Enjoy Patagonia and Atacama with the Tierra Hotel & SPA

Designed as first class hotels with a premium service for its guests, the Tierra Hotels represent a leap in comfort and style. The company has experience in the business so you can be sure your stay will be pleasant, relaxing and fun; the perfect ingredients for a dream vacation. All this in an environment that invites guests to explore the surroundings with trained guides in multiple and exciting activities.

Tierra Atacama Hotel & SPA, located on the edge of the town of San Pedro de Atacama offers its guests a great array of activities and excursions. On a van you can go to the Altiplanic Lagoons, and delight with the scenery of mountains and the multiple flora and fauna, like the guanacos. The Salar de Tara is another example of extraordinary beauty. There you can see breathtaking vistas of the Licancabur Volcano, salt lakes and do some bird watching. The Tatio Geysers represent a marvel of nature and can also be seen in the excursions as well as the Machuca Village, the Puritama Hot Springs, Moon Valley, Death Valley and the Atacama Salt Flat where you can see three types of Flamingos on the Flamingo Reserve.

The decoration of the hotel is minimalist and makes use of traditional materials of the zone, so you can truly be immerse in the experience that represents this desert area. The hotel also has activities that are family oriented like horse riding, bicycle riding, walking trips and nocturnal sightings of stars and constellations in the magnificent desert sky of Atacama, considered the purest and most favored in the world for astronomical purposes.

The facilities include the UMA SPA which means water in Aymara. There you can relax and do Yoga or enjoy one of the many therapies available, like facials, massages, body wraps and scrubs, body treatments and alternative therapies using natural desert elements. The SPA also has an outdoor swimming pool, a jacuzzi and an indoor heated pool. The indoor swimming pool has water jets

On the other side if, you enjoy the south, then Tierra Patagonia Hotel & SPA just might be the ideal place to go. Its located just 15 minutes from the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine and has a marvelous view to the Sarmiento Lake and the Torres del Paine. The hotel will open at the end of 2011, but some of the excursions you will be able to do include visits and explorations to the western Torres del Paine National Park with views to the Paine river waterfall. Also, you will be able to see Eastern Torres del Paine, Laguna Azul where you can see extraordinary views of the west of the Paine massif and a full day excursion to the Torres del Paine National Park, where you can see places like the Amarga lagoon, lake Nordenskjold and the mirador Pehoé, among others.

The facilities in Tierra Patagonia include a SPA that offers steam baths, a sauna, an outdoor jacuzzi, a heated swimming pool and massage room. Also, for people interested in doing excursions, there is a room where you can see maps of the zone.

For more information, visit our website: www.i-southernworld.com

Hotel Parque Quilquilco: the ideal place to enjoy the wonders of Insular Patagonia

Chile’s Chiloe Island represents a magical and fascinating getaway for anyone looking for a different experience in gastronomy and the learning of interesting myths, legends and the sighting of extraordinary natural landscapes in a relaxing and quiet environment.

Hotel Parque Quilquico is the perfect place to enjoy the natural wonders of Chiloe in a comfortable way. This new hotel offers its visitor’s facilities that include a main restaurant with author cuisine from Chiloe, where you will be able to taste dishes that incorporate local products like the more than 200 types of potatoes found in the island and honey of Ulmo. The gastronomy also has a Mediterranean influence, giving the dishes a special and unique touch.

The hotel has programs of 3 days and 4 nights that include transfers the day of arrival and departure from the Airport El Tepual-Puerto Montt to the Hotel itself. The facilities include a sauna, a heated swimming pool and a buffet breakfast –lunch and diner are also included-. You can do a wide arrange of activities that go from horse riding to trekking and even bird watching.

Inserted in a beautiful park of 10 hectares, the hotel is located in the top of a hill. In the lower part you can find the Wetland of Pullao, an excellent place to see a great diversity of birds like the Zarapito, Swans of black neck and even flamingos. Chiloe also has an interesting flora that includes the Arrayan and Cypress of the Huaytecas.

