Chilean Patagonia & Tierra del Fuego
At the very bottom of the Americas, Chile frays into a maze of islands, channels and fjords, a labyrinth of water and rock where the Andes finally meet the sea. There are no roads down here, and no other way in: the only way to see this country is to sail it. Aboard a small expedition ship you slip between forested cliffs and snow-streaked peaks, the channels narrowing and opening as you go, and for a few days the wild, roadless south of the world is yours, reached the way it has always been reached, from the deck of a ship.
The days unfold at the pace of the water. Glaciers spill down from the icefields to the shoreline, their blue faces calving into the fjord with a crack like thunder, and waterfalls pour straight off the forested cliffs into the channels below. Each morning the ship noses into a quiet inlet and the zodiacs go down, carrying you in close among the sea lions hauled out on the rocks, the Magellanic penguins on their colonies and the dolphins that ride the bow wave. It is nature on a scale that humbles you, and it arrives quietly, one channel at a time.
Onward the route runs toward the Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel, the historic seaways that lead to Cape Horn and the very end of the continent. These are storied waters, sailed by the great explorers, and to cross them is to feel the pull of the map's edge. We arrange the voyage end to end, choosing the ship and the itinerary to suit you, pairing it with Torres del Paine before or after, and handling every flight and transfer so that all you have to do is stand on deck and watch the wild south go by.
