I traveled in October/November 2019 with Overseas Adventure Travel on their Patagonia, Tierra Del Fuego & the Chilean Fjords trip, including the pre-trip extension to Easter Island.
This trip covers so much geography that it requires three maps to do it justice. The overview map shows the entire trip which started in Santiago, Chile, went to Easter Island, hereafter to be referred to by its native name of Rapa Nui, to Buenos Aires, Argentina by way of Santiago, continued to Patagonia with significant stops in El Calafate and Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina, Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, and culminated with a four day sea journey on Ventus Australis through the Magellan Strait and Beagle Channel to Cape Horn in Chile which terminated in Ushuaia, Argentina. From Ushuaia we flew back to Buenos Aires and then home.
The Patagonia map shows the route through southern Patagonia in significantly more detail while the Ventus Australis map shows the route through the Chilean Fjords from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia and the places where we took zodiac excursions: Ainsworth Bay, Tucker Islets, Pia Glacier, Cape Horn, and Wulaia Bay.
There were twelve of us on the pre-trip to Rapa Nui and an additional nine that joined us for the main trip to Patagonia. We were led throughout by Marcela Colombini and had excellent local guides in Rapa Nui (Lili), Buenos Aires (Noelia), Argentinian Patagonia (Sebastian), and Chilean Patagonia (Alejandra).
We were not able to explore Santiago outside of the immediate vicinity of our hotel due to massive political demonstrations immediately preceding and continuing throughout our time on the trip. Rapa Nui is a small island, administered by Chile, 2200 miles off its western coast that was settled by Polynesian peoples and is the eastern point of the Polynesian triangle (Hawaii and New Zealand being the other points of the triangle). Descendants of the Polynesian settlers and ancestors of the native Rapa Nuian people created greater than life size statues, Moai, averaging 15 feet in height, of their chieftains and erected them throughout the island to look after and protect the local clans. There are about 900 moai on the island which were originally situated atop platforms called ahus. A single ahu could support from one to 15 moai and usually had a ceremonial area in front of it and often a crematorium behind. All of the moai were toppled during a period of inter-clan warfare but a number have been restored to their upright position. Each is unique with an oversized head, an upper torso and hands carved along the lower side and front. Carved from Lapilli Tuff, a grayish stone of compressed lava ash, the vast majority come from Rano Raraku quarry. A number of moai are topped by a pukao (a hat) carved from a different reddish stone (red scoria) from Puna Pao quarry. Interestingly, the moai on all but one ahu face inward. with the exception, at least according to Rapa Nuian oral tradition, facing towards the island, apparently now underwater, where the original Polynesian settlers came from. The statues themselves weigh about 15 tons with the pukao an additional 2 or 3 tons and the question of how the statues were transported from the quarry to a specific ahu is unanswered but I like the Rapa Nuian oral history version that they walked there (wobbled side to side by men holding strong ropes tied to the statues). Pukao were added after the moai was erected on the ahu, probably by building a dirt ramp next to the moai.
From Rapa Nui we flew to Buenos Aires with a one night stopover in Santiago to begin the main trip. We also ended the trip in Buenos Aires and due to a cancelled flight home, I was able to spend an additional day enabling me to visit the Synagogue and Opera House. Buenos Aires is a sprawling city with many interesting and distinct areas. We visited the Plaza de Mayo and surrounding sites of the central city; the La Boca neighborhood, an area of exuberance; Recoleta cemetery, Parana Delta, a watery oasis just outside the central city; and the Palermo neighborhood, a bustling waterfront area where we had our farewell dinner. While in Buenos Aires, we had dinner at a local home where we discussed the recent presidential election, the economy, and the concerns of middle class Argentinians.
Our time in Patagonia began with a flight from Buenos Aires to El Calafate from where we would explore Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina and then travel overland to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Free time in El Calafate allowed me to explore Laguna Nimez, a bird sanctuary just a ten minute walk from our hotel. The variety of birds and habitats in such a relatively small area is amazing. Almost half of my bird photos are from the one afternoon I spent there. Seeing Perito Moreno Glacier for the first time was amazing - a 70 foot high horizontal wall of ice. Walking the path along it was even more so as the glacier towers over you and is mere dozens of feet away. The ice is decidedly blue where it is compressed so tightly there are no air bubbles to diffract light and all but the blue spectrum gets absorbed.
Gabo, a volunteer with a local dog rescue organization, and a self taught chef, hosted us for a visit to his home in El Calafate. Full of life and a wonderful conversationalist, Gabo built his home and has decorated it with all manner of collectible items from his travels.
