inad

Tomorrow I am flying down to Punta Arenas to begin a three week Patagonian holiday. I booked the flights with pretty much no plans and have been eagerly reading other's trip reports here about similar holidays (they are so useful, thanks to all who take the time to write them).

At the moment I have three nights booked in Punta Arenas and that's it. I'm a bit of a last minute organizer. My rough itinerary is:
3 nights Punta Arenas - bus to Ushuaia
3 nights Ushuaia - fly to El Calafate
3 nights El Calafate - bus to Puerto Natales
6 nights Puerto Natales/doing the W trek

This leaves me 5 spare nights (partially for leeway as I know some buses may be booked out etc.) before I have to be back in Punta Arenas for my return flight to Santiago. So I'd welcome any advice about where to stay longer or other places to visit. And maybe I'll turn this thread into a trip report

thursdaysd

El Chalten from El Calafate?

Bariloche between Ushuaia and El Calafate?

odie1

agree with thursday-El Chalten

yestravel

I missed el Chalten and still regret it. How about the bus boat bus trip from Chile to ARg and then stay in Bariloche or move on to St.Martin de Los Andes which I preferred over Bariloche. I read the 7 lakes road has been paved finally.

inad

Thanks for your responses! I think I'll try to add El Chalten in after El Calafate then head to Puerto Natales. I'll do some trip reporting now I suppose!

26/1/16
At 10.30am I took the 6 hour bus north from Concepción to Santiago for my 8pm flight to Punta Arenas, no hassles there. My Sky flight was fine, not the most comfortable but I can't complain as it only cost $60 or so! I arrived in Punta Arenas at 1am. Left the plane, retrieved my bag and was out of the airport and in a taxi all in about 10 minutes (an incredible experience after going through hours of JFK recently). The taxi from the airport to my hostel was 9,000 pesos.

I'm staying at Entre Vienots hostel in a 10 bed dorm and it seems lovely so far, the girl at reception was very nice and check in was easy and fast. Happily slept after such a long travel day.

27/1/16
This mornig I had breakfast provided by the hostel with a lovely view overlooking the water. I chatted with some other guests, one of which recently went to Ushuaia and really didn't like it, she said it was expensive and touristy. This has made me unsure of my plans to spend three nights there! I might cut it down to two but I need to make a decision now..

After breakfast I booked the 3pm penguin tour from my hostel and then headed to the Bus Sur station to book my bus to Ushuaia, there was one available on the 29th which I booked. Now I'm sitting in a nice cafe drinking hot chocolate and trying to decide how long to stay in Ushuaia so I can book accommodation and flights!

thursdaysd

Will be interested to hear how you like Ushaia. I didn't find it particularly attractive from what I had read, and decided to save it for a possible visit to Antarctica. Hope it works out well for you.

inad

Trip report! Catching up slowly but surely. Thursdaysd - Ushuaia was nicer than I was expecting! That said my expectations were very low. I'm now writing this from lovely living room in my hostel in El Calafate.

27/1/16 - Ice Skating and Grandparents

After much deliberation in that cafe in Punta Arenas I finally decided to spend two nights in Ushuaia then fly to El Calafate, stay three nights and make more decisions about what to do next there. I booked flights and accom and headed back to my hostel to have some lunch before heading out on my penguin tour.

When I got back to the hostel I found out that the tour to Isla Magdalena was full! Annoying! But I booked it for the next day and considered what to do for the now free afternoon. I remembered a girl I went to university with was from Punta Arenas (I was studying in Concepción this year), so I sent her a message asking if she was around, she was and we organized to meet up at 5!

I had a bit of time to kill so wandered around the cemetery, which was close to my hostel, it was quite interesting. Worth a visit if you have some spare time but not a must see IMO (especially not a must see if you've been to Recoletta cemetery in Buenos Aires).

