In Chile’s Patagonia the Marble Caves (Capillas de Marmol) offer a once in a lifetime experience. Hugging the coastline of General Carrera Lake, the waves have been shaping these caverns, tunnels and pillars for over 6,000 years creating dimples, nooks and crannies in the rock. The caves are intense stained-glass colours of turquoise, aquamarine, seafoam …
Author Archives: mamashinetravel
Parque Patagonia
Parque Patagonia is one of our favourite national parks with its sweeping views, wonderful hikes and pretty luxurious camping facilities. Originally a Douglas Tompkins park, it’s easy to see why Tompkins made his second home here. In 2020 the park was in the process of being transferred from the Tompkins Trust to Conaf (Chile’s park …
Jeinimeni
One of the jewels in the Chilean national parks is Parque Patagonia and the Jeinimeni section of the park. Jeinimeni, until recently its own national park, was joined with Parque Patagonia in 2019 to create one huge park. (Edit: We did not travel during Covid or quarantine, we took this trip January 2020.) We were …
El Chalten, Argentina Ruta 40
This is the third part in our Patagonia trip with children and grandchildren. The Argentinian chronicles! Read about how we got our car and camping gear to Patagonia from Santiago and hiking trails in Torres del Paine with three generations. After our five days in Torres del Paine and a night in Puerto Natales, we …
Torres del Paine
Hiking Torres del Paine with three generations In 2005 when my husband and I lived in Ecuador, we went to Patagonia and hiked the W, Mt. Fitzroy near El Chalten and saw the Perito Moreno glacier. Laughingly, we ate the calafate berry because they say if you eat it you will revisit Patagonia. Not likely, …
Ship your car to Patagonia for holidays
We live in Santiago and we really wanted to spend a good amount of time camping and exploring Patagonia with our three children. We looked at many different options for the best way to do it, and as crazy as it sounds we figured out the fastest, cheapest and most convenient option was to ship …
Huilo Huilo – Chiloé Island – Pucon
I like to think of our longer trips as loops. Not so much breaking up long car drives, but doing a loop (usually south) to encompass some of the many wonderful spots Chile has to offer. Our first big loop was in December 2017-January 2018 with three children under 8 years old, a set of …
Parque Nacional La Campana and Biosfera Lodge
In less than two hours from Santiago, you can be sleeping in a glamping pod on the very edge of a national biosphere park, surrounded by wildlife, a hip little village and fun activities for the children. I had never heard of Parque Nacional La Campana, but it is so close to Santiago — yet …
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Carretera Austral
We hit the open road of the Aysén Region of Chile to hike Cerro Castillo, take a boat ride through the Marble Caves, day hike in Parque Patagonia, and marvel and wander through Caleta Tortel as we headed south on the Carretera Austral. The Carretera Austral (Ruta 7) is 1,240 kilometres stretching along the southern …
Santa Cruz
A weekend in Chile’s wine country of Santa Cruz is a great getaway — even with children! An update of the area to reflect 2020 safety measures.
