Ushuaia Argentina - Feb 27

Our last port of call before heading south to Antarctica was in Ushuaia Argentina, a pretty port town and the most southerly port city of Argentina. The port had more of the red icebreakers docked and several smaller "expedition cruise ships" some of which actually land tourists on Antarctica. We had booked a horse riding excursion, which was delightful with the horses taking us through woods, up hills and finally along the beach.

Tomorrow is crossing the Drake Passage and down to the Antarctic Peninsula!

Chilean Fjords and Punta Arenas - Feb 24-26

Following our visit to Laguna San Rafael, we had two full days at sea, cruising the Chilean Fjords, many of which run parallel to the coast among hundreds of forest clad islands. The views are stunning and human habitation is sparse, focused on salmon farms every few miles.

On February 26 we awoke docked in Punta Arenas, in the Magellan Strait, which the departure point for many Antarctic expeditions and the base for many of the icebreaker ships which service the Antarctic research stations. The icebreakers are amazing ships, but I would not want to sail in one - they have a rounded keel to avoid getting trapped in ice, which means they roll like crazy at sea! In Punta Arenas we went for a nice guided hike along the coast and the views kept coming. :-)

And in case photos are not enough, here are a couple of videos where I try to show the grandeur of the Chilean coast and fjords, and then a view of the Straits of Magellan as we left Punta Arenas close to sunset

Chilean Coast - Mon Feb 19 to Fri Feb 23

We boarded the Seven Seas Voyager on Monday afternoon in the port of San Antonio after a two hour bus ride from Santiago. The ship is beautiful and the staff are very welcoming, knowledgeable and efficient. The first stop was at Puerto Montt on Wednesday so we started with a day and two nights at sea, exploring the ship and enjoying a formal night on the Tuesday evening.

At  Puerto Montt we had an excursion to several sights around Lake Llanquihue, including Mt Osorno, an “inactive” volcano that last erupted in 1869 and now has a ski resort on it. Osorno and its snow cap are beautiful from a distance, but up close there is a lot of volcanic grit that blows around like a sand storm!

Our visit to Puerto Chacabuco was canceled due to weather and so our next stop was anchoring close to Laguna San Rafael which is a lagoon formed from the receding San Rafael Glacier. A 200 seat catamaran took us from our ship into the lagoon and to within 500m of the glacier. We did not witness a calving, but there were many small icebergs floating around us. Glacier ice is a wonderful blue due to years of compression removing all oxygen from the ice.

And here is a video showing the glacier and its surroundings with ice debris everywhere.