MS Roald Amundsen - Chilean Fjords & Patagonia

Where this cruise calls, day by day

12 ports and 2 sea days over 13 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Ushuaia

   ArgentinaDepart

   Ushuaia sits on the Beagle Channel below the Martial range and bills itself as the world's southernmost city, which is mostly true and entirely commercial. It is the main embarkation port for Antarctic expedition ships, so the waterfront is a mix of outfitters, king crab restaurants and gangways. Passengers on round-South-America itineraries usually get a half day for the national park or a channel boat trip.

   • Tierra del Fuego National Park and Lapataia Bay
   • Beagle Channel catamaran trip to Les Eclaireurs lighthouse and the sea lion islets
   • End of the World Train (Tren del Fin del Mundo)
   • Museo del Presidio, the old prison that built the town

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth at the Muelle Comercial, a short walk from Avenida San Martin.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

2. Day 2

   Garibaldi Fjord

   ChilePort

   Garibaldi Fjord cuts north into Tierra del Fuego from the Beagle Channel, inside Alberto de Agostini National Park, and ends at the Garibaldi Glacier coming off the Darwin Icefield. Waterfalls drop out of hanging valleys on both walls, and unusually for Patagonia the Garibaldi has been advancing rather than retreating. Small ships either hold position at the face or land for a steep forest walk to a viewpoint.

   • The Garibaldi Glacier face at the head of the fjord
   • Waterfalls streaming off the fjord walls
   • Steep hike through Magellanic forest to a glacier viewpoint
   • Darwin Range peaks above the icefield

   Getting ashore

   Small expedition ships only; zodiac cruise or a landing for the viewpoint hike, weather permitting.

   Best months

   Oct-Mar

3. Day 3

   Ainsworth Bay

   ChilePort

   Ainsworth Bay is an inlet off Almirantazgo Sound in Chilean Tierra del Fuego, inside Alberto de Agostini National Park, and it is reached only by small expedition ship. The retreating Marinelli Glacier feeds it from the Darwin Icefield. Ashore, short walks lead through sub-polar Magellanic forest past beaver-flooded ground to a mossy waterfall; the beach here is one of the few southern elephant seal breeding sites in Chile, though the animals are not always present.

   • Marinelli Glacier and the Darwin Range behind it
   • Southern elephant seals on the beach (seasonal, not guaranteed)
   • Magellanic sub-polar forest walk with beaver-dammed ponds
   • Condors and kelp geese along the shoreline

   Getting ashore

   Zodiac landing from small expedition vessels only; large ships cannot enter.

   Best months

   Oct-Mar

4. Day 4

   Strait of Magellan (Scenic Cruising)

   ChilePort

   The strait is the sheltered route between the Atlantic and Pacific that Magellan found in 1520, and it is still the alternative to going round the Horn. Cruising it means a day of low brown steppe on the north shore and rising forested mountains on the Tierra del Fuego side, narrowing at Primera and Segunda Angostura where the tide runs hard. Commerson's dolphins and Peale's dolphins are common.

   • Primera and Segunda Angostura, the two tidal narrows
   • Commerson's and Peale's dolphins alongside
   • The Tierra del Fuego shoreline and distant Darwin Range
   • Punta Arenas and Fuerte Bulnes on the northern shore

   Getting ashore

   Scenic cruising; the strait is a transit route rather than a stop.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

5. Day 5

   White Narrows (Scenic Cruising)

   ChilePort

   The White Narrows, or Angostura White, is the tightest point on the sea route into Puerto Natales — roughly 80 metres of navigable water with strong tidal streams running through it. Ships have to time the transit for slack water and daylight, so it often dictates the day's schedule rather than fitting into it. From the deck the rock walls come close enough that the passage is over faster than most people expect.

   • The 80-metre-wide navigable gap, the narrowest on the Natales route
   • Tidal currents and the slack-water timing the transit depends on
   • Union Sound opening out beyond the narrows
   • Steamer ducks and cormorants along the channel edges

   Getting ashore

   Scenic cruising — a short, tightly-timed transit with no landing.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

6. Day 6

   Puerto Natales

   ChilePort

   Puerto Natales sits on Ultima Esperanza Sound and functions almost entirely as the staging town for Torres del Paine, 110 km north. The waterfront has a good view across to the Balmaceda range, a scattering of gear shops and breweries, and a monument to the Milodon — a giant ground sloth whose remains were found in a cave nearby. A day here means either the park at speed or the cave and a boat trip.

