Expedition Details 

We will get to know the Patagonian route from a different perspective, visiting its powerful natural attractions, but also undiscovered remote places where history was made. We will share our journey with pioneer families, full of traditions and stories, who still continue to inhabit the extreme south of the Continent. This is a small group bespoke tour, meticulously planned by Patagonian adventure experts to get you walking in the footsteps of history.

This project is directed to those that appreciate our culture, our history, and the boldness of those families that faced the elements to settle in this land, and protect it in the same way as our rangers do today

Trip Highlights

Day 1: Arrive at Buenos Aires 

Buenos Aires has always been an obligatory place to enter to these lands. The Port of Buenos Aires was (and still is today) the gateway to Argentina. It has been for the first explorers who moored their ships at La Plata River, and it is now for everyone who visits our country – except the actual explorers land instead of mooring.

This expedition is about following the steps of the pioneers who first visited these lands in the South. To start with, we will follow the footsteps of the expert Francisco Pascasio Moreno, whose work in the Limits Commission of the 18th century was decisive for the sovereignty of the Argentine territory. His footsteps are all around La Plata City, in the Province of Buenos Aires, only a few km away from Buenos Aires City. In 1884, Moreno presented the project for the construction of the Natural Science Museum of La Plata. its construction, where he saved his collection of Fossils that is still preserved today. Our expedition will privately visit the non-public rooms of the Museum, led by one of the authorities of the Museum. We will even be able to see Moreno’s office, the place where perhaps the greatest decisions about the borders of our country were made.

At night, the hosts of OneSixth Expeditions will receive us for dinner at their home to welcome us and begin our adventure in Patagonia between talks, books, photos and stories.

Day 2: Buenos Aires

DAY 3: Buenos Aries to Puerto Deseado

On this day we will head to the South of Argentina. After a 3 hrs flight, we will arrive at the city of Comodoro Rivadavia where we will take a land transfer to Puerto Deseado.

We will visit this small city with our guides who will tell us about the history of the place, the first houses, the first settlers and stories about the railway in Patagonia.

As it will be a busy day, lunch will be a light box lunch or in the House of Bach Family, Pioneers of the Area, depending on the time of arrival.

In the afternoon, we will visit the museum of the English Corvette Swift that sailed and sank in this area in 1770. We will visit it led by an Underwater Archaeologist who in 1995 was named the Director of the corvette recovery project, which makes her one of the persons who most know about the history of the Corvette but also about the whole process to restore it.

After a busy day, we need to recover our energies. So we will have a good dinner at Bar La Cueva, an old bar inside the Railway property, that will specially open to receive us as nowadays is closed to the public. In this place the old railway workers get together to play cards, talk and share histories and anecdotes about their lives.

Tonight, we will stay at Hostería Los Acantilados, right next to the pier with very nice views to the River.

DAY 4: Puerto Deseado

Today we will go to Puerto Jenkins to embark and take a navigation to Penguin Island. This time we will sail accompanied by truly sea experts: Dolphins, Toninas, seabirds and sea lions. Once on the Island, we will disembark and start a trail that will bring us to meet our hosts: a colony of Magellanic Penguins. We will continue our journey until we reach an old abandoned construction that used work as a place to extract oil from sea lions and for the exploitation of cormorant guano. One of the most outstanding pictures during our journey is an old lighthouse, now in disuse, at the highest part of the island. We will stop and have a break there, and then we will continue all across the island until we meet our next hosts: a colony of Rockhopper penguins, one of the smallest species of penguins. This colony grows year after year, on an island that is still undiscovered and away from other touristic areas.

However, the penguins, the lighthouse, the navigation, our hosts, and the entire journey we have done so far, are not all that we will discover during this adventure. This island has been one of the references for the first explorers in this area, a place that helped to understand their location and guide them to their next destination. Magellan, Fitz Roy and Darwin possibly visited this island and we know this thanks to the drawings made by Martens, which include a sketch of the Toba stone, which is in the island. We will learn stories and step on the same places that the first explorers were once upon a time.

Once we have finished our day in the island, we will go back to land and enjoy a nice picnic at the port, enjoying the sea, the river, the silence and trying to imagine the steps of the first explorers hundreds of years ago.

In the afternoon we will continue following the steps of the pioneers. We will visit the “Ria del Deseado”, an estuary that was visited by Darwin in 1833, who sailed almost 40 km inland through it and spent Christmas there that year. This journey, full of birds and marine mammals, was undoubtedly what inspired him to create the theories of evolution. Gray Cormorant, Rock Cormorant, Magellanic Penguin, Fur Seals accompany us through our journey.

After we finished today’s adventure, we will return to Darwin Eco Lodge Camp. ( Estancia Cerro El Paso)

DAY 5: Puerto Deseado

In the morning, together with our guide, we will cross the ravine towards the estuary. Patagonia is well known for the sheep farms and the wool production, which are part of the local culture, the gastronomy and traditions. We will learn about this by visiting an area where in the 1920s there used to be a pier from where the wool production of the ranches in the area was sent by boat. The wool was brought to this pier in wagon journeys that lasted several weeks. During this tour, we will visit the old facilities of Cerro el Paso ranch, which was part of a historical event called Patagonia Rebelde, a strike of laborers of the Patagonian Estancias in the 20s.