I walked along the promenade, which was quite pleasant, if windy, and met my friend in Plaza Armas. We walked to La Roca, a small and apparently famous kiosk nearby. I had the choripan and leche platano (bread with chorizo and milk with banana), which are 'muy tipico' of Punta Arenas. Both were delicious and it cost only 1500 pesos for both. Not bad! We then headed to Zona Franca, a large duty free shopping zone. Useful if you need to buy gear or want perfume, swiss army knives, clothes, souvenirs or just cheap groceries. There was also an ice skating rink so I went ice skating! Very random, but it was only 1,800 pesos for 30 minutes. Compared to the $26 ice skating I did in New York this was brilliant, and there were only about 4 other people on the ice.

Next we headed to her grandparents house, a very random day indeed but it was pleasant to have a chat with them. After a while there I went home and had some dinner and a chat with some other hostel guests before a very sound sleep.

28/1/16 - Penguins!!

Today I organized to meet the same friend at 11am. She wanted to take me to some sort of feria, but I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Two people from the hostel seemed interested in the mystery feria so I invited them to come. We walked to Plaza Armas again, met my friend and then all walked to a nearby highschool where we paid 1,000 pesos each to enter. There were different little stalls selling everything from handicrafts and souvenirs to phone covers and food. My two new hostel friends were supremely unimpressed and left after about 5 minutes, I was a bit dubious as well, as the first stalls we saw seemed pretty tacky, but I stayed anyway. I'm glad I did because it turned out to be much bigger than I first realized and I bought some quite unique and nice souvenirs/gifts, received a free gift bag with a map of Torres Del Paine and some playing cards and ate some really delicious macaroons. There was also a stall where a man had this 3D virtual reality set up, you could try on some goggles and then you feel like you're on a roller coaster. Another random activity to be doing in Patagonia but it was certainly interesting. I'm not sure how long or often this feria is open but I think it was called expo and was on a street a few blocks from Plaza Armas heading away from the water.

After this we headed to her grandparents once more (her grandparents and I are just best friends now) and after a short while I took a taxi to Puente Tres, or Tres Puentes I forget tbh, to go see 60,000 penguins on Isla Magdalena! I really enjoyed the tour. The two hours in the slow and crowded ferry were bearable, even enjoyable, both because I was expecting it and I met a lovely Dutch couple who I spoke with the whole way there and back (they were only 29 and had been together 11 years!!).

We arrived on the island and had an hour to walk along the path. It was incredible! So many penguins just centimeters away, I really enjoyed watching them go about their daily business paying no mind to all the people. I could have happily spent a lot longer than an hour there, but alas, we boarded the boat once more and headed back to Punta Arenas.

The tour cost 35,000 pesos and went from 3pm - 8pm, and was definitely worth it IMO.

I went back to my hostel and had a quiet night preparing for my 8.30am bus to Ushuaia the next day.

29/1/16 - Travel Day!

I got up a bit late and rushed my way to the Bus Sur station, I arrived with plenty of time for my 8.30 bus, followed by a truly thrilling 12 hours of sitting on a bus and going through immigration.

To be honest it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. When we got off the ferry I saw a fox super close to us! It was adorable. And on the drive between the ferry and Ushuaia I saw many guanacos and those birds which are like ostriches or emus but I'm not sure what they're called. Immigration was a breeze, no one even asked me if I was carrying a plant when I entered Argentina, no one filled out any forms and no bags were taken off the bus.

I arrived in Ushuaia at about 8pm, so the trip took 11 and a half hours (and we left late, of course so probably more like 11 hours actually driving) Not too bad, the bus ticket was 35,000 Chilean pesos.

I walked to my hostel, called Los Cormorones. It was a bit of a trek uphill but it was nice to stretch my legs. I put my bags away and immediately went back out for a look around town and to find an ATM.

Although I had to try about 6 ATMs before I found one that worked for me (very stressful), it was a lovely evening. The town seemed cute in the evening light and I watched a beautiful sunset over the water and the mountains from down by the Beagle Channel. I then bought groceries, headed home and made some dinner and after a nice chat with my dorm mates, headed to sleep.