Chile three weeks in November (2 Viewers)

[njlarsen]

I have read a bunch of reports and the Mark Pearman guide, and have a pretty good idea about what is going to happen:
Nov 16: low impact at La Cascada de las animas (we have traveled all night)
Nov 17: El Yeso with guide
Nov 18: La Campana with guide
Nov 19-22 conference. End day with car rental and drive south
Nov 23-25: Altos de Lircay, Rio Cipresos, etc. Have to be back in the Valparaiso area by night of the 25th
Nov 26: pelagic from Valparaiso, followed hopefully by a little birding in the afternoon along the coast
Nov 27: late night flight to Arica, car rental and drive to Putre where three nights for Lauca etc.
Nov 30 -Dec 1: drive down and bird around Arica
Dec 2: all day to get to Punta Arenas
Dec 3: around Punta Arenas with guide
Dec 4: drive to Torres Del Paine, spend two nights?
Dec 6-7 Tierra del Fuego and back to Punta Arenas
Dec 8: morning to mid day flight to Santiago. Car rental for mop up duty the next 30 hours.
Dec 9: late evening flight home

I have left the plan a little vague around Arica and am fine with that. I have more questions in the far south: how to balance Torres del Paine with Tierra del Fuego? And secondly, what is the best report for site information in this area?

Thanks
Niels

PS I really hate not getting to the area around Puerto Montt and Chiloe island, but I just could not fit it in this time.

 

[njlarsen]

Having been there and come back, a few comments to above itinerary:

1 Going from a pelagic directly to Putre was a bad idea, especially as the pelagic this day was pretty rough. I became seasick even though I had taken a motion sickness pill. Going directly from that to Putre was to ask for altitude sickness, which I got.

2 I could easily have used 1-2 additional days around Torres del Paine and another one or two on Tierra del Fuego, so at least four more days in the far south.

Central Chile could have used another couple of days, far north probably also, but this was a wonderful taste of the Country. I would definitely recommend this as a travel target if you are not on too strict a budget, Chile is not the cheapest place to travel.

Niels

 

[etudiant]

Niels,
Welcome back! Hope you will post a trip report with photos.

 

[njlarsen]

Thank you. I have plans of posting a trip report, but probably as a regular document. In the meantime, I have started uploading images to the gallery, look at the more recent ones in njlarsen's photos

Cheers
Niels

 

[njlarsen]

The report is up now in this thread

Niels