I’m about 2 months removed from my incredible trip to both Argentine and Chilean Patagonia. I was able to visit 3 incredible towns in El Chalten, El Calafate, and Puerto Natales. Each location was special in it’s own way and, for my first trip to South America, I was blown away with the kindness and simple beauty each location offered. The peaks of Fitz Roy and Torre as I took my first bus into El Chalten took me away as the sunset offered the clouds above a vibrant pink and orange hue. And that was just the beginning.
With this being my first trip to South America and Patagonia, I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself to make it the perfect trip and told myself going in that it would be a learning experience. I knew I would want to come back, which is true now, and wanted to get a taste of as many different areas as possible in my 9 day time frame. With that, I came away with a few takeaways that can be helpful to anyone travelling to this beautiful mountain region. And before I start, a lot of these are coming from a photographers mindset, so take them with a grain of salt.
My first tip would be to avoid guided trips when possible. My friend, Andrew, and I ended up taking 3 of these and at the end of the day, I would say maybe one of them made sense. Our first one was to Perrito Moreno Glacier. We took a bus from El Calafate in the morning, which gave us some information on the region and how the glaciers were formed. Ultimately, it was a glorified shuttle to the glacier. Once we arrived we were on our own to roam the boardwalk to gain different vantage points. The second guided trip was our hike to Mirador Base las Torres, the alpine lake below the towers of Torres del Paine National Park. We got picked up early from our hotel and arrived about an hour after sunrise to the trailhead. We were accompanied by two other groups, one a newly wed couple and the other an older couple maybe in their 50’s. Both were great company and our guide was a former ranger at the park, so we were able to learn some fun facts on the trees and geology of the area. For me though, an experienced hiker from Colorado, the pace was much slower than I would have liked. Going back, I feel like the best moves are to backpack the “W” trek, stay in a hotel in the park, or rent a car once you cross over into Chile. These all give you more flexability to arrive at your leisure and shoot some incredible scenes at more ideal times. We arrived at the lake around 12 which is not the best light for us snobby photographers. The last guide was a day trip bus tour through Torres del Paine. Our guide was great for this and this gave us a good taste of the entire park as we made close to 10 stops at various points throughout the park. Once again, as you would expect, we were limited to the plans and timing of the guide. We passed several places I would have loved to shoot, but with a larger group you don’t have much say in adjusting the itinerary. Wrapping up this section, we ended up taking buses to get around with some help from guides. If I were to do it again, I would have used buses to get around in Argentina and to Chile, but rented a car once I got to Chile. Trails and major scenic views are much more spread out in the Chilean Patagonia, whereas in El Chalten you can walk to most of the trailheads.
My second piece of advice would be to learn some basic Spanish if you don’t already know it. Both Andrew and I didn’t take any time to do this, and while we had no trouble getting around we agreed it would have been nice to have the ability to have deeper conversations with the people we came across. There were times where the local’s English only went so far and we wished we would have been able to learn about their lives, hear recommendations, and just better get to know who these people were that were so kind and gracious to tourists that barely took the initiative to speak the language of the country they were visiting.
Lastly, for Argentina, you likely won’t be able to get currency ahead of your arrival. With that said, I would recommend bringing cash instead of trying to use card while there. Some places may not even accept card, and those that do will have a high transaction fee. Try to exchange your money at a hotel or airbnb instead of the bank once you get there. You will get a better rate that way. I went straight to the bank in Buenos Aires and then watched Andrew get way more for exchange at our hotel in El Chalten a day later. I also heard that you can exchange through Western Union app if you are uncomfortable bringing a large amount of cash, but with that I would assume the exchange rate would be the same if not closer to the banks than what it is on the streets / hotels.
I’ll wrap things up here to avoid rambling much further, but I hope this is helpful for your next trip to the beautiful region of Patagonia. I’m curious to hear your thoughts as well with this being something new I am trying. Is this helpful? If you have questions feel free to drop a comment, send me an email, DM me! I want to help as much as possible. Maybe I’ll outline my itinerary next…