Insular Patagonia has a lot of attractive points to visit, but perhaps one of the most interesting would be the churches of Chiloe built in the XVII and XVIII century by the Jesuit and Franciscan orders present in the area. The beautiful constructions are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and represent the perfect fusion between local and European cultural and technical styles, without a doubt a perfect complement to the already spectacular landscape of the place.

For more information regarding the hotel and other destinations, please visit www.i-southernworld.com

Experience a Place like no other, Experience Antarctica

If you are looking for a vast and natural landscape where you can not only relax, but live and feel an entirely unique and unforgettable experience, then traveling to Antarctica just might be the place to go. No other place in the world offers the sensation you will find here in this remote, yet exotic location where the ice-cold vistas meet the beautiful fauna.

There are multiple cruises that do routes to Antarctica, some offer a luxurious visit, others tend to focus less on the ship and more in the outdoor experience, the quality of the guide, the type of conferences you can get on board, the activities, and perhaps the most important aspect of all, the places you get to see. The so-called expedition tours specialize in the latter and normally they travel with specialists that can help you with all your questions. Some cruises -for example- include geologists, historians, naturalists and even ornithologists among their staff.

The fauna in Antarctica includes sightings of whales like the Humpback and a great variety of birds like the giant Petrel, Albatross, Kelp Gulls and the Snowy Sheathbill. Leopard Seals and fish specially adapted to live in water conditions below 0 °C are some of the other animals you can see in this place. The Emperor Penguins and Seals are found in parts of the Weddell Sea zone, but not all cruises go there.

An excellent option in expedition cruises is Antartic Dream. It offers an 11 days and 10 nights expedition that ships from Ushuaia, crosses the Drake Passage and visits places like Aitcho Island, Neko Bay, Paradise Bay and Deception Island before returning to Ushuaia in Argentina.

The other program –Fly & Sail- has two itineraries. The first one leaves from Punta Arenas, Chile and returns to Ushuaia, Argentina. The second one leaves from Ushuaia, Argentina and returns to Punta Arenas in Chile. 

With multiple tours to choose from, Antarctica represents a new and original travel location for adventurous and casual travelers that want to experience the extreme side of nature with all its beauty, but in a safe environment and with all the accommodations of home.

For more information regarding Antarctic Cruises, visit our website: www.i-southernworld.com

Visit the Fantastic World of the Floating Islands in Lake Titicaca

Located on the Peruvian side of the lake, the floating islands of Lake Titicaca constitute an attraction that immediately gets the attention of the people that visit this spectacular man made living space. The islands are not as known as other destinations in Peru like Machu Picchu or Lima, but this beautiful place has charms of its own. They were created by the Uros, Pre Incan people that live in the high plains –Altiplano in Spanish- of Collao, and their presence extends to territories in Peru and Bolivia.

The Uros are known for their worship to the moon, the name means “sons of the dawn”, and their main activities are fishing –the Carachi and the Pejerrey being the main fish they catch-, the hunting of birds and the recollection of duck eggs.

The floating islands of Lake Titicaca –there are more than fifty and each one has a name- are constructed using Totora reeds, a plant found in the region that is also used to build vessels and different types of craft art. The islands use an anchor to prevent the abrupt moving by the currents and they must be covered with Totora every year to prevent sinking.

The Uros are friendly people and they welcome the tourism activity every year in this spectacular landscape that combines the blue of the lake with the striking yellow of the Totora islands and vessels that sail the zone. The place also has more than 70 species of birds, ideal for people that enjoy doing bird watching.

Walking the islands is like walking in a water bed, with soft spots that reveal the actual water beneath the Totora reeds, a sensation that becomes normal once you get to see and talk with some of the locals that have being living there for years.

The construction process consists in the careful cutting of the totora and the following creation of blocks from roots that measure 15 centimeters. The multiple blocks are joined with rope conforming a giant living space that gives birth to an island. 

Experience this unique landscape in beautiful Peru by staying in this magnificent hotel: Titilaka

Chile´s Torres del Paine nominated best Choice for Outdoor Activities

The spectacular natural reserve was nominated by Wikiexplora as the best place to do open air activities and trekking. The National Park Torres del Paine is one of the main tourist attractions of the Chilean Patagonia and has a rich flora and fauna, beautiful rivers, a glacier, a lake and the main highlight, the Cordillera del Paine.

