Patagonia Planning
 

My husband and I are hoping to go to Patagonia next year. Our main interest is puma tracking, which I think is done primarily in Torres del Paine. Several companies offer the puma trips, and I'm curious if anyone has any experience with SouthWild, Cascada, Natural World Safaris or Far South Expeditions. Beyond that, I think we'll want to go to Tierra del Fuego. We'll probably want to spend two to three weeks, so other suggestions of places to go are welcome. I'd enjoy getting to go riding at least once (I rode a lot as a kid, but I would not claim to be experienced), and my husband is an avid photographer. We both enjoy hiking; I expect we'll be doing a lot of that on the puma portion of the trip. Lakes and glaciers are always good.

Thanks for any help.

Kim

I don't know anything about the tour operators as we only used an agent to help us with some logistics and then did it all ourselves. When we were in TdP there was a Dutch couple who went out every morning/evening to photograph Puma, they had some amazing luck and even more amazing pictures.
If you love nature, hiking, wildlife, etc then I highly highly recommend El Chalten. For glaciers, Chalten has some but the most famous and easily accessible (trekking on), is the Perito Moreno in El Calafate.
My daughter and I went riding in TdP as well as Puerto Natales. We enjoyed it but it was a different experience then anything we were used to. I grew up riding and was a tad bit nervous of this but we had a great time-even in the pouring rain.

I did a travel blog with pics for our almost three weeks in southern Patagonia that you can read here:
http://www.travelpod.com/members/odie1

We loved El Chalten so much that we are headed back there this Dec for another six nights. We are adding time in Northern Patagonia this time as well

No experience w puma tracking but recently a poor experience w FSE. Be sure to contract for a specific person, by name and do some research of your own on the itinerary and person, just because simeone is knowledgeable or a good photographer doesn't mean they are a good guide.

Thanks very much for your comments!

Odie1, where did you stay in TdP?

We stayed at hotel rio serrano. We were very happy with it.