Looking Back at the Best and Worst of Patagonia

31/12/16 – 23/03/17

A Review of My Trip

I will first give a brief review before getting into the things I learned when travelling in Patagonia.

Hiking in Patagonia has been a dream for me to achieve since falling in love with the mountains. I didn’t personally know many people that had been there for strictly hiking purposes (let alone to the region at all!). After deciding to undertake thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2017, I thought I might make my trip longer and visit this foreign and remote corner of the Earth.

Having done some research on multi-day hikes in the region, my trip began to materialise as a rough route. When travelling, I aim to never make strict routes as to allow for spontaneous changes. The trickiest planning was attempting to fit in the most famous hike in the area – Torres del Paine.

It requires booking in advance with the new permit system, and I ended up not doing it due to the sheer annoying booking system and hassle. I ended up hiking trails equivalent to Torres del Paine, such as The Villarrica Traverse, Mt Tronador, Cerro Castillo, The Dientes Circuit and The Huemule Circuit (naming some larger ones).

Patagonia wasn’t just about the mountains and the hikes though – there are amazing natural formations to see too. There are a wealth of hot springs (including the amazing Termas Geometricas), amazing geological wonders (such as the Marble Caves), and awesome little towns that have crazy events (like the rodeo and crazy traditional dance party in Villa O’Higgins).

Patagonia was just breathtakingly beautiful no matter where you went. Whilst the area is not known for the tallest mountains in the world, the mountains are more memorable and iconic than man others I’ve seen before. They just appear out of nowhere, usually as tall spires or even volcanoes! Almost every hike I did involve seeing glaciers, which are spectacular in general – I even got to hike on them twice! Basically the area is a hiking wonderland 🙂

The 5 Things I Learned When Travelling in Patagonia

1) I was woefully unprepared for the language barriers

I had no real prior-learnt Spanish language knowledge, and struggled to converse with the locals. However, I found that body language and some basic words I learned helped me most of the time. Having the off-line translator apps and even at times using English also were good backups, despite not being ideal. Sometimes just typing out and translating what I wanted to say on my phone and holding it up to people was needed to convey detailed messages. It was embarrassing at first, but I learned most people really want to help and were very supportive! It was rare to come across unhelpful or unfriendly people.

2) Getting around is not always straightforward

I learned that Patagonia is actually fairly hard to get around from location to location. In some places, a small bus might only come through once or twice a week and hitch-hiking was very limiting – especially when others were also doing the same thing. At times, I envied the bike travellers with their freedom, but then as I passed them in buses, pitied them as we left them in the rain or dust 😛 .

When a ferry is required, prepare to spend a lot – try to stick to basic bus or hitch-hiking to get around. Car hire was affordable in some regions like Pucon, but less affordable in other regions. This is very advisable if you want to cover a wide area from a base location, or doing a loop trip.

3) It is more expensive than you think

It might be South America, but the Patagonia region is quite expensive – especially in Argentina. I found things such as alcohol cheaper than back home in Australia, but most food and supermarket items quite comparable. The biggest expense to avoid is buying gear – the prices can be two to three times what you’d normally pay because of international shopping taxes.

I’m glad I had most essential gear covered, but when I lost or needed replacements, it hit hard. Sometimes, this is unavoidable, but other times you really need the gear and have to pay. I tried to cook my own food often, and eat out minimally. I ended up spending around $8-9000 there overall in almost 3 months.

4) Internet coverage is lacking in most areas

Internet coverage was hit or miss. Some tiny places like Villa O’Higgins had no internet; and some places that are larger like Coyhaique, Ushuaia or Punta Arenas have great internet. Most places had Wi-Fi availability – though often slow in most hostels around peak times in the day.

Having a SIM card helped early on in Chile, but when crossing the border into Argentina so often, the value wasn’t worth it. Most of the time though, the internet is not something you often need when in such a place – that’s what Patagonia is all about – disconnecting and being in nature!

5) A longer time frame was required to cover as much as I had wanted

I spent almost 3 months in South America – travelling south from Santiago to Isle Navarino (Cape Horn), and finishing with a few days in both Ushuaia and Beunos Aires before flying out. Patagonia took a lot more time than I had anticipated, due to discovering new things to see on the way. The original plan was to travel to Peru after, but that was set aside. Unless you’re going to just do the main touristy areas, you’ll need a lot of time – especially when hiking! 3 months was a good time frame, but I could have easily spent 5 months in Patagonia alone!

~ Read more about an overview of the hikes I did in Patagonia here

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