   • Torres del Paine National Park (a long but doable day trip)
   • Cueva del Milodon, the giant ground sloth cave
   • Boat trip up Ultima Esperanza to the Balmaceda and Serrano glaciers
   • The waterfront and Cerro Dorotea lookout

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth or anchor off the town; the approach requires transiting the narrow White Narrows at slack tide.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

7. Day 7

   Chilean Fjords (Exploration Day)

   ChilePort

   An exploration day in the fjords is deliberately unscheduled — the expedition team picks a spot that morning based on wind, ice and what the ship can safely enter. In practice that means zodiac cruising into an unnamed inlet, a shore walk on a cobble beach, or nosing towards a glacier face nobody had on the itinerary. It is the format small ships use where large ones can only sail past.

   • Zodiac cruising into side fjords with no landing infrastructure
   • Shore walks in Magellanic evergreen forest
   • Tidewater glacier faces and waterfall-streaked walls
   • Condors, black-browed albatross and Chilean dolphins

   Getting ashore

   Zodiac operations from small expedition ships; the specific site is decided on the day and may be dropped entirely.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

8. Day 8

   Puerto Eden

   ChilePort

   Puerto Eden is a settlement of a couple of hundred people on Wellington Island, with no roads in or out and no roads inside it either — everything is linked by wooden boardwalk along the shore. It is one of the last places where members of the Kawesqar people, who navigated these channels in canoes for thousands of years, still live. The setting is Bernardo O'Higgins National Park: rainforest, rain and fjord.

   • The shoreline boardwalk that serves as the village's only street
   • Kawesqar cultural heritage and locally made reed craft
   • Bernardo O'Higgins National Park surroundings
   • One of the wettest inhabited places in Chile, with the forest to match

   Getting ashore

   Ships anchor offshore and tender to the village pier; only small vessels call.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

9. Day 9

   Caleta Tortel

   ChilePort

   Tortel is a village with no streets. Built in the 1950s for the cypress logging trade, it clings to a steep bay near the mouth of the Baker River and is connected entirely by kilometres of raised boardwalk and staircases made from local Guaitecas cypress. Getting around means climbing, which surprises people. It sits between the Northern and Southern Patagonian Ice Fields, and the weather generally reflects that.

   • The cypress boardwalk network linking the whole village
   • Cerro La Bandera lookout over the bay and the Baker River mouth
   • The milky glacial colour of Tortel Bay
   • Boat trips towards the Steffen and Jorge Montt glaciers

   Getting ashore

   Small expedition ships anchor and tender in; the village has no cruise berth and large ships cannot call.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

10. Day 10 · At sea

11. Day 11

    Castro, Chiloe Island

    ChilePort

    Castro is the main town of Chiloe, an island with its own mythology, its own architecture and a long history of doing things differently from the mainland. The signature sight is the palafitos — houses on stilts over the water at Gamboa and Pedro Montt, now half of them guesthouses. Chiloe's wooden churches, built by Jesuit missionaries without nails and shingled like upturned boats, are a UNESCO listing spread across the archipelago.

    • Palafito stilt houses at Gamboa
    • Iglesia San Francisco de Castro, yellow and purple, a UNESCO church
    • Dalcahue and Achao churches on the wooden-church circuit
    • Curanto, the local pit-cooked shellfish and meat dish

    Getting ashore

    Ships anchor in Castro fjord and tender in; the town has no cruise berth.

    Best months

    Dec-Mar (rain is likely in any month)

12. Day 12

    Niebla (Valdivia)

    ChilePort

    Niebla is the coastal village at the mouth of the Valdivia river, and the call is really about two things: the Spanish colonial fort system and Valdivia city upriver. Castillo de Niebla, cut into the cliff, was one of a chain built to defend the estuary, with Corral and Mancera on the other side. Valdivia itself is 18 km inland, a German-founded university town with a riverside market where sea lions loiter for scraps.

    • Castillo de la Pura y Limpia Concepcion de Monfort de Lemus at Niebla
    • Corral and Mancera island forts across the bay
    • Valdivia's Feria Fluvial market and its resident sea lions
    • Kunstmann brewery and the town's German settlement heritage

    Getting ashore

    Ships anchor in Corral Bay and tender ashore; there is no cruise berth at Niebla.

    Best months

    Dec-Mar

13. Day 13 · At sea

14. Day 14

    Valparaiso

    ChileArrive

    Valparaiso is built on 40-odd hills above a working harbour, and the pleasure of it is getting lost — painted houses stacked on top of each other, murals on every retaining wall, and a set of Victorian funicular lifts still creaking up the slopes. Cerros Alegre and Concepcion hold most of the restaurants and the UNESCO-listed core. It doubles as the turnaround port for Santiago cruises, about 90 minutes inland.

    • The ascensores (funiculars), including Reina Victoria and El Peral
    • Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepcion street art and cafes
    • La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda's hillside house
    • Vina del Mar and the Casablanca Valley wineries nearby

    Getting ashore

    Ships berth at the Terminal de Pasajeros VTP in the port, with a short shuttle to Plaza Sotomayor.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar