Here are a few ideas for trips before or after the workshop (or if your partner/family wants something to do while you are at our workshop). If you want someone else to make the arrangements for you, we can highly recommend Southbound/ProTours. If you are into birds, then BirdsChile do some great tours (I have done two of their day tours from Puerto Montt and can organise something with them for you).
If you are flying into Santiago, it is well worth the trip to Valparaiso, with its extensive murals, funicular railways and fishing harbour. And apparently the source of Australia’s invasive weed Xanthium spinosum, transported on horse’s tails from Valvaraiso!
To the north, it is only a short flight to the amazing Atacama Desert, the driest non-polar desert on earth. Apart from the scenery and culture, you can see flamingoes and vicuña.
If you like horse-riding and want to stay longer in the monkey-puzzle forests, we can recommend a stay at Suizandina Lodge 66 km from La Baita. This was our second choice for the workshop venue.
The city of Valdivia is 250 km the southwest of La Baita, full of Spanish colonial history and the remains of its fortifications.
One of the top tourist destinations in the region, 430 km south of La Baita, is Puerto Montt where you can take the scenic Lakes Crossing by boat past volcanoes to Bariloche in Argentina (where our local organiser Mariana lives). Or there is Chiloe island, with its penguins, amazing World Heritage churches and palafitos – houses built on stilts over the water.
Further south is Patagonia, with its glaciers and mountains (if you can afford it, you might try the Ecocamp at Torres del Paine) for hiking and mountain bike tours.
Keeping going south and you get to Tierra del Fuego, Las Malvinas (Falkland Islands) and Antarctica……..
Ecology for a social revolution 