Highlights: Wilderness of Isla de Navarino, and climbing surprisingly interesting and spectacular peaks from El Chaltén. Birdlife was prolific and spectacular. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. Almost everything was surprising. Not to have time in the wilder off-trail parts of the Paine region was disappointing.

Yes. and no: so different to Europe that I had tried not to have any expectations.

Yes

Rosemary dealt with this.

Not disagreeably surprised, but uneasy given the lack of knowledge or assurance of whom we were dealing with and the large amounts of unsecured funds we had to hand over up front. Almost all our arrangements appeared to be made through the Patagonian outfits. I think you could make it clearer that mostly all you are doing is putting us in touch with suitable local operators. From then on, I would have found it more satisfactory to deal directly and entirely with them, as that would avoid misunderstandings about exactly what we wanted to do and our real motivations. Chino was brilliant in that he conducted Skype meetings before we left, and these were extremely helpful. They also materially influenced how we realised we had to deal with Swoop, Dittmar and Serac when it came to refining the rest of the trip.

Wilderness chino, Jaime and Pancho great organisation looked after well but they could cut down on weight by simplifying food. However hot breakfast and real food was much appreciated as it was fairly cold. We have already thanked Chino. Basically told him the trip was fantastic.

Highlights: Oggioni Pass day and the Zapata area. Cannot see the point of the O-route to anyone except an ultra runner on a fine weather day (the John Gardner pass would present problems in snow and bad weather). We would LOVE to have spent a few days at Zapata with a mountain guide, or just by ourselves, but were fortunate to get an hour there in unexpectedly fine weather. The guide, Juan, was extremely pleasant, knowledgeable, helpful, and cheerful even in the worst weather conditions. Although trekking with a guide is not adventurous, and feels very restrictive, we accepted that these were the regulations we had to follow in order to get an introduction to the area.

Highlights: gazing at the awesome crags around the village; the guides; getting to the summits of Cerro Madsen, the Mojon Rojo, and Vespignani in fine enough conditions to gaze on the most amazing perspectives of the Fitzroy and Cerro Torre ranges. Accommodation: just right. I don't think we could add more to the excellent and heartfelt thanks and praise we have already lavished on Diego, Juli and Alejandro.

Get the latest practical information about currency before you leave: which one to use, where you can get it, and anything else current.

Inspired to go back to Patagonia and continue working our way north.