Awasi Patagonia - 15 to 18 Feb

All I can say is that it’s a damn long way to go for two-and-a-half days…..but well worth it.  Having left the hotel in Santiago at 0715, we did not arrive at the Awasi until 1730 that evening – a flight via Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas followed by a 4.5 hour drive to nowhere – well, not exactly nowhere, but on the edge of the Torres del Paine, a 200,000 hectare national park in southern Patagonia.

The ultimate bucolic scene

Spot the hotel

The Awasi is situated in the foothills of a local mountain range in ground which is let from a local estancia.  It is a modern build and, whilst it initially looks slightly out of place in such wild territory, it somehow blends in well.  Inside, everything is immaculate and well designed, and we had plenty of spare room - even with 3 of us in one room.

Our room - sitting room at far end

The scenery is breath taking, with views to mountains which have seldom been climbed.  

One of the issues here is that virtually every activity here requires about an hour`s drive, minimum, to get to the starting point.  Given that we had spent so much time in a car and had only 3 nights here, we opted to do the walks as close to the hotel as possible.  

 There was what looked like a fairly easy hike right behind the hotel – a 2500 foot climb – 4 to 5 hours to the top & back – no problem!  The only problem was that the final half to the top was on scree; two steps forwards, one step backwards – and it was steep!

 Our reward was a small but welcome picnic at the top with our guide, Patrick, followed by, on the way down, a visit from a local Condor – Wow!  He/She came within 10 meters of us.  Unfortunately I only had my small camera, but even so I was very happy with the result!

A true Condor moment

 After the walk, we were informed that we were only the 4^th group to make the top.  Admittedly the hotel only opened in November, so not too many contenders for that objective – but not an easy walk.

We also went on a couple of spectacular rides.  Having insisted that we wanted horses that were going to be fiery, we were hoisted by our own petard, being given horses that ONLY wanted to go flat out and were difficult to master.  WHAT FUN we had chasing the Guanaco on the plain and galloping for miles, Jemima and Philippa clearly well in control but James having to resort to pointing his horse uphill from time to time in order to draw it to a halt! This really was riding in the wild.

Victor, a rodeo pro and additional Gaucho

Dishy Gaucho Daniel

Our Gaucho, Daniel, did not seem to care what we did or when we did it.  However our Awasi guide (who was also with us) was having kittens, envisaging broken bones as we took off with gay abandon.  At the end, he admitted he hadn’t had so much fun on a ride since being at the Awasi, since most guests don’t really ride.

Guanaco

One of the things we really noticed about the landscape was the number of Guanaco and sheep skeletons (and occasional carcass) scattered around the place.  For a protected species, the Guanaco are plentiful in this part of Patagonia and they wander around in largish (40) herds.  They are terrifically territorial, and if unwittingly one wanders across a certain male`s territory, he is highly likely to start his extaordinary braying noise, which sounds just like he is laughing at you.

There is however one other protected species here – the Puma.  Shy animals, they tend to operate at night and are very effective killers.

Guanaco grazing

The people at the Awasi were delightful.  They add a new dimension to the word service – where else would you find a general manager prepared to take a 9-year-old off your hands for an hour….and end up playing hide-and-seek around the hotel with her!  Thank you Rosario!  

On a hike

The place only accommodates 24 guests and each room has its own vehicle and guide for the duration.  It comes at a fair price, but there is no question that the whole experience was incredibly spoiling.  

Orange Brested Finch?

The chef was excellent and the bartenders superb – the Pisco Sours as good as you get anywhere.  We would like to have spent a little longer there, but our 4-day cruise beckoned.  We were driven back to Puerto Natales, where we changed cars into a ridiculously small car (we had 10 items of luggage by now) for the final 200km to Punta Arenas.  All went smoothly – boarding the Via Australis – until………

Mallin Colorado, Northern Patagonia - 10 Feb to 14 Feb

This latest blog is being written from the aircraft on our way back to Santiago - the previous one having only been sent this morning due to technical hitches at the lodge...

10th Feb - still with the Arbuthnott party, we had an early start, but only had to walk 100 yards to the check-in desk from the hotel reception.   We were flying to Balmaceda in Northern Patagonia.  The road transfer from Balmaceda airport to Mallin Colorado was a gruelling  4 and a bit hours, over 3 of which were on bumpy track.  

Mallin Colorado is an up-market Eco Lodge on the edge of lake General Carrera.  The lake is huge, with 973 sq km of it in Chilean territory, its easterly end being in Argentina (where it is called Lago Buenos Aires).

