Adventure travel specialists Wildfoot Travel are offering a new itinerary in Patagonia which sees travelers search for rare pumas in Torres del Paine National Park and scale the Perito Moreno Glacier.
The new Patagonia, Pumas and Glaciers expedition takes travelers across the lands of Patagonia, El Calafate and Buenos Aires in one trip. The 11-day itinerary promises puma-watching experiences and visits to canyons, lakes, lagoons and forests.
Travelers will spend their first couple of days enjoying a puma-watching experience in Torres del Paine National Park. Guests will start their day early with a group of up to seven participants. They will be led by an expert in puma-watching, observation and photography.
The pumas of South America were highlighted in the first episode of David Attenborough’s documentary Seven Worlds, One Planet which sees a mother puma try and hunt down a guanaco amid the jagged Patagonian landscape. Travelers will follow in the footsteps of the famous natural historian in search of their own puma sightings.
Each day the guide will determine the best place for puma sighting opportunities and will teach travelers the animal’s behaviors and habitats. Pumas are notoriously hard to see and favor areas that provide cover, meaning that without an experienced guide they would be almost impossible to find.
Later in the itinerary, travelers will explore Glaciares National Park, a UNESCO Listed Heritage Site and an important area for conservation. Here they will spend two days exploring the national park and the Perito Moreno Glacier.
Guests will be accompanied by an expert guide into the national park where they’ll have the chance to stop for photos and learn about the history and geology of the area. Driving through the Andean Patagonian forest area, guests will make their way to Sighs Curve for their first sighting of the three-mile-wide and 18-mile-long glacier.
The rest of the day will be spent walking through the trails to the platforms and balconies that offer viewpoints of the sea of ice. Travelers will spend time watching and listening to the glacier and may also see large chunks of ice calve off the face and fall as icebergs into the lake. Although many of the world’s glaciers are retreating as a result of global warming, Perito Moreno is one of the few glaciers that maintains a state of equilibrium, Wildfoot Adventures said.
The next day travelers will partake in Big Ice, a visit to the heart of the Perito Moreno Glacier. They will first take a boat ride across the Brazo Rici from Puerto Bajo Las Sombras. Then, travelers will hike along the southern glacier, where experienced guides will help them with their harness and crampons to begin the route to the glacier. Travelers will experience an entirely new environment with caves, crevices and blue lagoons to explore, followed by a lunch on top of the glacier.
More on the new itinerary is available at https://www.wildfoottravel.com/itinerary/5693/chile-argentina-patagonia-pumas-glaciers-11-days.
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