There are trips you take and trips that change you. This was the second kind.
Getting There
Patagonia is not a single place — it spans the southern reaches of both Argentina and Chile, and how you enter shapes the whole trip. We flew into Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, and worked our way north through Torres del Paine, El Calafate and El Chaltén over three weeks.
Local Tip
Book your El Chaltén to El Calafate bus at least a week ahead in shoulder season — seats fill fast and there are only two operators running the route.
What It Actually Costs
I am not going to pretend this was a budget trip. Between flights, a rental car for the Torres del Paine leg, and three weeks of accommodation, we spent more than a typical Southeast Asia trip of the same length. But every peso was visible in what we saw.
Travelling With a Toddler
There is no magic formula. There is no perfect strategy that guarantees a peaceful flight with a toddler. What there is, is preparation, realistic expectations and the knowledge that whatever happens up there, it is temporary.