Lake General Carrera

The scenery is to die for: alpine snow-capped, and often glacier-bearing mountains, interspersed with glacial lakes and rivers.  The colour of the water is a totally improbable, piercing blue -  as if it has been altered in the editing of a photograph.

We are accommodated in wood cabins, most of which have spectacular views of the lake and surrounding countryside through floor-to-ceiling windows.  Luckily ours was one such. 

our home for 4 nights

Pip, Jemima and I were sharing with 2 delightful woman: Sara and Clare.  We are part of a 10 person group (3 are men) 4 of whom have unfortunately been widowed over the years, but all of whom have a wonderful perspective and outlook on life, not to mention a sharp wit.

The gang
Liz, Marina, Hughie, Sarah, Clare, Jemima, Philippa, James, Robert and Pamela

On one day we did a hefty 3.5 hour walk to a spectacular viewing point (Jemima rode!).....

Viewpoint from top of walk.

.....on another, a ride up the same track.

Yes - more horses

The Marble Cathedral

More marble

We also took a boat (or two) to view the Marble Cathedral, a couple of huge lumps of marble which, millions of years ago split from the marble cliffs above, fell into the lake, to then be eroded by the elements, creating wonderful caves with amazing shapes and colours.

The highlight for me however, was visiting the confluence of the Baker river, (the only exit from lake General Carrera) with another, somewhat dirtier river.  This provided numerous Kodak moments.  The Baker river is the fastest flowing in Chile and it's force was impressive.

Confluence of the Baker River and one other

Overall, we had a lovely time at Mallin Colorado. We were also blessed with good weather, since the previous week had been more like the UK's.  The staff were delightful, and given the remote location, the food not bad.  

This part of our trip is now ending and tonight over a slap up dinner in Santiago we will be saying goodbye to the group.  Thank you Hughie Arbuthnott for looking after us all so well.  And thank you Liz, Marina, Clare, Sarah, Pamela and Robert for being such good company and for being so accepting of Jemima.  We fly early tomorrow to Punta Arenas where we have a 5 hour transfer to the Awasi Patagonia...Ugh.  Time to look at a movie me thinks!

Santiago, Vina de Playa and Mapuyampay - Santa Cruz wine territory - 5 Jan to 9 Jan

We have now left the care of Harry Hastings and his crew - at least for the next 10 days - and have entered the realm of Hughie Arbuthnott, who will be showing us some of the sights of Chile.  We left Tierra Atacama with a large box of stuff, mainly excess clothing, to post back to the UK and subsequently flew from Calma to Santiago - no excess baggage to pay!

Our first night in Santiago was spent at the Ritz Carlton where the highlight was undoubtedly breakfast - for Jemima at least.

Breakfast at the Ritz

Franciscan church

 A morning tour of the city took in a 500 year old Franciscan church which managed to survive the 2010 earthquake unscathed and was really quite impressive.  A visit to the Pinochet regime's detention (torture) centre at 38 Londres, where a number of left wing sympathisers entered never to be seen again - some of their names are commemorated in brass plaques embedded in the pavement outside.  Lunch al fresco was followed by a 2 hour drive South to the Vina de Playa (VP).

Jemima with Aristotle

View of modern day Santiago featuring the tallest
building in Latin America

VP is a 400 acre vineyard which produces some excellent wines - especially of the Carmenere grape variety.  The main house surrounds a courtyard and there is a very welcoming terrace overlooking the main lawn where we took tea and lemonade.

Vina de Pl

The pool at Vina Playa

There is also a very nice pool area where we were treated to a wonderful barbecue.  This was only a 2 day stopover and we were given a great tour of the winery by Hughie followed by a very civilised wine tasting.

Inspecting the barreling process

Wine tasting at VP

The following day we drove for half an hour and stopped off at what we thought would be a fairly bog-standard, provincial museum in Santa Cruz.  How mistaken we were:  it proved to be one of the most wonderful museums any of us have ever been to.  Owned by an extremely wealthy arms dealer, it covers the ages, starting off with a spectacularly large lump of meteorite, moving through amazing fossils, Chilean history, entry to the era of industrialisation (displaying old British made printing presses, telephone systems etc) right to the modern day.

