planning a trip to chile next easter, considering visiting copiapo in the norte chico; would like to do a tour to parque nacional pan de azucar, to see the penguins; and a tour to the nearby PN nevado de tres cruces to see the altiplano, lagoons etc; anyone been on such tours... can you recommend an agency? what are the ballpark prices for them? is there an option on the altiplano tour to stay overnight, but under 4000m?
thanks for any advice
gregor
gregor_russell
1
boliviangringita
We stayed at the Playa El Soldado campground (the best of the three campgrounds there in terms of privacy and beauty, in my opinion) at Parque Nacional Pan de Azucar - really a neat place. There is a small fishing village just minutes away with small, open-air restaurants serving very fresh seafood.
If you can continue on to La Serena, I would recommend the Reserva Nacional Pinguino de Humboldt tour over the Isla Pan de Azucar penguin tour. I actually wanted to take the Isla Pan de Azucar tour, but we couldn't because the sea was to rough, and it was too cloudy when we were there (mid-Jan.) Once we got to La Serena, we took the Humboldt tour, and it was great. You can't leave the boat, but the boats get very close to the island reserve, and you can get some great photos. You'll also get a good view of sea lions and some sea birds. The tour continued on to another beautiful little island, Isla Damas, where we did get off the boat. It had white sand beaches and beautiful little coves - would have loved to stay the night there.
We went with Talinay Adventure Expeditions (in La Serena). It was about $44 USD/person for the full-day tour.
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