Our tour starts depending on the option chosen:
- If you booked the option with transfers, our guide will pick you up at your accommodation in Rio Tranquilo at 7:30 AM.
- If you booked the option without transfers, we will meet at the dock in Bahia Exploradores at 9:45 AM.
Once we have met, we will have a brief safety talk and travel directions to be ready to visit Laguna San Rafael National Park.
With an extension of 1,742,000 hectares, this park is the largest in the Aysén Region, and includes all of the Northern Ice Fields that give rise to countless rivers and lagoons. Although the glacier and the lagoon are its greatest attraction, this park is home to a great variety of birds, both marine and terrestrial, and other wild animals.
We will embark on a two-hour navigation through the Exploradores River delta, where we will enjoy a delicious breakfast while observing the unique beauty of the landscape.
Once we arrive at the pier of the San Rafael Lagoon, we will disembark for a 40 minute walk where we will pass by the ruins of the Ofqui Hotel. After settling in the CONAF* Caiquén refuge and a light lunch, we will start a hike to the glacier viewpoint.
We will walk along a path that will take us through the interior of a forest, which will present us with different views of the lagoon as we advance. We will finally arrive at the San Rafael glacier, where we will marvel at the impressive spectacle before our eyes. It is also possible to observe and listen to the thundering ice slides.
Here we will also be able to find native species of flora, such as the coigue de Chiloé and Magallanes, cinnamon trees, and the endemic hebe salcifolia that only grows in the Laguna San Rafael National Park. We will also be able to see birds characteristic of the evergreen forest, and if we are lucky, we will be able to take the shy pudu and the elusive guiñas. At the end of the hike, we will have dinner and spend the night in the refuge.
During our second day, after breakfast at the refuge, we will return to the dock to board at 12:30 and sail to the wall of the San Rafael glacier, enjoying this magnificent spectacle from a different perspective.
After lunch, we will begin our return to Bahía Exploradores. Those who have reserved the option with transfers, will return to Rio Tranquilo.