Has anyone visited Chile, Argentina.

Looking at going later this year. We aren't big trekkers but like to explore. I am in contact with a couple of tour organizers and am looking over what they have to say.

Torres del Paine National Park (Parque Nacional Torres del Paine) in southern Chile (Patagonia) is gorgeous! You can fly into Punta Arenas near the tip of Chile, and from there get yourself to Puerto Natales, catch small van bus to the park. I rented a car at Punta Arenas, to explore the area, then drove to Puerto Natales and spent the night there, before driving to Torres del Paine.
Here's a video on youtube about the park https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=UIipViEhrsA

Here are some web shots of Gray Lake off the glacier. The southern end of the lake you can easily drive to and walk a short distance from the parking lot!
https://www.google.com …w&biw=1789&bih=​1083&dpr=1

I don't know if this is still offered, but before leaving the US, I booked a very inexpensive airfare 'package' rate from LAN Chile to fly within Chile during your stay, but you cannot wait to buy tickets while in Chile...consult travel agency, particularly one that specializes in trips to Chile.

I have not spent leisure time within Argentina to recommend something to you, although I have been the multiple times on business.

What was it like with the rental car. Did you have a hard time finding gas? Did you book your hotels or just stayed in places you found along the way.

I had a travel agency about 10 miles from my home develop an itinerary for me. I found them via a lady I worked with, whose husband (a Chilean) used them on more than one trip to Chile.

All the places I stayed in, the cars I rented, the air within Chile...all arranged by the travel agency It was pretty mindless on my part, I only had to drive to the hotels, and that was easy with driving instructions provided to me. I really did not need that structured of an itinerary, but OTOH it meant I spent zero time driving around looking for vacancy signs and then walking into each to find out room rates and to look at a room to decide if I wanted to continue looking. Much more time efficient, and the agency did a superb job of choosing hotels. As I stayed only one or two nights in each city that I stopped in, over the period of three weeks, I saved a tremendous amount of time in searching.

Gas was very easy to find, but then again because distances in Chile are so vast, I was flying to major stops and renting a new car at each one, so I was not buying gas multiple times with a given car.

Hablas algun español? Even a little bit helps. Growing up in CA I didn't realize how much I had simply absorbed, but I did buy a book & tape on South American Spanish before my trip...it is different from Castillian Spanish they teach in schools (where I had studied French and ancient Greek!)

The people were wonderful and I felt absolutely safe everywhere I went as a solo traveller. Hitchhiking is very common out in the countryside, although there is a national bus system, and it was entertaining and enjoyable to meet locals when giving them a ride, even with my rudimentary Spanish skills! Pulling out of the Punta Arenas parking lot in my rental car, a Chilean police officer flagged me down, so as I was stopping I got my passport and rental agreement ready. He merely wanted a ride home! During my time in Chile I picked up a number of other hitchhikers, and it greatly added to my enjoyment of Chile.

My spanish is non existent. I will have to work on that. I will share your post with my wife who is not as hot on the idea as I am. Thanks for spending the time to reply.

Hey, interesting stuff!

I myself grew up in southern California, and so was right across the border from Mexico, had many immigrants in our community, and enjoyed times across in tijuANA and Baha, good times!

the language is a real issue, not just in the Latino/Spanish stuff, and yeah, I grew up surrounded by it alol, but I could never actually speak the language!

Then, as I grew, I turned to German in school and such. A big "lesson" was that to really get by, you need to be fluent in the "conversational language, whether Spanish or European, this is in fact an emphasis in "productive" language schools, and you want to pay attention to that!

Heck, I had friends visit me, they were from Switzerland, and the lady/wife would sit down with me and insist that I talked with her in "conversational German", wow! I made it through until some friends I had in Germany got in touch with me and complained that I was speaking "Swiss German"!

Oh Well, now I don't know how I would even make a beginning in "conversational Spanish! So don't even bother to ask, "Si habla espańol"?

I've been there quite some time ago- some pictures here:
https://www.flickr.com …57196537/with/4​335507600/
Chile towards the end of the series, Argentina in there too. The pictures are geo-tagged so you can see where they were taken.
The mountains looked interesting- I could barely see them, but looked very tall.

They seem to speak Castilian Spanish there, I could understand it compared to the Mexican Spanish, but I'm no expert.

I have used this agency before: http://www.latinameric​aforless.com/argentina​/
They did a great job and took care of my (then) teenaged daughter when she arrived before me in Cuzco.

Capn Jack wrote in post #18316587
They seem to speak Castilian Spanish there, I could understand it compared to the Mexican Spanish, but I'm no expert.

Various terms for things can vary, even while the fundamental language may be in common. In Castilian, cofee with milk is 'café con leche', but 'cafe solo' in parts of SAmerica.

It is like differences in expressions between French in France vs. French in Canada, or differences between English as use in UK vs. English as used in US vs. in Australia...regional colloqualisms get in the way.