Why Patagonia? Why now? The origin of this trip was motivated by two ideas. First, we had traveled to Chile before in 2008 and fell in love with the country- especially on an excursion from Valpairsaso to northern Patagonia in the vicinity of Puerto Montt, Chiloe Island, and the Lake District. Of special beauty was the the town of Puerta Vara and its iconic Fuji-like volcano- Osrno Volcano.

In July, of course the mountain was draped with snow the weather chilly and few tourists. Second, having been bitten with the solar eclipse bug, we wanted to combine a trip to the same part of Chile we visited in 2008 that was to experience a total solar eclipse in December of 2020. From there we envisioned a trip even further south to Torre De Paine National Park toward the southern end of the Andes. That would include southern glaciers and epic hikes at the bottom of the world. Friends of ours, also expressed an interest so we booked with Knowmad Travel late in 2019 and we were gearing up to go. Then, of course, COVID-19 dashed everyone’s travel plans for 2020. We were refunded most of our travel expenses with the exception of our Patagonian lodging- but were enticed with a credit that would not expire. Fast foward to early 2022 and the trip was resurrected, the itenaray molded to a dominantly southern Patagonian experience with bookended stops in Buenos Aires and Santiago.

Now it’s on to Dallas and our overnight flight to South America!