A good example of the remoteness of Patagonia is given by the route of our overland journey from El Calafate to Torres del Paine National Park - a journey of about 60 miles as the crow flies took the better part of a day as we first traveled East, Southeast, Southwest, then North across the border with Chile to the park. But Torres del Paine is well worth the drive. The massif is absolutely stunning and the weather was perfect with mostly clear skies so we had good views of the towers and horns on our two full days in the park. (The weather turned overcast on our second night and the massif all but disappeared - fickle Patagonian weather.) In addition to the stunning landscapes, we observed a rhea and saw guanacos by the dozens quietly grazing alongside the roads through the park. We spent our second day in the park hiking - Salto Grande in the morning and Gray Glacier in the afternoon. During these hikes we experienced the full effect of the Patagonian winds - we were far enough South that there is no land on Earth to block the winds as they circumnavigate the planet. Walking back at the end of our morning hike, the wind whipped up across the lake with mist clouds moving across the lake and then hitting us with 50-60 mph velocity. And in the afternoon, walking back across the glacier's terminal moraine, the wind was so powerful, you had to brace yourself to avoid being blown over.
After Torres del Paine we made our way south stopping at the Pingo Salvaje ranch for a sheep dog demonstration, horseback ride, and a delicious lamb barbecue before continuing on to Puerto Natales where we stayed overnight. Not much to do there but I did take a morning walk along the waterfront and found large numbers of Black-necked Swans bobbing in the waves. Our next destination was Punta Arenas where we boarded our ship, Ventus Australis, for the four day transit to Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world - or Fin del Mundo as it says on all the tee shirts and other souvenirs.
The ship's owner operates two almost identical sister ships and has the only concession to ply the waters through the Chilean fjords - one ship travels in one direction while the other travels the reverse route. Each ship can carry 210 passengers and is designed specifically for the waters of Southern Patagonia. There were only about 140 passengers on our voyage which made for a very comfortable experience. Cabins were quite roomy with large picture windows and were located on the second to fourth levels of the ship. The dining hall was located on the first level. Lounges, used for briefings and discussions, as well as socializing or just watching the scenery go by were located forward on the fifth level and rearward on the fourth level. A smaller forward lounge located on the third level provided for me a quiet space for watching the ship transit the narrow waters of the Beagle Channel.
Excursions by zodiac occurred each day of our voyage. After our first night on the ship we boarded zodiacs for a trip to Ainsworth Bay where we hiked and observed the plants that populated the area - and the damage the imported European beavers were causing. The ship's expedition crew is teamed with various researchers and use these hikes to measure plant growth and obtain other data. That afternoon we boarded the zodiacs for a trip around Tucker Islets, a small group of islands home to penguin and cormorant colonies. Unfortunately, the weather turned nasty with horizontal snow but we endured. One must be prepared for the rapidly changing fickle weather of southern Patagonia - we witnessed sun, clouds, rain, snow, wind all in the span of an hour or two. The following afternoon was an excursion to Pia Glacier, a huge front of ice. Unfortunately, the weather was even worse than the excursion to Tucker - mixed rain and snow and very foggy. To make it worse, the hike was over steep granite ledge with ropes on one side to provide some support. The view from the first lookout was acceptable but from the higher viewpoint we mostly saw mist. Was there really a glacier there? The saving grace, however, was the massive calving we saw from the zodiac on the way back to the ship. After returning to the ship, we watched, as best as possible, through very overcast misty weather, as the ship traversed Glacier Alley, a sequence of five glaciers. Since the glaciers have been given European place names, as we passed each we were given foods appropriate to the glacier name - sausages and beer for Germany, cheese and wine for France, pizza and wine for Italy.
Our last full day on the ship was to start with a pre breakfast landing at Cape Horn, the southern most land short of Antarctica. Cape Horn landings are always tricky due to rough water, high winds and lack of a landing beach. But the weather was good and so we went. After landing, you climb about 160 steps and then walk a long wooden walkway to the Cape Horn monument - a sculpture in the outline shape of a wandering albatross. Looking southward from there is the Drake passage and then Antarctica. There is also a lighthouse at the cape, which is the home of a father (the lighthouse keeper), his wife and two young children. It is a lonely existence except for all the tourists who are constantly coming by. The light is actually fully automated with the job of the keeper, a member of the Chilean Navy, to monitor ship traffic around the cape. Our final excursion was later that afternoon to Wulaia Bay, a beautiful protected bay and home to some of the original inhabitants of southern Patagonia, the Yahgan people.
We disembarked Ventus Australis the following morning at Ushuaia, a city of 60,000 but with a frontier feel, that bills itself as Fin del Monde - End of the Earth - as it is the southern most city on the planet. A highlight of our time in Ushuaia was a home visit with a family (Gaby, her husband, and two school age daughters) who have a beautiful eclectic home and welcomed us with wonderful hospitality and great food.
My trip ended in Buenos Aries, as discussed earlier, with a flight back to the US.