Our official departure time for the national park bus was 8 am, but we were told that is the time the bus actually leaves town. A bus would take us from the hotel before this and we needed to be ready at 7 am. We did exactly that and were waiting outside our hotel at 7 am. Several buses came and went through our street to stop at other hotels, but not our bus. It finally came at 9 am!
After many professional and interesting lectures about Antarctica while we were aboard the Ocean Nova, our expectations were high for a guide on this tour. For this reason we asked for an English-speaking guide. Unfortunately, our ''English speaking guide'' told us nothing. After her first ''welcome'' the bus radio broke down, and she informed that she could not speak without it.
Even so, without a guide our excursion in the Park was very fascinating. The first stop we made was Cueva del Milodon Natural Monument. As we learned from its description at the park entrance, it was comprised of several caves. However, we had time for only one. I think it was one of the larger caves, because it was unbelievably huge. A hundred years ago in this cave were found remains of the Milodon, a large animal, similar to a big bear. Milodons used to live here about 10,000 years ago. A live replica of it is standing in the cave and is much larger than contemporary bears - about three meters tall.
After the cave, we moved to the Chilean National Park Torres Del Paine. The park covers 180,000 hectares. It is interesting that until 1959 this area was sheep pasture. Now it is recognized by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve. ''Paine' is an Indian word meaning blue, and torres means towers in Spanish. This is the name for the three spectacular granite peaks in the middle of the park. In reality they appeared a little bit violet. Glaciers are covering the mountain slopes, and blue icebergs are floating in the numerous beautiful lakes surrounding them. Rivers of the purest waters were running between the lakes. Some of them were running very fast with picturesque waterfalls. As for the wildlife, we saw here guanacos (a kind of llamas), flamingos and many other birds.
We had our first stop after ten minutes of walking to the lake named Gray. While going back to the bus, on the trail we met a Chilean couple from the Ocean Nova cruise. All four of us were glad to see each other, as if meeting some old friend! The Chileans said that they had rented a car and wanted to visit this park on the way home. Can you imagine the possibility of this meeting! We parted three days before several hundreds kilometers from here and there are hundreds of trail in Torres Del Paine!
We spent total about five hours in the park, but felt it was not enough and were envying the people staying here for a few days. It would be a real pleasure to wake up in the camp here and hike around for the entire day! If we have chance to come here again, we would definitely do it!
The response from Adventure Life to my first inquiry was prompt and promising. I worked with Jamie Broeckel, Trip Planner, via text, email, and phone calls- always extremely responsive and thorough with information and explaining the process to arrange a private tour for me to Malaysia Borneo. Within about week, the booking was complete and I made decisions because of Jamie's great customer service , friendly manner, and overall competence on behalf of the company's travel expertise. Now I have an itinerary, additional Trip Planner Assistants, several links for vital information for traveling to Maylasia, etc. Still many details for Sept. trip, but now the heavy lifting is done and I can enjoy the rest of the anticipation and research!! Thanks Jamie- you are amazing!!!!
Susan Campo
2 days ago
The trip was not only memorable for the amount of animals we saw but also for the people and accommodations at the two camps where we stayed. Our first guide, BK, was a wealth of information about the animals, landscape and down to the plants and what they were used for. Everyday out was a learning experience with him. All the people at the camps were gracious and the food was excellent.
Our second camp in the Okavanga was just as good as the first as far as the staff, accommodations, food and animals. After our experience at the first camp we amazed that the high quality remained the same. Our guide, G, made sure we were able to enjoy every experience including a rush through the bush to witness a cheetah and an ensuing hunt that he heard over his radio.
In both camps there were enough guides out that if they saw something the other guides were informed which helped in seeing as much as possible. It was also nice that the concessions were large enough that we did not have vehicles following each other throughout the day.
Normally there is always something in a trip of this length that we think could be improved upon but this is the rare case where we cannot think of anything. From the time we left the States to when we returned it was one of the most hassle free vacations we took.
Perhaps emphasizing the use of the laundry facilities at the camps would be useful because of the luggage restrictions would be the only thing I can think of as an improvement to future clients.
Kenneth Dropek
3 days ago
Mary was so pleasant and professional. She made sure all of our questions were answered.