Trekking Patagonia
Punta Arenas
Otway Sound and Cerro Castillo
Torres del Paine - Rio Serrano
Torres del Paine - Cabanas del Paine
Torres del Paine - Grey Glacier
Torres del Paine - Lake Pehoe
Torres del Paine - Sarmiento Trek
Torres del Paine - The Towers
Los Glaciares - El Calafate
Los Glaciares - Perito Moreno Glacier
Los Glaciares - El Chalten
Los Glaciares - Mt. Fitzroy
Los Glaciares - Posada Lunajuim
Argentina to Chile - The Great Bus Swap
Puerto Natales
Getting to Patagonia
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Getting to Patagonia |  |
Our tour started in Punta Arenas, Chile, and booking our flights proved surprisingly difficult. We flew to and from Punta Arenas via Santiago on partners American Airlines and LAN.
We initally tried to book all the flights with American (they do book LAN flights since they're partners), but for some weird reason, they did not have our LAN return flight from Punta Arenas to Santiago in their computer - just for the particular Sunday we were traveling, they could book it for any other day!! We tried many times over several days to book this flight with them, both online at their website and on the phone
with their agents, and finally gave up and booked the whole trip with LAN Chile.
Most people overnight in Santiago each way (it's nine hours from Miami), but, having no desire to visit Santiago, we took a connecting flight through to Punta Arenas and spent two nights there. We also connected through on our return. It made for a long trip, about twenty-five hours door-to-door,
but makes sense if you don't care to see Santiago.
Warning: When we checked in for our LAN return flight from Punta Arenas, both of our ticket agents
checked our bags through to Dallas/Ft. Worth (our US connection city), but SWORE that we had to claim them in Santiago and recheck them with American (who operated our Santiago - Dallas/FW flight).
This proved to be WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, and we almost missed our flight running around trying to locate our bags (going back and forth through immigration several times in
the process)!! It turned out American had our bags all along! This wouldn't be a problem if you were overnighting in Santiago.
I assume that so few people connect through that no one we talked to at either airport knew what was going on.