After lunch, a new adventure begins. We will drive towards the site where in Christmas of 1833 Charles Darwin camped with the Beagle expedition which was commanded by Fitz Roy. A surprising unique landscape will surround us and we will submerge ourselves in a rocky crevice in the middle of the most remote Patagonian steppe, where the sea enters inland more than 40 km through the stuarty of Deseado River. Canyons, viewpoints over 60 meters high, caves with cave paintings and rock formations that will awaken our imagination are part of the landscape along with the local fauna.

We will enjoy an interesting and amazing talk about Darwin’s adventures in the exact same place where the stone of Martens’s drawings is.

DAY 6: Puerto Deseado

Together with our Guide, we will visit a typical Patagonian cattle ranch. We will explore the different facilities where they will teach us about the wool process and sheep production. We will be able to see the rural tasks of the local people and an authentic demonstration of shearing.

We cannot leave this ranch without enjoying a delicious Patagonian Asado surrounded by a different landscape and with many stories to tell.

After lunch, we will return and start our way back to our lodge, but before reaching it we will visit Las Animas canyon to the west of the ranch. We will go through the canyons full of magical caves, mallines, and springs, surrounded by fauna, all by ourselves, in the immense Patagonian Steppe, which will invite us to think about the perfect balance of nature without the intervention of man.

DAY 7: Puerto Deseado to Puerto Santa Cruz

We will leave our lodge very early for an exciting journey crossing the Patagonian steppe until we reach Puerto Santa Cruz.

On our way, we will enjoy a nice walk through the city of Puerto San Julian, a small and picturesque place that has an exact replica of the Nao Victoria ship, one of the 5 ships used by Magellan to arrive at these shores in the year of 1520.

Upon arrival in Puerto Santa Cruz, we will be received by a Pioneer who was born in Falkland Island and great-great-grandson of the first white woman to set foot in Tierra del Fuego.

He will receive us with a nice hot tea at his house and we will be fascinated with fabulous stories and all the family documents that he kept over the years as testimonies of a history that is truly a treasure.

This night, we will have dinner at the hotel and prepare ourselves for next day’s adventure.

DAY 8: Puerto Santa Cruz to El Chaltén

During the morning and led by James Lewis, we will visit the area of Punta Quillas, where in 1834 the keel of the Beagle Ship was repaired under the command of Fitz Roy.

We will then continue our adventure of crossing Patagonia from East to West until we reach the Andes Mountains and specifically the town of El Chaltén, one of the most enchanting towns in Patagonia, surrounded by breathtaking mountains and turquoise lakes. And of course, full of histories as well, which we will hear from the granddaughter of one of the pioneers of the area. She will welcome us in El Chaltén and tell us everything about her family, that came from Norway at the end of the 18th century. We will stay at her B&B, which is located on the property of her Ranch.

DAY 9: El Chaltén

This will be a special day for adventures! We will leave early to begin the trek to the foot of Fitz Roy Mountain, which will take us approximately 8 hours. Our mountain guides will tell us the story of the Alpinists who climbed (or tried to climb) this very difficult needle. Pioincenot, Ferrari, Maestri, are a few of many adventurers who tried to climb this challenging mountain

We have specially designed and thought this day so that everyone enjoys it at their own pace. There will be intermediate stops to rest and recharge batteries – and of course our guides will be at your disposal in case anyone prefers to shorten the trek and return to the Estancia.

At night, we will enjoy the company of the pioneer of the area and her husband, who will join us for dinner to tell us about their very interesting family history and the place.

DAY 10: El Chaltén

We will leave our accommodation and head to meet our next hosts of the place that will receive us. The Estancia has one of the most beautiful and privileged views towards the summit of Fitz Roy Mountain. We will explore the Estancia through a soft trek to marvel at the views of the place and its surroundings.

After lunch, we will go on a horseback ride specially designed for our group to enjoy different landscapes and discover new places.

At sunset, we will enjoy an amazing surprise. We will move to the former house of Andreas Madsen and have dinner by candlelight in this historic house while the guides of the place transmit us the exciting history of this family.

DAY 11: El Chaltén to El Calafate

The dawn of the day would let us know it is the time of departure to El Calafate. Halfway through, we will enter Estancia El Rincón where Western Point is located – where Fitz Roy and Darwin arrived on their expedition in the 18th century. After visiting the area, our specialist guides will be waiting for us on the banks of the Santa Cruz River to begin our Kayak journey. We will navigate the river just as the first explorers did, except they did it in boats and on foot, we will do it in Kayaks.

After kayaking for approximately 2 hours, we will arrive at a place where we will have a picnic lunch.

In the afternoon, we will go to Estancia Nibepo Aike, our place of residence for the next two nights.

DAY 12: El Calafate