a very special place called Foye Mapu (km 51.4). Here a Mapuche family will welcome us in their home and feed us traditional food. They will share some of their ancestral culture and we can learn how to make “merkén”, a smoked chilli powder that is super tasty.

Followed by lunch there are 18.4 km to cover in our saddles and arrive at the city of Panguipulli. Then, a short ride to the beach of Lake Panguipulli – meaning “land of lions” – while enjoying the views of Chile’s southern volcanoes. From there we pedal a few more blocks and arrive by bike to our next boutique hotel where we’ll stay overnight. Dinner at a local walking-distance restaurant.

Today we start early and drive in our van 196 km from our hotel in Panguipulli, covering part of the Pan-American Highway, until we arrive at Puerto Octay village to begin cycling. From this point we’ll start our ride towards quaint little villages with a strong German heritage, such as Puerto Clocker, Las Cascadas and Ensenada.

The route consists of rolling hills with long flat stretches until we end the ride by the beach of Lake Todos Los Santos, where a unique landscape is waiting for us, the Osorno Volcano with its perfect cone.

In Puerto Octay we’ll explore the village on our bikes and begin our ride.  The first section of the ride is dominated by the Osorno volcano and very green fields with grazing cows roaming freely. The northeast section of the Llanquihue Lake Route is one of the most beautiful routes of the tour. The whole ride is a fully paved road that goes next to the lake and across Vicente Perez Rosales National Park. The unique landscape is stunning, with Calbuco, Puntiagudo and Osorno volcanoes at sight.

The road is very quiet and equipped with several side-road viewpoints. Literally, the foot of the Osorno volcano reaches the shore of the lake and we’ll pass through the middle of this astounding landscape as we travel to the villages of Ensenada and Petrohue.

Finally, we will end our last ride arriving at Todos Los Santos in Petrohue, a turquoise lake located in the National Park Vicente Perez Rosales. We’ll arrive by bike to our lakefront lodge called Petrohue. We’ll eat dinner together at the lodge and celebrate conquering our second bike ride.

The best way to start the second leg of this adventure will be refreshing ourselves in the class 4 rapids of the River Petrohué.

We will spend the next two hours in the water, through one of the most scenic and pristine rivers of north Patagonia.

After the exciting time in the white water we will drive to the charming town of Puerto Varas, where you will have the afternoon at leisure to explore Puerto Varas on your own.

We leave from Puerto Varas early in the morning in direction to the local airport to board a 30 minute charter flight to Chaitén where our vehicle will be waiting for us to start the exploration of El Amarillo with a 1 hour interpretative hike where we will learn about the flora and fauna of temperate raiforest.

In the evening we drive to Caleta Gonzalo enjoying spectacular views of rivers, glacier valleys and the exuberant temperate rainforest. With a little luck we will be able to spot the smallest deer on earth, the Pudu.

This elusive and tame small mammal inhabits only these latitudes and feeds on the tender leaves of different plants with a favorite one: the Magellanic fuchsia.

Afterwards, we will check-in to the comfortable and carefully decorated cabins which offer astounding views of the fjord and mountains. We will enjoy our dinner prepared with the ingredients cultivated and produced by local farmers of the Chaitén area.

After breakfast, we will explore different sections of the park learning about the fantastic work of conservation, recovery and rewilding of this area run by the Rewilding Foundation. The story of Douglas Tompkins is intimately related to this park, which became part of the largest donation of private lands ever made, marking the first step in creating the Route of the Parks of Patagonia.

One of the iconic trails here is Chaitén Volcano  (3,5 hours – 5km – medium-high difficulty) and another option is the interpretative hike to Cascadas Escondidas (Hidden Waterfalls, 3 hours, 2 km – low difficulty).

Have you ever hiked through the slopes of an active volcano? There’s always a first time!

Enjoy our last dinner and night in this special place, before heading up to Torres del Paine!

We will drive to Chaiten aerodrome in the morning to board our flight back to Puerto Montt. From there, we will transfer to another airport to connect with our flight to South Patagonia.

A private transfer will pick you up once you arrive at Puerto Natales airport and will transfer you to the Mylodon Cave sector, an area filled with plenty of geographical history! We will visit the Mylodon Cave Natural Monument, a 200 meter long cave where the remains of a mylodon, a large ground sloth, and other early Patagonian animals were discovered dating from the Pleistocene epoch. With sweeping views of the surrounding landscapes, this is a great spot for some photos before we get into the private sector right beside the Mylodon Cave, where we can observe condoreras (natural condor colonies) and native lenga forests. Here we will also be welcomed with spectacular views of the Sofia Lagoon and far reaching fjords below us.

Continuing on, we will move alongside mountainous walls to see the first cave paintings where we learn their significant value to the region and their history before heading along the south-east side, where a mysterious cave of approximately 70 square meters is located. Here we must enter with headlamps to discover the millenary stalactite mineral formations which have taken millions of years to form! After carefully inspecting these incredible formations, we leave the cave and head towards the eaves of “Two Horseshoes” where we live an experience and later discover even more cave paintings on the rocky walls. These historical footprints and archaeological remains were left by the indigenous natives of the region who used these caves and walls to protect themselves, live and eat.

After our time exploring this magnificent natural formation, our comfortable and private transfer will take us to the Riverside Camp, where our journey ends.

Admire the changing Patagonia sky that stretches out into the horizon and herds of iconic Patagonian sheep grazing on grand estancias!

Today, we begin early with an energy-boosting breakfast to prepare us for our final trek – the base of the iconic Towers. Along with our guide, we take a 2 hour transfer to the Las Torres Sector of the park where our trek begins with an ascent, following the Ascencio River into the Ascencio Valley.

Después de aproximadamente una hora, nos detendremos para observar cómo se desarrolla la belleza del valle con ricos bosques de hayas, glaciares y cascadas.

Pasado este mirador, continuamos cuesta arriba y atravesamos frondosos bosques de hayas antes de ascender a una gigantesca morrena terminal (la cresta formada en el punto final de un glaciar) donde seremos recompensados ​​con la vista deslumbrante de las tres torres.

At this lookout point 900 m (2,953 ft.) above sea level, we’ll rest, take photos and have lunch. Our descent is along the same path, taking us back where our private transfer awaits to take us back to our cozy Riverside Camp.

After breakfast, our transfer will take us along the Paine River past Lake Pehoe to Pudeto where we will begin our first gentle round-trip hike for the day.

We will pass by the Salto Grande Waterfall where the Nordenskjöld Lake flows into the Pehoe Lake creating a magnificent turquoise blue water.

We can enjoy the area’s boardwalk which offers spectacular views of the lake as well as the Paine Grande & Cuernos mountains.

Continuing on along a gentle path, we will pass by an open area where the effects of the 2005 national park fire can be seen. Our trail takes us along the black sandy beach of Nordenskjöld Lake where one can feel the powerful Patagonia winds before arriving up top to the Cuernos lookout point which offers captivating views of the French Valley, Los Cuernos, and Paine Grande mountain.

Listen closely as you can hear the valley´s glaciers as they shake and move down the icy rock. Taking the same path back, we will enjoy a fresh snack, fresh drink, and short rest.

After a 45 minute transfer, we’ll stop at the Paine Waterfall to admire the amazing towers in the background of this powerful cascade. Our last photo stop will be at the iconic Amarga Lagoon Lookout, from where we’ll say goodbye to Torres del Paine National Park.

After our transfer back to Puerto Natales, enjoy a farewell dinner and feel at home at the cozy Chile Nativo headquarter.

Tonight’s rest will be only 2 blocks away from dinner, at the charming The Veat Hotel.

After a restful final night and a free morning in the quiet coastal town of Puerto Natales, you will enjoy lunch at a great local restaurant before being picked up for the last transfer to Puerto Natales airport. Have a safe trip back home!