Chilean Patagonia
Patagonia is a sparsely populated region located at the southernmost tip of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile and home to fantastic mountain peaks, vast and empty steppes, glaciers and icefields, and stunning national parks. As the travel writer Bruce Chatwin famously declared, it is "the farthest place to which man walked from his place of origin.” The region comprises the southern section of the Andes mountains as well as the deserts, pampas and grasslands east of this southern portion of the Andes.
Humboldt Penguins
The Humboldt penguin (also known as the Chilean penguin, Peruvian penguin, or patranca) is a South American penguin that breeds in coastal Chile and Peru. The penguin is named after the cold water current it swims in, which is itself named after Alexander von Humboldt, an explorer. Humboldt penguins are visibly thinner than other species that store more fat and plumage in their body. The climate they inhabit is warm in some areas, and intense sunlight increases their body temperature.
Easter Island
Easter Island is a cultural and architectural wonder not to be missed, most famous of course for its ubiquitous moai: monolithic stone figures that have puzzled and fascinated visitors for centuries. Known as Rapa Nui to the Polynesian society that settled there in 300AD, the name “Easter Island” comes from the Dutch explorer Jaboc Roggeveen, who landed there on Easter Sunday, 1722. The more than 900 moai known to date are believed to be the living faces of the community’s ancestors, facing away from the ocean...
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Chile is a bewitching place of extremes: millennial glaciers in the southernmost part of the planet, enchanted forests, massive volcanoes, remote islands full of legends, and great wines. We’ll start in the multi-faceted city of Santiago surrounded by photogenic vineyards producing some of the world’s best wines. Then, we’ll tour Patagonia, a mythic land of fjords, mountains and glaciers hidden among green landscapes that give way to the horizon disappearing at the end of the world. We'll conclude with the Atacama Desert, framed by the formidable grandeur of the Andes and the driest place on Earth, dotted with fertile oases and its otherworldly landscapes sustaining an abundance of life.
The enigmatic Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, with its spiritual monuments and giant Moai statues tells the story of the unique culture of its ancient Polynesian people. Located 2,300 miles or a five hour flight from the coast of South America, Easter Island is a tiny volcanic rock, surrounded by the clearest, deepest waters on the planet. The island’s very remoteness lends it an unmistakable authenticity and an aura of mystery. This is where the mystical Rapa Nui culture created the enormous stone Moai standing as a testimony to its unique and complex past, while its language, music and traditions are kept alive by the island’s native population.
Santiago, Patagonia and Atacama Desert
January 21 - 30, 2025
10 Days / 9 Nights
This tour starts and ends in Santiago de Chile.
$5,980 double occupancy
$1,840 optional single supplement
$360 additional pre-tour night, single or double room, including airport transfer
Includes all fees and taxes
Easter Island
January 30 - February 2, 2025
4 Days / 3 Nights
This tour starts and ends in Santiago de Chile
$3,540 double occupancy
$1,380 optional single supplement
$320 optional post tour night, single or double room
Includes all fees and taxes
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Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert of northern Chile is the driest in the world, settled between a line of low coastal mountains, the Cordillera de la Costa, and the foothills of the Andes, Cordillera Domeyko. Consisting mostly of salt plains that lend an eerie white cast to the surrounding dunes, the desert is home to such otherworldly landscapes as the Valley of the Moon and the Valley of Mars, so named for their resemblance to planetary surfaces. NASA has even tested Martian rovers here, basing their observations on the similarities between the desert and the lifeless planes of Mars.
Popular Chilean Dishes
Chilean cuisine is a hybrid of traditional Spanish cuisine, Chilean Indigenous Mapuche culture and local ingredients, with later important influences from other European cuisines, particularly from Germany, Italy and France. The food tradition and recipes in Chile are notable for the variety of flavors and ingredients, with the country’s diverse geography and climate hosting a wide range of agricultural produce, fruits and vegetables. The long coastline provides an immense array of seafood products to Chilean cuisine...
Chilean Wines
Although Chile is a New World wine region, the wine production has a long history dating back to the 16th century and the Spanish conquistadors who brought Vitis vinifera vines with them when they colonized the region. In the mid-19th century, French wine varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carmenère and Franc were introduced. In the early 1980s, a renaissance began with the introduction of stainless steel fermentation tanks and the use of oak barrels for aging.
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