looking for Patagonia suggestions

[Lisa Nikodym]

I'm heading down to Patagonia in a few weeks (Nov. 22) to do hiking and photography for a couple of weeks.  We have our lodging reservations already, and are staying in Punta Arenas & Puerto Natales (both briefly), Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, and Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina (both El Calafate and El Chalten), and we are driving between them.

Does anyone here have any particular recommendations for special locations for photography?  I have several good hiking guidebooks and trail maps already, but I'm also happy to hear about any "off the beaten path" special locations for hiking or sightseeing too.  Or, while you're at it, if you have any restaurant recommendations, general travel advice for the area, or anything else useful, I'm happy to hear it.

Thanks,
Lisa

[dilip]

I'm heading down to Patagonia in a few weeks (Nov. 22) to do hiking and photography for a couple of weeks.  We have our lodging reservations already, and are staying in Punta Arenas & Puerto Natales (both briefly), Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, and Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina (both El Calafate and El Chalten), and we are driving between them.

Does anyone here have any particular recommendations for special locations for photography?  I have several good hiking guidebooks and trail maps already, but I'm also happy to hear about any "off the beaten path" special locations for hiking or sightseeing too.  Or, while you're at it, if you have any restaurant recommendations, general travel advice for the area, or anything else useful, I'm happy to hear it.

Thanks,
Lisa
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I did a fly-through of the area last year (almost exactly a year ago actually).  From El Calafate the highlight will definitely be Los Glaciares.  The town itself has a wild-west look to it, but isn't particularly remarkable in my mind.

In Los Glaciares there are a number of tours you can do, one of which involves walking around Perito Moreno Glacier, the other involves walking ON the glacier.  My great regret is that I did the former not the latter because my Buenos Aires based travel agent thought it would be too cold (I'm from Canada... snow and ice annoy me, they don't scare or worry me).

When at Perito Moreno, from an observation deck you'll have the chance to watch chunks of the glacier wall break off.  It's impressive, but somewhat random in timing.  You may have to get attuned to listening for the first cracks and figuring out where they are happening if you want to catch some beautiful ice falls.

There is also a boat tour of several different glaciers on the lake.  Highly recommended.  The deck of the boat will be cool, and windy so make sure you have gloves.  It will also get crowded at various times, so it pays to tough it out when most people are inside so that you have prime shooting locations.  I lucked out and found 2 other people on the cruise who were interested in taking good shots, and the three of us spotted for each other and we switched places to get different views.  It still ranks as my highest shot count day.

It may pale in comparison to what Antarctica is like, but it does give an impression (after all the Argentine army trained on the Upsala Glacier in anticipation of strikingout into Antarctica to make a claim).

I would strongly suggest brown bagging your lunch.  I simply went to an empanada shop the night before and bought a bunch of empanadas for the next day.  It was cheaper and more satisfying than the boxed lunches that the hotels seemed to pack for people.

I'm envious... I'd love to get back.

--dilip

[sergio]

In el Calafate there are several tours and stuff you can do. The Upsala Glacier that is beautiful is a boat ony tour which means you cannot walk around the galcier. I wouldn't do the perito Moreno with a tour because you will arrive late in the morning with a busload of tourists and find several hundred people in the place. I hate tour buses when traveling.
 I'll try to find the contact details of a guy that can drive you around and probably take you everywhere and stop where you want to and the time of the day you want to.
The surroundings of Calafate have very interesting photo oportunities.
The El chalten part is incredible for photography. Plan several days if you are good at hiking.

Try to do all the treks you can because it is very beautiful indeed, and you won't be seeing hoardes of tourists. Mt. fitz roy is very beautiful and offers amazing views. I believe you can even hike to the continental ice shelf, but for that you need a professional guide, pro mountain gear and probably very good physical condition. Anyway the majority of treks do take several hours each way. It is a VERY windy location, keep that in mind.

Be prepared to sleep very little because days are very long and nights are very short.
patagonia lamb is absolutley great. Argentinian people are very kind.

I´ll see if find the drivers contacts.

[CatOne]

I spent 4 days in Torres del Paine... IMO due to variable weather you need at LEAST that many days.  If photography is the main point, you'd do well to spend a full week down there to improve your chances of getting a couple good sunrises or sunsets.

