My wife, a friend, and I are planning to go to Chile in 2027 for my 50th birthday. My birthday is in February, right around the time of the annular eclipse that will cross Chiloe' and Northern Patagonia. It will our first times in South America for all 3 of us.
We'd really want to go to Patagonia to see it, so I'd like to avoid Chiloe if possible. A quick google search of tour companies show longer guided tours (7 days and up) than I'd be willing to do, so I've started looking into the logistics of doing this ourselves.
I am cringing already. To get from Puerto Montt to Futaleufu (more or less on the centerline of annularity) is only 250 miles but Google Maps is saying that it will take ~11 hours to get there. Maps and tourbooks so far are giving me mixed signals about how much of the road is paved. There are at least 3 ferries that I'd need to take. And other than Futaleufu town, it doesn't look like there's a whole lot of civilization south of Puerto Montt. And my Spanish is limited to what I remember from high school 30-something years ago.
Even if I worked with a travel agent to help iron a lot of things out, do you think trying to do this part of Patagonia is biting off more than the 3 of us can collectively chew? Do I need to start thinking about seeing the eclipse from Quellon on Chiloe`, or even punting on the whole eclipse idea altogether and just staying closer to Santiago and doing stuff within a couple hours' radius of there?
We'd really want to go to Patagonia to see it, so I'd like to avoid Chiloe if possible. A quick google search of tour companies show longer guided tours (7 days and up) than I'd be willing to do, so I've started looking into the logistics of doing this ourselves.
I am cringing already. To get from Puerto Montt to Futaleufu (more or less on the centerline of annularity) is only 250 miles but Google Maps is saying that it will take ~11 hours to get there. Maps and tourbooks so far are giving me mixed signals about how much of the road is paved. There are at least 3 ferries that I'd need to take. And other than Futaleufu town, it doesn't look like there's a whole lot of civilization south of Puerto Montt. And my Spanish is limited to what I remember from high school 30-something years ago.
Even if I worked with a travel agent to help iron a lot of things out, do you think trying to do this part of Patagonia is biting off more than the 3 of us can collectively chew? Do I need to start thinking about seeing the eclipse from Quellon on Chiloe`, or even punting on the whole eclipse idea altogether and just staying closer to Santiago and doing stuff within a couple hours' radius of there?
