CENTRAL CHILE TO THE ATACAMA

Duration: 8 Days, 7 Nights

Valid: 1 - 30 September 2009

Day 1: Santiago - City Tour

We await you at the airport for a transfer to your hotel. In the afternoon we explore the historic and modern sights of Santiago. We will start our trip at the Alameda Bernardo O’Higgins, Santiago’s main avenue, visiting La Moneda, the Government Palace, where your guide will explain to you the historical and actual meaning of this place. Following this we will enjoy a walk through the pedestrian streets of Huérfanos and Ahumada, where the main commercial activity of the city is concentrated. Afterwards we will visit the famous Plaza de Armas, the main square of the city, which is surrounded by the Metropolitan Cathedral and other historical buildings. We will continue by visiting the Santa Lucia hill, the hill upon which the Spanish founded Santiago in 1541. It is a lone steep rock, with many plants and an antique building rising steeply from the city below. From here you can see both the Parque Forestal (park) and the Mapocho River. We will cross the river to visit Bellavista, the cultural and artistic neighbourhood of Santiago.

Finally we will visit the Pueblito de los Dominicos. Los Dominicos began as an artists’ commune supported by the Dominican monastery within which the market resides, in this place and with 150 workshops you will find the most representative sample of Chilean handcrafts. Overnight in Santiago.

Day 2: Isla Negra - Pomaire - Valparaíso

This day you will be picked up from your Hotel and head towards the coast. Before seeing the ocean we will stop at the picturesque town of Pomaire. Known as the clay capital of Chile you will be able to experience the craftsmanship of the local people who create beautiful accessories in black clay. Moving on and after passing through some quaint coastal villages we will arrive to Isla Negra, here we will be able to see the House-Museum of Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) one of Chile’s most exceptional poets and the second one to receive the Nobel Prize (1970). An avid collector, Neruda gathered many different interesting objects through his travels.

His collections of bottles and figure heads are most impressive (closed on Mondays). After this we will head over to Valparaiso, recently declared monument of humanity by UNESCO, this port town is sure to impress any traveller. Its colourful streets and

houses by the sea are a great sight. Overnight in Valparaíso (B)

Day 3: Valparaíso - Viña del Mar Valparaíso’s picturesque layout, enhanced by the surrounding hills that seem to dive into the ocean, remind us that this was once the most important maritime destination of the Pacific coast before the Strait of Panama was opened to navigation in 1914. We will visit the downtown area with its new government house, the Plaza Sotomayor, the Plaza Victoria, the cathedral and the harbour area. Afterwards we will discover the colourful hill neighbourhoods.

Here, high above the city, there is a fantastic agglomeration of brightly painted houses and a fantastic view over the city. The upper and lower parts of the city are connected with 16 funicular railways constructed around the turn of the century when the city experienced tremendous growth. Travelling north along the coastline of the bay we will reach the city of Viña del Mar, the most famous and visited seaside city of the area, with its many parks of huge trees and palms that gave Viña del Mar the well deserved name of ‘Garden City’. We will visit the beautiful park Quinta Vergara wih its amphitheatre, the museum of fine arts as well as the beaches and the Casino, which was built in 1932. The afternoon is at leisure. Overnight in Valparaíso. (B)

Day 4: Valparaíso - Casablanca – Santiago

We will slowly start our way back to Santiago, stopping at the Valle de Casablanca, one of Chile’s supreme wine regions. Here we will visit one of the valleys most prominent vineyards.We will enjoy some of the locally produced wines while we have a specially prepared meal. Overnight in Santiago. (B, L)

Day 5: Santiago - Calama - San Pedro and the Moonvalley

Today you will be picked up from your hotel and transferred to the airport for your departure flight to Calama (flight cost excluded)

Arrival at the airport of Calama and transfer to San Pedro de Atacama. San Pedro is an unusually colourful village located 2.440 m / 8.000 ft above sea level in the middle of a green oasis. In the afternoon you will be taken into the mystifying Valle de la Luna, the famous Moon Valley. At sunset you can see how the light intensifies the impression of a moonscape. We will climb a sand dune to watch this spectacle and then return

to the hotel. Overnight in San Pedro.

Day 6: San Pedro, Toconao and the Atacama Salt Lake

After breakfast you will visit San Pedro de Atacama - the centre of a Palaeolithic civilization that built impressive rock fortresses on the mountains encircling the green valley. The colonial church was constructed in 1577 and is the largest and most beautiful church of the region. The extraordinary archaeological museum (closed on Mondays) of Padre Gustavo Le Paige shows, among its many archaeological pre-Hispanic artefacts, several amazingly well preserved mummies, including one known as „Miss Chile.“ After this visit you drive 4 km / 2.5 mi to reach the pre-Columbian village Tulor with an approx. age of 3000 years. The archaeological remains are the oldest evidence of human settlement in the valley. We will then continue our morning tour to Pukara de Quitor a fortress, which was conquered in 1540 by the Spanish conquistadors defeating the Incan troops who, in turn, had captured it from the pre-Incan cultures and extended the fortification. In the afternoon you will start your tour to Toconao, a village where locals dedicate themselves to the manufacture of white volcanic stone sculptures. We continue to the huge Atacama Salt Lake, an inland sea formed millions of years ago. The vast emptiness with the white salt crusts stretched out in front of you as far as the eyes can reach is overwhelming. It simply is one of the most spectacular and dramatic landscapes in Chile. Return to the hotel. Overnight in San Pedro. (B, BL)

Day 7: El Tatio and Machuca

In the morning you will depart early at 4:00 am to reach the El Tatio Geysers at an altitude of 4.300 m / 14.108 ft before sun-rise. In a remote setting it is the highest geothermal field in the world and offers a spectacular scenery. Make sure to bring warm clothes because it is very cold in the morning at this altitude. At dawn, powerful spurts of steam shoot up from various blowholes. The steaming ponds are encrusted with brilliant salt crystals reflecting the metal-blue sky at dawn. You will have enough time to enjoy this beautiful natural wonder before we return and drive to the village Machuca where the ancient llama caravans used to rest from their travels on the „Inca Highway“. Today only few people live here. Afterwards, we will return to San Pedro de Atacama. Leisure time in the afternoon. Overnight in San Pedro. (B)

Day 8: San Pedro – Calama

After breakfast, a transfer takes you to the airport to board your departure flight. (B)

End of services

Cost:  USD$1 480.00 per person sharing for a minimum of two people

Prices Included:

7 night accommodation at the hotels listed below with breakfast

Transfers and excursions with driver and English / German / Italian speaking guide (during some parts of the itinerary one may share the service with other travellers, like visit to winery, entrance fees, wine tasting in visited vineyards.

Atacama entrance fees

1 lunch

Service with Spanish - English speaking guide

Hotels 

Hotel Meridiano Sur - Santiago

Hotel Zero - Valparaiso

 Hotel Altiplanico - Atacama

Notes:

Other hotels available upon request.

Regular transfers IN valid for flights arriving in Calama airport between 0935 and 1015 / 1630 and 1730 / 1815 and 1845.

Regular transfer OUT departing from San Pedro to Calama only at 0730 and 1530.

Costs Exclude:

International and domestic  flights and taxes unless specified.

Taxes.

Meals not specified on the itinerary.

Personal expenses such as telephone bills, laundry expenses, beverages, etc.

Mandatory insurance against theft, loss, illness and/or accident.

Tips, baggage porterage and other extras not specified.

Special Conditions: 

* Tour price applies to any tour booked and paid for in full 31 March 2009. 

* Tour must be booked and paid for in full  

* Price only applies for a minimum of two people per person sharing for travel 1-30 September 2009

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