Take a remote, rewarding hike with ElderTreks trips
With "Stick Season" upon us, we have put away the golf clubs, the fishing rods and the butterfly net, but some of you find that the hardest of all to closet until next spring are the hiking shoes.
That's why ElderTreks runs trips to where the seasons and the weather are flipped -- South America and Down Under, where spring is presently in its dawn and summer becomes full-fledged in January.
ElderTreks, www.eldertreks.com, serves exclusively the age-50-and-older crowd. Because the company limits numbers of travelers to 16, there is a relative ease of getting to places, compared with cruise ships, which must unload and reload thousands in a single day.
And because ElderTreks seeks adventures that are remote, wild and rewarding, be prepared to pay more for what you would with most excursion companies. The cost might average $260 a day, but includes all your needs: food (plus bottled water), lodging, guides, gratuities and local transport.
The ElderTreks trips are graded according to difficulty, with one being the easiest and five the most difficult.
If you were to limit yourself to one of these vacations to South America in a lifetime, a choice to consider might be ElderTreks' three-week-long Hidden Treasures of South America, encompassing chunks of Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia.
Varied landscapes of high Andean passes, gorges, ranches with gauchos, vineyards, and pre-Columbian villages and ruins are yours for 22 days at $5,695, exclusive of round-trip airfare from your gateway cities. Departure dates in 2008 are March 15 and Oct. 10. If you wait until 2009, the total price increases by $300.
A sampling of the itinerary is a day in Buenos Aires; a flight to La Rioja in western Argentina where the semi-arid Talampaya National Park, famed for its petroglyphs, is located; Miranda Gorge and some Inca Ruins; then on to Rio de Las Conchas and more gorges. Three days of the trip are devoted to trekking (hiking and riding) through Argentina's Wild West ranch area, followed by a visit to the geothermal pools of Laguna Colorada in Bolivia.
This is a Level Five trip, with individual hikes of up to eight to 10 hours, with some steep slopes and loose surfaces. Bypass this one if you can't climb eight to 10 flights of stairs and walk at least eight miles without major problems.
A less-arduous ElderTreks trip in South America is the 22-day visit to the Peruvian Andes. Besides an optional but rewarding hike up a steep trail for a spectacular view of the ruins of Machu Picchu, the entire adventure is above 9,000 feet with some "rough, winding roads and long drives." But, if you take the easy way out to Machu Picchu on this trip (i.e., by train), the overall difficulty of the total adventure is a Level Three or Moderate.
Consider these highlights: Inca Baths at the Cumbemayo Aqueduct; the artisan town of Monsefu; the pyramids of Tucume; the city of Trujillo; the Temple of the Moon; sightseeing in Lima; Ballestas Island, which is a wildlife refuge for sea lions and Humboldt penguins; a scenic flight to Arequipa and the Santa Catalina Monastery; hot springs at Colca; condors in the Colca Canyon; the floating islands of Uros on Lake Titicaca; a visit to Taquile Indians; the gorge of the Urubamba River; and a train ride to Machu Picchu. This trip leaves March 15, April 12 and Oct. 4 in 2008 and costs $5,895.
If you don't mind windy and cool, plus arduous, the Level Five Patagonia Trekking to the End of the World adventure might satisfy. There are panoramas of snow-topped peaks, glaciers, plateaus and turquoise lakes to photograph.
Starting in Buenos Aires and ending in Punta Arenas, Chile, the trip lasts 15 days and costs $4,295. Departures are Feb. 11 and 27 and Nov. 4, 2008.
Starting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the trip goes to the Fitzroy National Park, with hiking through gorges and forests, and past glaciers to reach the summit of Mount Fitzroy. Then it's on to Lago St. Martin, where you will stay on a working ranch for two days before leaving for Glacier National Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You cross into Chile at Torres del Paine National Park, where you will see the granite spires of the Blue Towers. The trip concludes in Punta Arenas, Chile.
Considering that these are outdoor vacations, the weather can be an important factor about when are the best times to go. Here is a rather simplified but reliable list that answers that question: Argentina and Brazil, all year; Bolivia, April through November; Chile, October through April; Peru, December through April; Uruguay, December through March.