Surviving the first day of hiking. The beauty of the glaciers. The rainbow that greeted us at the start of the hike. Lunch by the stream and refilling my water bottle in the cold, clear glacier water. The cold beer at the end.

Life changing

Great city to walk to get ready for Patagonia. Uber service was very good and far less expensive than a taxi. The tango show was very enjoyable. They even arrange to pick you up and return you to your hotel (if you check the right box). Great food and friendly people.

Mario in El Chalten, Francisca and Andrea at Camp Patagonia were all excellent. We had a lot of fun laughing, joking around, and singing with the ladies on the trail. We wanted them to have as much fun as we did. They were all wonderful, knowledgeable, and willing to let us set our own pace.

We saw many sites in Buenos Aires and Santiago. We did miles of walking. The hiking excursions (stated above) were very good. The first day was too much coming from sea level and flat land.

The information provided by Swoop was very helpful with the trip. Still packed too many clothes...but we had 4 days in two major cities, plus the trekking.

Plan to wear a layers of light and medium clothing. Sailing gear is not hiking gear. Sailing is wind and waterproof. Hiking gear has to breath. Comfortable and broken-in boots are critical. Although we did see a lot of hikers wearing hiking shoes. Practice on the stair master for weeks prior to the trip. General hiking is not enough.

The box lunch sandwiches had way too much bread. I generally ate the empanada, brownie, apple or orange and power bar. I gave my sandwiches to the guides...who enjoyed them. We did get a wrap at Camp Patagonia that was much easier to eat. Have someone available all of the time during the weekday. The Swoop emergency number was not manned and you had to leave a recording. I don't really call that an emergency number.

I feel like my heart is healthier than I may have thought. Even though my wife is 70 and I am 68, we were able to do 90% of the hiking, just a little slower than others. Personally, my thrill is not racing up the hill. We liked to stop, let our hearts or legs rest and have the guide tell us something new and interesting about the area. We learned a lot of plant and tree names, what berries to eat, what plants not to sit on "Mother in Law Sofa/Pillow" and we got to take a lot of pictures to enjoy later. We could do this because the larger, Camp Patagonia groups would have two guides. My wife and I always ended up with a private guide while everyone else raced ahead. This is one of the most spectacular areas of the world. I feel blessed to have seen and hiked it.

We were well prepared to hike easy to moderate trails. We never needed to hike an extreme trail, nor would we want to. There needs to be some moderation on the first day of hiking, unless there is a methodology behind hiking long distances the first day? We were very excited about the trip and feel very fortunate to have been able to make it happen...with your assistance! We would be interested in a Swoop New Zealand Trip. We will have to send Alicia a link to a Google drive for our pictures. We have some incredible shots.

No

No

No