Classic Patagonia

Includes accommodations, transfers, meals and guided excursions as specified. Domestic air not included.

Day 1: Santiago de Chile
Airport reception and transfer to your hotel. Accommodations at the charming Hotel Orly, buffet breakfast included. This is a small, boutique style hotel which has 28 rooms. A converted mansion, the Hotel Orly is superbly situated in one of the city's more exclusive areas, Providencia. Everything you may want to see is close by - shops, restaurants, downtown, museums, banks, the cable car up the hill.

Day 2: Santiago - Punta Arenas - Torres del Paine
Hotel pickup and transfer to the airport. Fly to Punta Arenas and transfer to Torres del Paine National Park. Along the way, you’ll pass by Figueroa Lagoon and several beautiful lakes, keeping your eyes peeled for guanacos, ostriches, black-necked swans, flamingos and condors.

Upon arrival at Hosteria Las Torres, you'll be assigned to your comfortable superior room accommodations. After settling in you will be orientated to the lodge and the surrounding region. The impressive Andean massifs of Torres del Paine are surrounded by glaciers, waterfalls, lakes and lagoons, which together make this national park famous throughout the world for the richness of its natural beauty. Over the next few days you'll enjoy a variety of excursions in the park.

Included in the package are all meals and open bar (premium liquors and wines not included), daily guided excursions.

A variety of guided excursions are available every day. You can consult each evening and morning with the specialized guides about the various excursions. (B,D)

Here is a sampling of half and full day guided excursions offered at Hosteria Las Torres.

Days 3,4: Torres del Paine National Park
Days to explore the park on guided excursions. (B,L,D)

Day 5*: Torres del Paine - Punta Arenas - M/N Mare/Via Australis
Hotel pickup and transfer to board the M/N Mare Australis or M/N Via Australis (A Cabin). Headed by the Captain, the crew will welcome you aboard for cocktails with your cruise companions. Immediately after, the ship will depart through the mythical Strait of Magellan and sail through Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. (B,D)

*M/V Mare Australis departs Punta Arenas on Saturdays; M/V Via Australis departs on Tuesdays.

Day 6: Ainsworth Bay/Marinelli Glacier – Tucker Islet
With the first light of dawn, navigation will continue through Almirantazgo Fjord. The ship will sail among ice floes broken off from this millenary glacier, which slides very slowly down the slopes of the Andes Mountains, which at this point are called the Darwin Range. This mountain range is covered by native forest known as "Magellan Forest," made up of several varieties of southern beech trees (lengas, coihues); winterís bark (canelos) and ferns, among other species.

During the afternoon you will disembark in Ainsworth Bay, from where you can observe the Marinelli Glacier, with its 120 feet (40 meters) high ice wall. Here you will land on the beach to start a 20-minute walk along quiet trails in the native woods toward a beaver dam. There will be a brief talk about the ecosystem and geography before heading towards a colony of elephant seals that live nearby in the company of a great variety of birds.

Later you visit Tucker Islet, where you view colonies of Magellanic Penguins and Cormorants from the Zodiac boats. The islet’s penguins migrate in April; as a replacement you visit Brookes Bay, for a short walk to see a glacier. (B,L,D)

Day 7: Pia Glacier - Glacier Alley
Disembark in the bay of the Pia Glacier for an excursion to an observation point.
On the north-west arm of the Beagle Channel, Pia Glacier is embedded in the Darwin Range, and it gradually runs down into the waters of Pia Bay. You will head towards an observation point that offers excellent conditions to view the mountain range where the glacier originates, and its progress until it falls into the sea. Here you will listen to the thunderous noises caused by the large masses of ice cracking and dropping into the bay.

Navigate through the Beagle Channel and appreciate the spectacular "Glacier Avenue": Spain, Romanche, Germany, Italy, France and Holland glaciers. (B,L,D)

Day 8: Cape Horn - Wulaia Bay
Navigation through the Beagle Channel and Murray channel to disembark at Cabo de Hornos (Cape Horn) National Park (weather permitting).

You will visit Horn Island for a panoramic view of the famous and mythical Cape Horn, the place where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans merge and the last promontory of South America.

Cape Horn, an island featuring cliffs almost 425 meters high, was discovered on January 30, 1616 by a Dutch commercial expedition organized by Isaac LeMaire and under the command of Captain Wilhelm Schouten. The Cape owes its name to the Port of Hoorn from where the expedition departed on June 14, 1615.