Located 112km north of Puerto Natales, this incredible park is dominated by the always-outstanding view of the Paine massif and the exotic and beautiful natural environment. The fauna includes species like the Guanacos -a camelid native to this continent and the most common mammal of the park-, cougars, foxes and pumas. If you choose to do some trekking you can also see the majestic Condor, different types of hawks and eagles, swans and even flamingos!

Torres del Paine was nominated at the top of the list -out of sixty touring circuits- with eight mentions out of nine. The rated points included the scenery, infrastructure available in the zone, places to rest or to find shelter, camping sites and hotels. 

Second place with seven mentions went to Peru´s Camino del Inca recognized for being a place of immense cultural value. Third place corresponded to the Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania for its singular environment and special mentions went to the Argentine Patagonia, Fitz Roy and the Cerro Torres.

The choice of Torres del Paine at the top of this list was the result of a research that lasted more than three months, involving magazines of outdoor and trekking activities.

Discover Santiago, Capital of Chile

Currently considered one of the best destinations to go this year, Santiago is a city that promises excellent gastronomy, world-class hotel options and an incredible selection of cultural activities that you can do during day while enjoying the spectacular mountain landscape that surrounds Chile’s capital.

Santiago is a dynamic and hip city with a growing cultural offer that’s also centered in quality and variety. Perhaps one of the most interesting examples of this is the Museo de la Moda, a privately funded museum located in the district of Vitacura that specializes fashion. It has a permanent collection of 10.000 pieces of different fashion elements that range from clothing to objects and even memorabilia (typically 800 objects are featured in an exposition). Here you can see 1960´s suits that belonged to The Beatles, a jacket and hat from Elvis, a scarf used by Jimmy Hendrix, a dress worn by Princess Diana in 1981 and awards and items that belonged to different rock stars.

Exquisite gastronomy and high fashion go together in Santiago. In the capital’s exclusive and prestigious street Alonso de Cordova you can see top fashion stores, art museums that present modern, classic and experimental art –they also tend do night events- and of course, high level cuisine restaurants, where you can taste and eat delicious dishes accompanied by Chilean red or white wines from the Central Valley.

Other points of interests in Santiago, include visits to the Santa Lucia Hill, the San Cristobal Hill, the bohemian Bellavista neighborhood –excellent restaurants-, the must see Pueblito Los Dominicos for local crafts and the Museo Nacional Bellas Artes (MNBA) for a more traditional look of Chilean and world art, with expositions that feature colonial art with a religious theme, a collection of Spanish paintings from the XVII and XX century and some works by Chilean surrealist painter Roberto Matta.

Chile’s Magnificent Atacama Desert

Used as a spectacular backdrop for the latest James Bond film, the Atacama desert represents a must see if you travel to Chile not only for the beauty of the vast and sandy landscapes, but for the sensation of being in another planet. Most scientists around the globe agree that this place is the closest environment on earth that resemblance the soil of Mars, a unique characteristic that makes it ideal for testing vehicles and even sophisticated robots. In the night, you can marvel with the outstanding view of the sky, extremely clear and pure, ideal for star watching or for a romantic and exquisite evening in one of the many quality hotel restaurants that the zone has to offer. But the driest desert in the world is more than sand dunes, cacti and clear skies.

There is the Salt Flats of Atacama where thick mineral crusts form a large field of salt and beautiful lagoons with exotic pink Flamingos complete the arid but unique landscape. North East of the Salt Flats, we can find the village of Tocanao, special for its architecture as the entire village was built using a special stone called Liparita, a mineral that keeps the constructions cool or warm depending on the season.    

Also interesting to see is the Archaeological Museum Gustavo Le Paige that features ceramics, artifacts and garments of the culture present in Atacama; the painteresque town of San Pedro -with a population that barely reaches the 5000 mark-, featuring landmarks like the Church of San Pedro, surrounded by an adobe wall built in 1774 that has three doors and a central arch and the Tatio Geysers with fumaroles that exceed 85 degrees Celsius.

The hotels that we recommend in this zone are Awasi, Explora Atacama, Tierra Atacama and Alto Atacama.