Penguins, Llamas, Emu, OH MY!
I was lucky enough to be able to go on a Sports tour put together by Sportours, Singular Hotels and Australis.
It was an amazing duo, traveling by land and sea, combined. I flew into the beautiful city of Santiago. This city is just like San Diego in the spring. Surrounded by the beautiful Andes, the weather is very similar to our weather and the city is huge, clean and inviting to all.
We toured the first day then flew down to Punta Arenas where we boarded the beautiful expedition ship, Australis. This ship is small, compact and offers a great cruise close up to the mighty glaciers of Patagonia. ‘Wow’ is all I can say about the glaciers…they were everywhere and they were calving like crazy. We took a Zodiac for a beach landing and the bay was pure blue and clear. We landed and went off on a 2 mile hike into the mountain to see one of the mighty glaciers. We hiked through snow, up to our waist in ice and slosh. We stayed there for about an hour to catch our breath and just enjoy the beauty. While we were sitting enjoying the view, we heard a tremendous, thunderous roar. So after a bit, we hiked back to find that the ship was enclosed with icebergs with barely enough room to move. The Zodiacs were stuck on the icebergs and were trying to get to shore to get us. Evidently, they had a huge calving and it caused a small tsunami to wash away all of our life jackets and they had to collect them for us. It was an adventure to just have them land to pick us up and get us back to the ship. It took a few hours to get out of the bay because of all the ice in the water.
After the cruise, we went off to the Singular in Puerto Morelos It is a beautiful, amazing, hotel. They offer an all-inclusive option with lots of adventures. I took the Navy tour which took us by water to see the caves and the condors. We stopped and were able to see a sheep dog at work. We then enjoyed horse back riding. Such wonderful experiences.
After this amazing adventure we flew to the Atacama Desert–the driest place on Earth–where the Chilean miners were. We stayed at another beautiful hotel, The Atacama Desert Lodge. Here, I mountain biked, hiked the salt flats, and encountered–believe it or not–Flamingos. Had no idea they were in the Desert.
We were surrounded by 3 different Mountain ranges. I was ‘lucky’ enough to experience a 5.6 earthquake, a volcano erupting and a major sand storm–all in two days!
This is a great and wonderful country. People are friendly, kind and happy. There is so much to see and do here! Please let me know if you have any questions. Just ask me and I can set up a wonderful, beautiful and adventurous trip for you and yours!
Yours in travel,
Direct Line: 858.592.7543
Tags: Adventure, Australis Cruise, Carefree Vacations, Chile, Diana Shirey, Nature, patagonia, Puerto Arenas, Santiago, Singular Hotels, The Atacama Desert Lodge, Wildlife, Zodiacs
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