CHILE

We land in Santiago and on the very first day set off around the city with a private guide. We pass through Parque Bicentenario and the financial district, jokingly called "Sanhattan", then climb Parque Metropolitano – one of the largest urban parks in the world, with a view of the whole city and the Andes behind it.

We descend to the historic centre: Plaza de Armas with the cathedral, the old Congress and the La Moneda presidential palace. The tour ends at the Central Market with its iron structure, where we try fresh fish and seafood.

Duration: about 6 hours

Overnight: Santiago – Hampton by Hilton Santiago Las Condes (Standard) / Bidasoa Hotel (Comfort)

Meals: lunch

We travel to the ocean. Viña del Mar is Chile's "Garden City" – with palaces, parks, long beaches and the famous Flower Clock.

We continue along the coastal road to Valparaíso – a port scattered over 42 hills like a natural amphitheatre above the sea. We ride one of the old funiculars of Cerro Alegre and lose ourselves in streets covered with murals, where every façade is painted a different colour.

It is no accident that the city is under UNESCO protection and that the poet Pablo Neruda chose to live right here.

Duration: about 6 hours

Overnight: Santiago – Hampton by Hilton Santiago Las Condes (Standard) / Bidasoa Hotel (Comfort)

Meals: breakfast and lunch

We fly south – over 2,000 km – to Puerto Natales. Beneath the plane's wings the landscape changes: vineyards and cities give way to mountains, glaciers and endless steppe.

The town is small, with low colourful houses covered in corrugated tin, and around it stretches the Señoret Channel with mountains on all sides. With a guide we explore the waterfront promenade, the fishermen's pier and the square.

We also learn where its name comes from: German settlers caught sight of the river here on 24 December 1894 and named it Natalis – Christmas.

Domestic flight Santiago – Puerto Natales (included)

Overnight: Puerto Natales – Big Sur Hotel Patagonia (Standard) / Weskar Patagonian Lodge (Comfort)

Meals: breakfast

Today is a day of fjords. By ship we sail from Puerto Bories past Patagonian flora and fauna, mountains, waterfalls and farms. Before us appears the Balmaceda glacier, descending from the mountain almost to the water.

We go ashore and walk through a forest of coigüe and ñire to the foot of the Serrano glacier – a blue wall of ice reflected in a lake with floating icebergs.

On the way back we stop at Estancia Perales for whisky with ice thousands of years old and a lunch of Magellanic lamb – a typical dish of the region (vegetarian options are available).

A full-day excursion in a group with other travellers

Overnight: Puerto Natales – Big Sur Hotel Patagonia (Standard) / Weskar Patagonian Lodge (Comfort)

Meals: breakfast and lunch

Only 25 km from the town is an archaeological park at Estancia Ernesto Helmer. We walk among rock overhangs and valleys where condors nest, and reach a summit with a panorama of the Eberhard Fjord and Laguna Sofía.

We enter with headlamps the Hidden Cave with thousand-year-old stalactites, and then reach rock walls that were once the sea floor. People painted on them some 3,500 years ago.

A half-day private excursion

Overnight: Puerto Natales – Big Sur Hotel Patagonia (Standard) / Weskar Patagonian Lodge (Comfort)

Meals: breakfast and packed lunch

Today is the day we came for. We set off early for the northern entrance of the national park. For the first hour and a half we walk uphill to the Windy Pass, descend to the Chileno refuge and continue through a lenga forest along the Ascencio River.

The last section is the hardest – steep, over rocks and without trees. But up there, above the turquoise glacial lake, rise the three granite towers of Paine.

This is one of those views that stay with a person for life.

Attention: the day is very demanding – about 24 km and 9 hours of walking. Good physical fitness is required.

A trek in a group with other travellers, with a guide. Departure is at 06:30 in summer (07:00 in winter).

Overnight: Puerto Natales – Big Sur Hotel Patagonia (Standard) / Weskar Patagonian Lodge (Comfort)

Meals: breakfast and packed lunch

We fly back to Santiago. In the evening something entirely different awaits us – "Amor & Pastas": we make fresh pasta ourselves in the gardens of the Sheraton hotel, and then sit down to a six-course dinner with drinks and live music.

A cheerful and warm end to the journey.

Domestic flight Puerto Natales – Santiago (included)

Overnight: Santiago – Hampton by Hilton Santiago Las Condes (Standard) / Bidasoa Hotel (Comfort)

Meals: breakfast and dinner

Transfer to the airport and a flight home.

Eight days. From the vineyards and hills of Valparaíso to the glaciers and granite towers at the end of the world. Chile showed us that one country can be warm and rugged, loud and infinitely quiet at once. And we will miss the wind of Patagonia more than we think.

Until the next adventure!

Meals: breakfast