18-Day Chilean Fjords and Antarctica

Embarkation in Santiago de Chile

Day at sea

Puerto Montt, surrounded by volcanoes like Osorno, is the gateway to adventures such as rafting and hiking. In the city, there is a lively fish market and stalls with colorful wool ponchos. This versatile city combines traditional South American life with modern and rustic elements.

The Moraleda Channel is a protected waterway along the Chilean coast that runs from the Gulf of Corcovado in the north to Laguna San Rafael in the south. It separates the many mountainous islands of the Chonos Archipelago from the Chilean mainland. Similar to the Inside Passage on North America’s Pacific coast, the Moraleda Channel is a geological feature. Its course follows the geological Liguiñe-Ofqui Fault east of the islands, which are actually the peaks of the submerged Chilean Coastal Range.

The Baker Channel is a large, multi-armed fjord that cuts about 120 kilometers into the Chilean mainland from Tarn Bay in the Gulf of Penas. It is located approximately halfway between the northern and southern Patagonian ice fields, and its southern arm ends at the Jorge Montt Glacier, which comes from the southern ice field and regularly calves icebergs into the channel. The channel forms the northern border of the vast Chilean Bernardo O’Higgins National Park.

You explore the picturesque Eyre Fjord, where the monumental Brüggen Glacier is located, the longest glacier in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica. The glacier stretches across a width of 4.5 kilometers and is characterized by icy cliffs that rise up to 75 meters high and are crisscrossed by deep blue crevasses and seracs. Named after the German-Chilean geologist Juan Brüggen Messtorff, it is located in Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, a sanctuary for rare animal species such as the Chilean huemul deer, the Andean condor, and sea otters.

As you enter the Peel Fjord in southern Chile, you see small pieces of ice on the water and mighty ice walls originating from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. The surrounding slopes are adorned with waterfalls, while occasional chunks of ice silently plunge into the sea, later producing a thunderous sound. This natural spectacle takes place in Chile’s largest national park, Bernardo O’Higgins.

Punta Arenas is Chile’s most important port in Patagonia. The city on the Strait of Magellan offers historical sights and is the starting point for tours to Torres del Paine National Park.

Days at sea

Your days for discoveries and adventures in Antarctica will be planned by the expedition team depending on weather and ice conditions.

Days at sea

Arrival in Ushuaia