Seabourn Pursuit - Chilean Fjords Expedition: Santiago to Ushuaia

Where this cruise calls, day by day

9 ports and 2 sea days over 10 Nights.

1. Day 1

   San Antonio (Santiago)

   ChileDepart

   San Antonio is a working container and bulk port, and cruise ships call here mainly because Valparaiso's berths are full. The town itself is thin on sights — a fishing wharf with pelicans and sea lions, and not much beyond that. Nearly everyone heads out: Santiago is about 110 km inland, the Casablanca wine valley is much closer, and Neruda's house at Isla Negra is a short drive down the coast.

   • Casablanca Valley wineries
   • Pablo Neruda's Isla Negra house and museum
   • Santiago day trip (roughly 90 minutes each way)
   • The fish market wharf with resident sea lions

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth in the commercial port; a shuttle is normally required to leave the terminal gates.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3

   Puerto Montt

   ChilePort

   Puerto Montt is where the Chilean road system runs out and the fjords begin, a German-settled port town on the Seno de Reloncavi. The town itself is functional rather than pretty — the Angelmo fish market and its seafood stalls are the main reason to stay. Most passengers leave for the Lake District: Puerto Varas on Lake Llanquihue with the Osorno volcano behind it, and the Petrohue rapids in Vicente Perez Rosales park.

   • Angelmo market and its curanto and shellfish stalls
   • Puerto Varas and Lake Llanquihue with Osorno volcano
   • Petrohue Falls and Vicente Perez Rosales National Park
   • Frutillar's German colonial architecture and lakeside concert hall

   Getting ashore

   Ships usually anchor and tender to the Angelmo area; some smaller vessels use the pier.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

4. Day 4

   Moraleda & Darwin Channels (Scenic Cruising)

   ChilePort

   A paired transit day in the Aysen fjordland: the Moraleda Channel runs south between the mainland and the Chonos Archipelago, and the Darwin Channel threads through the islands themselves. Both are part of the sheltered inside route from Chiloe towards Laguna San Rafael. There are salmon farms and the occasional fishing boat, otherwise nothing but forested islands, cloud and the possibility of dolphins.

   • Moraleda Channel between the mainland and the Chonos islands
   • Darwin Channel's tighter passages through the archipelago
   • Chilean dolphins, a species largely confined to these waters
   • Snow-capped mainland peaks visible on clear days

   Getting ashore

   Scenic cruising — a transit day with no landing.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

5. Day 5

   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

6. Day 6

   Pio XI Glacier (Eyre Fjord)

   ChilePort

   Pio XI, also called Bruggen, is the longest glacier in the southern hemisphere outside Antarctica and one of the very few anywhere that has been advancing rather than shrinking. Its front fills the head of Eyre Fjord across several kilometres of ice wall, split by a rock outcrop into two lobes. Getting there means a long detour off the Sarmiento Channel, so only expedition and some luxury ships include it.

   • A multi-kilometre calving front, split into two lobes
   • One of the few advancing glaciers in Patagonia
   • Eyre Fjord's approach through Kawesqar waters
   • Southern Patagonian Ice Field peaks above the ice

   Getting ashore

   Scenic cruising at the ice front, with zodiac cruising on expedition ships when the fjord is not choked with ice.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

7. Day 7

   Brujo Glacier (Peel Fjord)

   ChilePort

   El Brujo — the Wizard — is a tidewater glacier at the head of Asia Fjord, one of the arms branching off Peel Fjord in Bernardo O'Higgins National Park. It is not a large glacier by Patagonian standards but the ice front is a clean blue wall dropping straight into the water, and expedition ships run zodiacs among the floating bergy bits to get under it. The approach itself, through the Sarmiento Channel and into Peel, is half the day.

   • El Brujo's blue tidewater ice face
   • Zodiac cruising among bergy bits in Asia Fjord
   • The Peel Fjord approach past Amalia and Calvo fjords
   • Southern Patagonian Ice Field peaks above the fjord

   Getting ashore

   Scenic cruising, with a zodiac cruise on expedition ships when ice and wind allow; there is no landing.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

8. Day 8

   Punta Arenas

   ChilePort

   Punta Arenas grew rich on wool and on ships rounding the Horn before the Panama Canal killed that trade, and the mansions around Plaza Munoz Gamero still show it. It is windy, practical and a useful base: penguin colonies are an hour or two away by boat or road, and the town itself can be covered in a morning. Many Antarctic fly-cruises stage from here rather than Ushuaia.

   • Magdalena Island Magellanic penguin colony (boat trip)
   • Cementerio Municipal with its clipped cypresses and immigrant mausoleums
   • Nao Victoria Museum's full-size ship replicas
   • Fuerte Bulnes and the Strait of Magellan lookout

   Getting ashore

   Larger ships usually anchor and tender; a pier is used when conditions and traffic allow.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar (Magdalena Island colony closes outside roughly Oct-Mar)

9. Day 9

   Punta Arenas

   ChilePort

   Punta Arenas grew rich on wool and on ships rounding the Horn before the Panama Canal killed that trade, and the mansions around Plaza Munoz Gamero still show it. It is windy, practical and a useful base: penguin colonies are an hour or two away by boat or road, and the town itself can be covered in a morning. Many Antarctic fly-cruises stage from here rather than Ushuaia.

   • Magdalena Island Magellanic penguin colony (boat trip)
   • Cementerio Municipal with its clipped cypresses and immigrant mausoleums
   • Nao Victoria Museum's full-size ship replicas
   • Fuerte Bulnes and the Strait of Magellan lookout

   Getting ashore

   Larger ships usually anchor and tender; a pier is used when conditions and traffic allow.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar (Magdalena Island colony closes outside roughly Oct-Mar)

10. Day 10 · At sea

11. Day 11

    Ushuaia

    ArgentinaArrive

    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