Our team

We are a small team of people who for 16 years have cultivated a passion to make discover the wonders of “Planeta Chile” in order to leave our customers eager to come back.

VICENTE SOTA

I am Chilean by my roots and international by my experience. I grew up in Europe where I studied history, theater and foreign languages, and for five years I guided tourists through the whiskey routes in Scotland, the Goya routes in Spain and the Danube routes in Austria-Hungary, until becoming a specialist in the treasures of Paris, the Palace of Versailles and the Châteaux of the Loire river. Since my return to Chile, I have traveled the country, first with my French family who came to visit us, then with friends, and each time more often, with their friends and families. This is how I started – and I continue – to discover and select the places that seem to me the most beautiful and interesting to share, as well as service providers who like and know how to welcome. It is by falling back in love with my beautiful country that today, with my partner, my brother and my father-in-law, as well as with my friends, we have made Planeta Chile a profession and a passion.

NATHALIE LECOMPTE

I am French and mother of two children with Vicente. I started living with him while studying theater and literature while he guided French tourists through Europe. After living in Mexico for a few years, we moved to Chile, where I teach theater and French. I like to travel and surprise myself with the variety & richness of the incredible landscapes of this country, as well as the warm welcome offered by many families who like to welcome the foreigner as if he were part of the family. Now, collaborating with our small family business, I take a liking to share and disseminate these treasures not only with my family and friends, but also with all those who prefer to travel away from the tourist trap.

VICKY STRUTHERS

Anglo-Chilean, I grew up going back and forth from Chile to England, sometimes with my English family and sometimes with the Chilean. Then I moved to Zermatt, a dream village & winter sports resort, at the foot of the Matterhorn, in the Swiss Alps. For years, I ran my gift shop, while enjoying the constant cultural exchange with travelers from all over the world. Today, mother of 3 children and passionate about the beauty of our country, with the Planeta Chile team I do what I like the most: to offer an original experience to travelers who would like to discover authentic Chile off the beaten track, its nature overflowing with unusual landscapes as well as our culture, hospitality, our wines, fish and seafood …

YVES LECOMPTE

I am a French heart surgeon in my sixties. At the end of a career during which, out of taste and necessity, I traveled a lot, I became convinced that you can only discover a country through a relationship with its inhabitants. The tourist-only consumer (watcher?) always misses the point. This is the reason why I decided to join forces with Vicente, a Chilean steeped in French culture, and with my daughter Nathalie, in this company which has as its raison d’être the sharing of a singular experience rather than the consumption of a standardized product.

JUAN SOTA

After years of research in different latitudes of the globe, I ended up finding thirty years ago, my little piece of paradise in San Pedro d ‘Atacama, an oasis in the driest desert in the world where I brings my passion for authentic tourism to life. A pioneer in this field, I have worked there continuously since that time, as a guide and owner of various tourism projects, before putting all my experience, with my associates, to the success of Planeta Chile & our Lodge (www.planetaatacama. com) which, as its name suggests, aims to embrace this country and its wonders in all their extent. I will be happy to help you organize your trip, excursions as well as to accompany you in the discovery of our Planeta Chile .

OUR SPECIALIST GUIDES

FABRICE SCHMITT

Passionate about ornithology for more than 20 years, I fell in love with the birds of South America during my first trip to Peru in 1995. Since this trip, I have crisscrossed the continent, visiting almost every country, discovering its fauna, its flora, its people…

Since 2005 I live in Santiago de Chile where I carry out many activities with the Chilean association for the study and protection of birds AvesChile.

Personally, and in collaboration with my Chilean friend Rodrigo Barros, I am carrying out a study on the “Chilean” babbling Doradite (Pseudocolopteryx flaviventris), the aim of which is to specify the ecological requirements of this species as well as the features of its biology (migration, fidelity to the breeding site). I guide bird watching tours in Peru, Argentina and Chile.

(See avibase: https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/links/links.jsp?page=l_sam_cl )

MIRIAM LAHSEN

I love poetry and literature as something alive, as a landscape that evolves and changes through the seasons. I love to travel and poetry is an intense and fascinating journey to the worlds of authors and to my own, yes, poetry illuminates my perception of the world, of others and of myself.
Currently I run literary workshops. I am convinced that Chile has produced nothing better than wine and poets. Neruda is my poetic passion, I give lessons on him and his work at the same time as I accompany lovers of his poetry to visit his houses and his paths, both physical and poetic. I have the chance to work by sharing, with sensitive people, certain dimensions of love and existence that only the arts can offer.

PATRICIA ANGUITA

My father Raoul, one of the founders of the ski resort, La Parva, bequeathed to me his unconditional passion for the mountains and winter sports. As a teenager, I defended the colors of Chilean skiing around the world and later, I studied Pedagogy, History and Geography. After teaching skiing in France and the United States, I returned to my native Andes. I ran the La Parva ski school for 11 years and today, with two sons who competed in the last Olympic Winter Games, I continue to learn, convinced that skiing and the mountains are a school of life I am proud to promote.

ALEJANDRO MERCADER ABARCA

I am a Chilean ”nortiño”, from the desert, theory question, I obtained a bachelor’s degree in Tourist Studies (Santiago) and a master’s degree in “Sciences Po” (Paris), but in practice, I am a creator and director of projects. I started with my small tourism agency in Chile, then I moved to Spain where I developed my career as a European guide by working for international tour operators in the Americas, Africa and Europe. I specialized in the development of tourist products on European roads and in the training of guides and logistics teams. Since 2005, I live with my family in Santiago, committed to improving the quality of service and attention to customers.

RUPERTO LÓPEZ RODRÍGUEZ

I am a Spaniard on my fifties having dedicated half of my life to learning, to the practice of my passion for high quality tourism. I started as an animator and guide in social tourism for the elderly, I subsequently learned the profession of specialized professional guide first in England and France then in America until becoming Tour Leader in large European tours in English and Portuguese. After a decade, I moved to the Americas, engaged in coordinating teams of guides and drivers, management services and the development of new lines, until I fell in love with a beautiful Chilean client, today mother of our triplets born in Valparaiso, where we have lived for several years.