Mummified face

The finale was a presentation on the rescue of "Los 33", the miners trapped in the Atacama desert, 700 meters below ground - and their subsequent rescue.  The museum bought just about ALL of the artefacts from that rescue - right down to the clothes they wore and the telephone that was first used to make contact with those trapped.  This is a must-see if you are in the area.

the actual vehicle used for extracting the miners

On leaving the museum, we drove to some truly wonderful friends of Hughie's - Jose Luis and Consuelo Callejas,  her lovely parents, Don Mario and his wife Carmen and Consuelo's daughter, Consuelito.   Given that 8 strangers turned up on their doorstep and that their collective English (with the exception of the two Consuelos) was not brilliant, they were unbelievably welcoming and gave us a superb lunch.

Consuelo and Jose Luis

The last 2 days have been spent at a gourmet retreat where the owners, Ruth and Vicente, also run cooking courses.

How to make Cervice

Relaxing after a heavy cooking course / lunch

Ruth is an extraordinary woman.  She runs this upmarket B&B (it is called Mapuyampay) for 5 months of the year and for the rest of the year she is the chef for the Concha Y Toro (the wine house) marketing road show, touring the world providing food to compliment the wines.  She is a superb cook (and teacher) and, together with her husband Vicente, are great hosts.
We had a wonderfully relaxing time with them and the 2 days passed all too quickly.

View from our terrace

Another wine tasting

Philippa hanging up the washing

We drove back to Santiago on the evening of 9th Feb, spent the night at the airport Holiday In (which wasn't at all bad) ready for our departure at 0730 the next day for Balmaceda - in Patagonia........

Tierra Atcama - Jan 31 to Feb 4

This is very much an activity hotel.  When we arrived, we were immediately sat down with the Activities Manager in front of a giant map of the region and he ran through what we could do in our 3 days here.  We elected for a series of walks, a sunrise visit to the nearby (well, 90km and at 4,300 m) geysers, a horse ride and a bicycle ride.

View from dining room - slightly obscured!

All meals, drinks, activities etc. are included in the price, so we are trying to make the most of it!  The view from the dining room (where I am writing this blog) is to die for and the staff are great.

We have now done a couple of sensational walks - one up a river, culminating in swimming in its natural hot springs....

River in the Atacama?

More of the same

Wonderful Pampas grasses

In the canyon

Objective - hot springs

...and the other, through what they call the 'Devil's Gorge' - a river bed which has sculpted the local terrain into what looks like something from Petra in Jordan.

Top of the 'Devils Gorge'

Down on the bed

These hills are mainly made from alluvial deposit and volcanic rock.
Most of them simply crumble when climbed on and they erode at
one hell of a rate.



























The highlight however has to be the early evening ride we did into the desert, which incorporated dramatic scenery, superb riding and a super-hunky guide (according to Pip) - Marcos.

Marcos - the guide

We had a blast and were given free rein to go where we wanted and at whatever speed once we hit the desert.

Tally Ho!

James on way to salt lake

 There was also a really fun 18k bike ride, mainly along dirt tracks - and the scenery was once again, totally different.  With views of the Andes in the background, it was more akin to riding through Savanna grasslands in Kenya.  Philippa and Jemima joined James for the last 5K and we all ended up at a large salt lake, which was about a meter deep.  To say we went for a swim would be to exaggerate.  We sat down in the water which was so dense with salt, that we literally sat there with crossed legs and floated.  It was like sitting in a very comfortable chair!

Finally, we all went on the big trip to the geysers.  This involved us getting up at 5:00am, leaving at 5:30, driving for 2 hours and then touring the geysers as the sun came up.  Come 5am, the alarm goes off and at 5 minutes past, the phone rings; "are you coming, if so, we are ready to go" said the voice at the other end.  We had been given the wrong time!  You have never seen 3 people move so fast - luckily we had all prepared the night before - and we were at reception by 5:15, only to then discover that we were the only people going!


The trip was well worth while.  We de-bussed at around 7:15 at 4,300 meters, and it was minus 2 degrees.  It was becoming lighter by the minute and we were given a great tour by Nico, our guide for the morning.  There are quite a number of separate geysers, some larger than others.  There is even a natural swimming pool up there where a few had taken the plunge.  The trick then is not to get out until the sun is up, at which point the temperature rises rapidly.

To avoid the departing rush (once the place starts to warm up, the geothermic activity subsides quite rapidly and everyone leaves) we were given breakfast on-site with the hot chocolate being heated in one of the springs - it was certainly hot.
Although we only spent 3 days at the hotel, we thought that the service and people were outstanding.  Each activity was well planned with some lovely touches (like containers of hot water to wash of the salty water at the lake) and all contingencies catered for.  It certainly gets our  vote!

A scavenging fox which came right up the the vehicle.

Vicunya by the road