Sundowner: Autumn/Winter 2019
Published twice a year and complimentary to A&K’s past and future guests, Sundowner is packed with the hottest destinations and insights on what’s trendy in travel. Featuring articles by some of the industry’s most renowned travel writers and our expert staff, it’s guaranteed to give you wanderlust… Sign up to receive your copy here: https://www.abercrombiekent.co.uk/new-newsletter-signup
Published twice a year and complimentary to A&K’s past and future guests, Sundowner is packed with the hottest destinations and insights on what’s trendy in travel. Featuring articles by some of the industry’s most renowned travel writers and our expert staff, it’s guaranteed to give you wanderlust…
Sign up to receive your copy here: https://www.abercrombiekent.co.uk/new-newsletter-signup
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PATAGONIA<br />
After a five-hour drive north to the gaucho town of Coyhaique,<br />
I stayed in an enormous room in Patagonia House, a ranch on<br />
McKay Hill. I was the only guest. More than 230 kilometres north<br />
again, Puyuhuapi Lodge is by far the most luxurious hotel in<br />
the region, situated on its own island (the establishment runs a<br />
private ferry), with both outdoor and indoor spas.<br />
On the way up, by the way, and preferably in Chaitén, one must<br />
eat curanto, a dish traditionally baked in the ground, prepared<br />
with meat, potatoes, shellfish, milcao (a grated potato patty), and<br />
vegetables. Not for the faint-hearted, but very hearty. Just outside<br />
town, the devastation caused by an eruption of Chaitén Volcano<br />
in 2008 remains visible in the swathes of calcified slope spiked<br />
with bare trees. The Carretera Austral was closed for two years,<br />
cutting off a third of the country.<br />
At Caleta Gonzalo, the highway collapses and the visitor is<br />
obliged to take two, or sometimes three, ferries north. From a<br />
wharf overlooking Reñihué fjord, a ferry conveyed me and my car<br />
through a labyrinth of channels up to Hornopirén, a four-anda-half-hour<br />
journey. Before boarding, I enjoyed the hospitality<br />
of Soledad Sanchez at Cabanas Caleta Gonzalo, one of the few<br />
places in Chilean Patagonia open year-round. Outside my cabin<br />
window huet-huet birds whooped among a flock of persimmonbreasted<br />
chucao. The jolly Soledad, who manages the cabins and<br />
their adjacent café, told me: “There are two seasons here, winter<br />
and summer. Summer lasts three weeks. Coming from the desert<br />
north, I absolutely love it.” Lauding the slow pace of local life, she<br />
added: “If you hurry in Patagonia, you are wasting your time.”<br />
I ended my road and water adventure at Puerto Varas, less<br />
than an hour’s drive from the domestic airport at Puerto Montt.<br />
Overlooking Lake Llanquihue and the smoking Osorno Volcano,<br />
the swanky Cumbres Puerto Varas is a gateway hotel to the Lake<br />
District of northern Patagonia. As for Puerto Montt, it has more<br />
than doubled in size since my first trip to Chile 30 years ago,<br />
largely thanks to the salmon industry. The fish do well in the cold<br />
Patagonian waters and Chile has grown to become the world’s<br />
second largest producer of farmed salmon, after Norway.<br />
Doug Tompkins, the late American entrepreneur and founder<br />
of the North Face outdoor clothing range (and much else), was<br />
a major player in the rewilding of Chilean Patagonia, and his<br />
Californian widow Kris continues the work. A keen outdoorsman,<br />
Doug fell for Patagonia, and bought land here – lots of land.<br />
In 2004 the Chacabuco valley, in the transition between<br />
southern beech forest and Patagonian steppe, was at the centre<br />
of one of the greatest land buys in history. The Tompkinses<br />
founded an organisation, with land trusts under its umbrella<br />
and 120 staff in Chile (more are based in Argentina), in order to<br />
donate just over 400,000 hectares of protected land to the Chilean<br />
government, leveraging conservation value by establishing a<br />
private-public partnership. I don’t think the two Americans<br />
ever thought of themselves as owners: they took on the role of<br />
custodians. Their aim was to create national parklands, restore<br />
biodiversity, and promote ecological agriculture, chiefly in the<br />
parks that are now Patagonia and Pumalín. As a consequence,<br />
Chile has become a ‘conservation destination’.<br />
Kris buried Doug, who perished in a kayaking accident, in the<br />
baronial stone headquarters of Patagonia Park. His is a peaceful<br />
grave, overlooking the landscape he loved.<br />
The Chilean government wildlife service, CONAF, is in the<br />
process of taking over the administration of Patagonia and<br />
Pumalín. The latest Tompkins project, launched last year, is Ruta<br />
de los Parques, a road linking 17 national parks from Puerto<br />
Montt to Cape Horn. My next trip!<br />
PUERTO MONTT<br />
CHAITÉN<br />
PARQUE PUMALÍN<br />
COYHAIQUE<br />
LAGO GENERAL CARRERA<br />
VILLA O’HIGGINS<br />
Sara Wheeler’s latest book, Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin and<br />
Other Geniuses of the Golden Age, came out in July. Her previous books<br />
included the bestselling Travels in a Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile.<br />
CONTACT ABERCROMBIE & KENT<br />
CHILE<br />
ARGENTINA<br />
For more information on road trip holidays in Chilean<br />
Patagonia, or to book your next tailor-made South American<br />
adventure, call our travel specialists on 01242 547 701.<br />
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