Two weeks in Chile and Argentina (the 6 week trip that was cut short)

We flew into Santiago and straight on to X. Very often people fly to Punta Arenas and then transfer to Puerto Natales, however, to save on time we made sure we could time it to fly directly to Puerto Natales. We stayed the night and got out bags sorted for the W trek the next day. 

The W Trek, Patagonia, Chile - when you do this trek you have so many options in terms of how long you take, which way you trek, the accommodation you stay in and how you eat. Obviously the more "help" you get the more costly it is and given the isolated location the costs can certainly add up. We opted for pitched tents (so we didn't have to carry equipment) other than the final night where no tents were available and we had a dorm room in the Refugio. We also opted for full board for food so we didn't need to carry food with us (other than some snacks and water). The route we took was Paine Grande to Grey (pitched tent in Grey) - Grey to Paine Grande with an extended walk to (pitched tent in Paine Grande) - Paine Grande to Cuernos (pitched tent in Cuernos) - Cuernos to Chileno (including trek to the 3 Torres and back).

We lucked out with the weather and had an absolutely fantastic time! We made some friends along the way as the refugios are quite sociable and we all hiked up to Chileno and the 3 towers on the last day (well the last full day).  Some handy pointers are below:

Getting there - Torres del Paine is easily accessible by bus from Puerto Natales which should be booked in advance.

Park entry: You must get entry tickets and overnight stays in the park arranged before you visit via

Time needed: We did it in 5 days and 4 nights but it obviously depends on what you want to do. We also met people that did the "O" rather than the "W" which is a longer distance.

El Calafate, Argentina - after a nights stay in Puerto Natales we got on an early bus to El Calafate where we were headed to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. 
The glacier did not disappoint - it is one the only advancing glaciers in the world (most are retreating) and it's over 60 metres in height. The scale is absolutely unbelievable.

We chose to take a walk around as well as do a short boat ride to get closer which I would definitely recommend. It was incredible to stand and watch as chunks of the glacier would fall off and crash into the water. 

El Chalten, Argentina - We then headed off on an early bus to EL Chalten - the views were amazing as we were approaching and the Fitz Roy was visible for ages! We arrived just before midday and were told by the tourist center that we should do the hike with the Fitz Roy that day as the weather forecast was worse for the next day. We didn't think we would have time but after that advice we quickly went to dump our bags and off we went. The hike was incredible and we were so glad we did it that day! The weather is so changeable and again we felt so lucky to have done this in great weather! We did another hike the next day before another overnight stay and a flight to Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires, Argentina - the plan was to see some of the sites on the first day and potter around on the second. A had been to BA before and whilst I'd been to Argentina years before I'd never been to BA. we visited Boca and watched some Argentine tango, went to Recoleta and saught our some gluten free empanadas for A. A also found somewhere to get his haircut. That night we'd planned on visiting a Milonga and had narrowed it down to Matilda Milonga - however when we got there is was closed and we couldn't understand why. We soon found out through passers by that it was due to Covid. It's the first we had heard of it over there - it had only just been found over there - this was just the start of things to come! The next day the whole of BA was almost closed and no attractions were open. We went on a walking tour that was still running and we could see that Europeans were starting to see some hostility as the view was that they had brought it over with them. We were so glad we had done the sites the day before!

That night we boarded our night bus to the much anticipated Mendoza where we were going to enjoy chilling on vineyards and drinking red wine - with Malbec being A's favourite. The bus was a great experience - it was like being on a plane as we got a meal and our seats reclined almost into a bed! I was starting to get a little nervous being in an enclosed space given the unknown with Covid but we we're powering in ahead with our trip as things at home we're still "normal" as far as we could see with the news despite the number of cases that were being reported.

Mendoza, Argentina - We'd booked a stay in a lovely vineyard in Mendoza (it turns out they provide their grapes to Trivento - a wine we can get at home!). They told us that some of the vineyards were restricting access to Europeans so we might not get in any. Fortunately a couple (including the one we wanted to go to as we drink the wine at home) were fine with us going as we'd been out of the UK for two weeks already given we had been in Chile. So we spent the next two days enjoying beautiful food and wine. Our highlight had to be the tour and meal at Zuccardi (Santa Julia wine) - the food and the wine just kept flowing and it was amazing!

The next day things took a turn - many of the European countries were now closing borders, Ecuador had closed its borders so we knew we couldn't do the Galapagos anymore, Argentina has announced they were stopping international flights from the 16th March and places of work in the UK were starting to announce working from home. We realised very quickly that we probably needed to find our way home early 😢. We were chatting to some friends we'd made on the W trek and they'd basically not been allowed in any hotels in BA and had to camp out at the airport. My parents and my friend were trying to get us flights home direct to the UK as we didn't want to risk getting stuck anywhere else in Europe. and we couldn't get through to our airline to change our flights. We had the choice of going back to BA and flying from there or crossing the border into Chile and flying from Santiago - we opted for the latter as it was actually closer and also Chile were being quite as extreme with the measures they were putting in as Argentina were. We booked the last two seats(!!!) on a bus to get us to Santiago the next day. The people at our accommodation were so kind and told us we must go straight back to them if we had any problems at the bus station and they would take care of us. Luckily we got on the bus and were on our way. We had a scary stop at a check point where police officers got on wearing masks - all I could think was the Argentinians don't want us here so all will be OK with us getting to Chile. Once we made it across the border I relaxed. We stayed in a hotel overnight and got to the airport the next morning. The plan was a flight to San Jose, a 24 hour layover and then a flight direct to Heathrow and from there my cousins husband was very kindly going to drive us back home to Leeds. Our friends for the W trek had also managed to get on our flight but then later managed to get on the flight 24 hours earlier! I realised if we could get earlier flights out of Santiago we also stood a chance of getting this one if we were on standby. So off we went to ask for a standby flight and amazingly we got one! We landed in San Jose with about 30 minutes to spare to try and get on standby for the earlier flight. I've never run through an airport so fast and of course A typically got questioned at passport control for ages! We then tried to explain to the staff at the airport what we wanted to do - but they didn't speak English and we didn't speak Portuguese - so in broken Spanish they finally realised what we wanted to do and we got tickets for the earlier flight! Again we ran through security and surprised our friends at the gate. It was all quite emotional. A lot of people were wearing masks on the flight and two girls were even wearing full hazmat suits - it did make me feel quite uneasy. In the end we landed in Heathrow and headed on the train home given we had landed a day early for our ride. We decided we would isolate once we got home given the amount of transport we'd been on -  but the UK went into lockdown 4 days later anyway! We just felt so unbelievably lucky that we had got home particularly when we read about people stuck in Peru! Hopefully we will make it back one day and maybe with the boys.