Anyway... we stayed at Hosteria Los Torres.  A nice place... very expensive for Chile (anything down there is), but it had a restaurant.  There are few lodging options in the park.  Hosteria was like $200 US/night (probably more now).  Anyway... out the back of the Hosteria it was maybe 4 miles up to a lake at the base of the Torres.

You'll see lots of guanacos:



And here's the view of the Torres from the top of the hike (I actually made this hike... about 4 miles each way... 2 days in a row because on the first day I couldn't see the back of the lake at all and it was raining hard all day):



Behind the Torres (from the other side) are the Cuernos del Paine:



And if you're lucky you might get a decent picture of a Condor:



This was more of a "snapshot" trip with the girlfriend (now wife) so most are in crappy mid-day light but it's a beautiful area.  But the weather down there, again, is unpredictable, so don't plan on getting good weather everywhere if you chug along on the itinerary.

Anyway, the Hosteria itself is very centrally located to the Torres and the Cuernos.  From what I recall much of the rest of the park was camping only.  It's not all that well travelled down there -- and few of the folks are Chilean (or Argentinean).  Most of them are European.

Punta Arenas itself is small (and windy!) and maybe worth a day or two but nothing huge.  There is a breeding colony of Magellanic penguins about 30 KM outside the city if you're into that.  Oh, and note that much of the transportation from Punta Arenas to Torres del Paine is small shuttles that will stop by Guanaco and Ostrich farms on the way to the park... No doubt they're paid by the farmers to bring people buy to buy stuff.

I didn't get to El Calafate or El Chalten... just into Torres del Paine for 4 days before heading up to the lake region.

[Lisa Nikodym]

Thanks, all, for the suggestions so far.

CatOne, your photos of Paine park are gorgeous!  The hike to that lake with the towers was already priority #1 for our first decent-weather day there; we'll be there for five days, which is hopefully enough.  We're also going to try to get to one of the two penguin colonies on our one day in Punta Arenas.  (I mostly wanted to stay in Punta Arenas for two nights in order to give our airline-checked luggage an extra day to catch up with us...)

Sergio, thanks for the offer of contact info for a driver, but will have our own four-wheel-drive vehicle and several good maps.  It's good to know that it's good to get to the Perito Moreno glacier early to avoid the tour crowds - I'll try to get up early that day.  (I[m normally *not* a sunrise person...)  I'll look into the Upsala boat tour, too.  And I'll definitely try the Argentinian lamb!

Regarding the boat tours (either Perito Moreno or Upsala), do you know whether we need to reserve them ahead of time?  Or can we get tickets the day before, or even just before the tour leaves?

Lisa

[Marsupilami]

Just back from Patagonia/torres del Paine

One advice is take a camera which can shoot at high iso, because if you have stormy weather which is quite common you are often not able to make pictures with a tripod. I was often lying on the ground trying to get a good shot. Wind was about 80-120 km/h. The flight back from Patagonia with a stop in Argentina was a nightmare, the plane got some terrible shakes which I have never encountered before on a trip, even not on small planes flying over Alasca or Australia.

Good luck !

Christian

[jorgedelfino]

I'll be heading down that way too! but this time from Punta arenas I'll go to tierra del fuego and Ushuaia by road, the argentinan side for us chileans is a lot cheaper, everything, from fuel and car rental to hotels and food, especially if you compare it with torres del paine!  plus I'm not too turn on by high mountains and  miserable weather...  

[camilla]

Sergio
did you find the driver contact?
I am planning a trip this February- March.
Thank you!

[sergio]

Sorry, I forgot all about it. I'll look it up and email it to you.

Here are some of the images of my trip to share.
Everything shot with a Canon 1Ds in case you would like to know.

[Davidlu]

Hi,

Their is a nice pinguin colony located at Seno Otway. I've loaded some photos i made in Patagonia on my website: www.fotoalbum.lu
I also enjoeyd the boat trip i made in Ushuaia with this company:
-> http://www.tresmariasweb.com/
... also a very nice opportunity for taking good pictures.
best regards,
david

[sergio]

Here is the info of the driver in El Calafate. He also has a small and nice cabin you can rent there for a lot less than the hotels in the area.

CABANAS LA LUCILA
El Calafate - Argentina

phone: 02902 493077 / cell: 1557064907
email: chetinoar@yahoo.com.ar

Good luck with your trip.