In the afternoon, you go ashore in historic Wulaia Bay, once the site of one of the region’s largest aboriginal settlements. This area is also renowned for the mesmerizing beauty of its vegetation and geography. You walk through a Magellanic forest of Lengas, Coigües, Canelos, ferns and other native vegetation to reach a lookout point. (B,L,D)

Day 9: Ushuaia
Departure from Puerto Williams. The ship will sail slowly to arrive very early at Ushuaia, the most important Argentinean city on Tierra del Fuego. Here you will say your goodbyes and disembark at 8:00A. You will be met and transferred to your Ushuaia hotel.

Accommodations at the Hosteria Los Fuegos, breakfast included. The hosteria, surrounded by lengua woods, has nine rooms, each equipped with central heating, phone, security box, and hair dryer. Rooms are decorated with craft furniture and have views of the Young Nires, Lengas and Coihues Woods and to the Olivia River. The hotel also has a restaurant, wide-screen video room, internet service, fax and massage services available.

The rest of your day is at leisure to explore Ushuaia on your own. (B)

Day 10: Ushuaia

Full day in Tierra del Fuego. (B)

The following are optional excursions (not included in trip cost):

TIERRA DEL FUEGO NATIONAL PARK
You'll be picked up at your hotel for a full day visit to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. Upon arrival in the park, start a 2-mile trek to a wonderful scenic point overlooking Lake Roca, Lagunas Verde and Negra, Rivers Ovando and Lapataia and Bahía Lapataia. Hiking through this beech forest you will be able to look for the Magaellanic woodpecker, largest in South America, Austral parakeets, black-chested buzzard eagles and Andean Condors. Reaching a clearing near the water, embark on a 15 passenger zodiac boat and head toward Isla Redonda for lunch. You'll have time to take a short walk on the island while your guide prepares lunch. Don't forget to send a postcard from the island which has the southernmost post office (at least the stamps that cancel postage!). On the way back to Lapataia Bay, watch for cormorants and sea lions, albatross and petrels. Upon arrival hike an old trail to Laguna Verde, where you will board the vehicle back to Ushuaia.

HARBERTON RANCH - YAMANING GABLE DAY TRIP
You'll be met at your hotel and begin your scenic drive east along the Beagle Channel to Puerto Almanza (75 km) a small fisherman´s village. The estancia at Harberton belongs to the descendants of the first British Missionaries to reach the area - Reverend Thomas Bridges - and was managed for many years by Ms. Natalie Goodall, a foremost naturalist in the area. You'll visit the estancia and then board zodiac boats to navigate to Gable Island, the largest in the Beagle Channel, where a short but steep climb brings you to a refuge where you will have lunch. After lunch, guests may wish to remain at the refuge and relax or go for a strenuous 3-hour hike around Gable Island. When the hikers return, the group continues in the zodiac to the Penguin rookery at Martillo Island, the domain of the Magellanic and Gentoo Penguins. The unique location of this island, close to the convergence of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans allows for an incredible variety of rich subaquatic life, making it an amazing spot for birdwatching. The penguins arrive in November when they make their nests and breed; they inhabit the colony until around February. Look for petrels, skuas, cormorants, sea gulls and albatrosses. Return to Harberton for tea by the Larsiphasak River and then back to your Ushuaia hotel

Day 11: Ushuaia - Buenos Aires
Hotel pickup and transfer to the Ushuaia airport for your flight to Buenos Aires.

Airport reception and transfer to your hotel.

Overnight accommodation at the Hotel LoiSuites in an Studio Junior, breakfast included. The LoiSuites Hotel is located in the Recoleta area of Buenos Aires. Decorated in light colors, the hotel's ambiance is elegantly modern with sleek lines and simplistic contemporary artwork. All rooms are suites with air conditioning and two phone lines. The hotel has an indoor swimming pool, sauna, gym, restaurant, and business center and an atrium dining area where breakfast is served. The location in the heart of La Recoleta allows close access to shopping, restaurants and cafes and outdoor craft markets. (B)

Day 12: Four Balconies of Buenos Aires - Int'l Departure
Set off on a half-day, privately-guided tour of Buenos Aires in which a professor of the University uses four parks and plazas of Buenos Aires (Plaza de Mayo, Parque Lezama and La Boca, Plaza San Martin and Recoleta) to introduce visitors to Argentina, its history, contrasts, contradictions and the peculiar psychology of its inhabitants. This tour is a great way to introduce you to the different, colorful districts of Buenos Aires and determine where you may wish to return.

This evening, you will be met at your hotel and transferred to Ezeiza International Airport for your departing flight. (B)

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