9-night Patagonia: Chilean Fjords and Argentina’s Staten Island Cruise

Santiago is a huge city of nearly five million inhabitants surrounded by immense Andean peaks creating a spectacular backdrop. The city centre is quite manageable with a collection of wide avenues, squares and parks all laid out in a grid pattern. Chile has a distinctly European flavour and Santiago will bring this home to you as you visit the churches, monuments and museums all designed in a certain familiar style.

Punta Arenas is the southernmost city on Earth, overlooking the Straits of Magellan. Situated astride one of the world's historic trade routes, its prosperity has risen and fallen with that trade. Punta Arenas enjoyed its first great boom during the California Gold Rush, when it served as a haven for great clipper ships. Although the port's importance diminished after the opening of the Panama Canal, the city reached even greater prosperity early in this century as the center of Chile's international wool trade. Today, Punta Arenas reflects a great mix of cultures, from English sheep ranchers to Portuguese sailors, and it remains an utterly fascinating testament to the Chile's rich history. Punta Arenas is also the starting point for excursions to some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.

The Chilean Fjords offer some of the most awe-inspiring sights of your journey. Simply look to the sky to see graceful Andean condors floating on the wind. Bring a camera to capture sights of incredible jagged walls of glacier ice rising up from the sea. And for pure enjoyment, watch the antics of the flightless, tuxedoed Magellanic penguins.

The Chilean Fjords offer some of the most awe-inspiring sights of your journey. Simply look to the sky to see graceful Andean condors floating on the wind. Bring a camera to capture sights of incredible jagged walls of glacier ice rising up from the sea. And for pure enjoyment, watch the antics of the flightless, tuxedoed Magellanic penguins.

Surrounded by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Strait of Magellan, the stunning archipelago of Tierra del Fuego is part of the vast region of Patagonia in Argentina and Chile. The Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego offers magnificent mountains, hanging glaciers, sphagnum bogs, clear lakes and rushing rivers. Here you may see wildlife ranging from Andean condors to beavers, sea lions and albatross.

The Chilean Fjords offer some of the most awe-inspiring sights of your journey. Simply look to the sky to see graceful Andean condors floating on the wind. Bring a camera to capture sights of incredible jagged walls of glacier ice rising up from the sea. And for pure enjoyment, watch the antics of the flightless, tuxedoed Magellanic penguins.

The Chilean Fjords offer some of the most awe-inspiring sights of your journey. Simply look to the sky to see graceful Andean condors floating on the wind. Bring a camera to capture sights of incredible jagged walls of glacier ice rising up from the sea. And for pure enjoyment, watch the antics of the flightless, tuxedoed Magellanic penguins.

The world's southernmost city, Ushuaia overlooks Beagle Channel, named after the ship that took Charles Darwin to the bottom of the world. