GEODYSSEY CHILE AND EASTER ISLAND Chile travel guide Where to stay Tailor-made holidays Small group holidays Selfdrive Chile Active Chile Natural Chile Fjord and lake cruises Antarctic and South Atlantic cruises PERU BOLIVIA LAUCA Chile travel guide Arica NP ATACAMA Atacama and the north 5 AND THE NORTH p5 Atacama Desert, Lauca NP, Arica, El Norte Chico Iquique UYUNI Santiago and Central Chile 11 SALT FLATS Santiago, Valparaíso, Central Valley Lakes and fjords 17 Lake District, Chiloé, Aysén, Carretera Austral The Far South 21 Calama Torres del Paine, Punta Arenas, Tierra del Fuego Archipelago San Pedro de Atacama 25 ATACAMA Easter Island DESERT 26 Antofagasta A Perfect Easter Island Beyond Chile 27 Chile with Argentina, Bolivia or Peru EASTER Salta Where to stay ISLAND p25 Atacama and the North 9 Santiago and Central Chile 14 01 02 Lake and Fjords 19 The Far South 23 PACIFIC OCEAN Easter Island 25 EL NORTE CHICO Tailor-made travel Welcome Our knowledgeable specialists North to South 29 La Serena ELQUI ARGENTINA VALLEY for Chile can work with you to Patagonia Explorer 30 This brochure for Chile is another in our series of in-depth travel brochures for our design a trip to suit you best. The Atacama, Patagonia, Easter Is & Uyuni salt flats 30 destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean. In each our aim is always to provide you right itinerary, the right balance of activity and rest, the hotels you’ll Coast to Coast across Argentina and Chile 32 with a wide choice of travel and holiday ideas that bring out the best in each destination, so most enjoy. These suggestions Andean Circle 33 that you can pick the holiday that suits you the best. SANTIAGO AND illustrate a few of the options, out Deserts, Stars and Cultures 34 In each destination we focus on the travel experiences that make that country special. Valparaíso CENTRAL CHILE of many. Contact us to create your p11 34 We highlight the distinctive places to visit, ways to gain insights into local cultures and Mendoza perfect trip. Heartlands and Atacama SANTIAGO Traditions, Food & Wine 35 communities, the best opportunities to see wildlife, as well as great beaches and characterful For family travel see our hotels. There are different ways to travel too, from joining a small group with a knowledgeable recommendations on page 27. Wine Route of Chile 35 CENTRAL local guide, taking local tours, or having the luxury of a private guide or driver all to yourself. VALLEY Chile, Bolivia and Peru 36 Also included in the mix we provide for our clients are special options like expedition cruises, Small group journeys adventurous walking, trekking, biking, rafting and watersports, and specialist wildlife and bird Concepción Join a convivial small group holiday. Chile Odyssey 37 watching at all levels. LAKES AND FJORDS Selfdrive Chile We bring all this together for you in a well-organised trip that makes the best use of your p17 Good options for confident drivers. On the Road in the Lake District & Patagonia’s Far South 38 Temuco precious time and the budget you decide on. Our aim is to provide the best choices, excellent Driving the Carretera Austral 39 Pucón service, and outstanding value. LAKE Active Chile Geodyssey is not an ordinary travel company. We started life in 1993 and soon developed DISTRICT Walking trekking and multi-activity Multi-active Chilean Lakes and Patagonia 40 our own dedicated and personal style that many people seem to like. We have grown, but we Puerto Varas Bariloche in one of the best countries in the 03 Day Walks in Southern Patagonia 41 are still a small team and we really care about each and every customer. Travel is our passion, Puerto Montt world for getting out into the wild. Torres del Paine ‘W’ Trek 41 and we want to share that with you. Each of us has travelled widely in our destinations (and 41 beyond), so if one of us happens not to have been to a particular place we offer, the chances CHILOÉ Los Dientes de Navarino ISLAND Chilean Expedition Lodges 42 are that someone else on our team will have been there, probably several times. ARGENTINA Expedition lodges 43 When you are deciding where to go for your next holiday you’ll want to turn to someone who Natural Chile really knows the area you’d like to visit. Our travel specialists for Chile have lived there or Nature, local cultures, wildlife and Wildlife of the Far South 44 travelled the length and breadth of this wonderful country. We hope you will choose us to help PATAGONIA bird watching. Life in Chile 45 you explore it and enjoy a warm-hearted Chilean welcome. AYSÉN Birds of the Centre and the South 46 04 Gillian Howe The Birds of Chile 47 NORTHERN PHOTOS ICE FIELD Managing Director 01 Monkey puzzle forest, Conguillo NP, Lake District Fjord and lake cruises 02 A puma licks its paw (The Websters) THE FAR SOUTH 03 Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Santiago p21 Spectacular cruising experiences. Far South, Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn 48 04 Sunday lunch, Explora Atacama SOUTHERN ICE FIELD Lake District, Chiloé and Aysén 49 El Chaltén Lakes and Fjords 49 Flights Contact us SOUTHERN El Calafate ICE FIELD There are several ways to fly to Chile from the Antarctica and the South Atlantic Geodyssey Ltd TORRES The ultimate adventure. Antarctica and the South Atlantic 51 UK. By far the easiest and most popular is British DEL PAINE Airways’ direct service from London. All our tailor- 116 Tollington Park Choosing an Antarctic Cruise 52 Puerto Natales made holidays can be arranged to fit BA’s schedule London N4 3RB England Expedition ships 52 and the dates of our small group ‘Chile Odyssey’ are chosen to work with BA flights. BA also flies direct www.geodyssey.co.uk Punta Arenas to Buenos Aires in Argentina and Lima in Peru: our Practicalities tailor-made holidays combining Chile with those T: 020 7281 7788 TIERRA DEL FUEGO When to visit Chile 54 Travelling with Geodyssey 55 countries can also be tailored to fit BA flights. F: 020 7281 7878 Ushuaia Guides, tours and travel 54 Making your booking 55 We also offer all the other airlines who fly to Chile. E: [email protected] You do not need to book your flights with us. You ANTARCTICA Puerto Williams Hotel grades 55 p51 may buy them independently if you prefer. Cape Horn 2 DRAKE 3 PASSAGE Chile ê GUIDE: ATACAMA AND THE NORTH Chile ê GUIDE: ATACAMA AND THE NORTH Atacama and the North Dramatic desert landscapes that offer exciting travel opportunities, spectacular walking and trekking, and a real sense of escape. 02 lying from Santiago your plane tracks the desert views beyond, listen to the wind, and put northward course of the Andes, cruising yourself in one of Atacama’s iconic photos. You beside a spectacular procession of glistening descend to an almost miraculous oasis where a Fpeaks–ice-bound, severe and stark–that split the narrow stream from distant volcanoes arrives to continent and divide Chile from Argentina. support the settlement of San Pedro de Atacama. Close to Santiago, the land runs down to San Pedro lay largely ignored in its desert the Pacific with enough water from the ocean setting until a couple of decades ago, when a air and Andean rivers for vineyards, farms and hotel or two opened their doors to explorers and forests. Going north this soon turns to dry hills travellers, and the tiny mining village began to and scrub. From your aircraft window you see evolve into a base for its region. It is still a small landscapes turning dusty and brown, crossed by patch of dusty streets radiating from a pretty fewer and fewer valleys of green. square beside a thatched church, but its humble Hundreds of kilometres pass beneath you and houses are these days adapted into a handful of the earth has become arid and empty. A new cafés and bars, and little shops selling the bits and chain of mountains has risen closer to the ocean, pieces that travellers buy. wringing every hint of moisture from the air and Behind adobe walls and tucked away down turning this into the Atacama Desert–the driest country lanes lie beautiful expedition lodges Atacama facts desert on earth. designed by contemporary architects in response The Atacama desert covers almost the whole of northern Chile from La Serena to Arica, a continuous ATACAMA DESERT to their desert settings. Each offers its own blissful combination of nightly comfort and well- strip nearly 1600km long. The same desert conditions You land in the Atacama Desert in an unassuming continue into southern Peru as far as Ica and the Nazca landscape of gravelly sands and rock at Calama, considered cuisine with daytime activity and Lines. Some weather stations in the Atacama have never where a dusty mining town justifies an airport adventure, exercise and exploration, yoga, spa and pool. recorded any rain. Even at Arica and Iquique on the and a crossroads. The road to the east climbs to a coast the annual average is just 1-3mm. rim of low hills that block the downwards escape There is something remarkable to explore in Atacama’s hyper-arid climate can be traced back 200 million years. Nitrate deposits accumulated in the long of the few little streams that come from the Andes every direction. The salt flats themselves (the ) are stunning, stretching a dry climate brought a mining boom to areas inland beyond, tipping them into a giant basin where Salar de Atacama from Iquique and elsewhere.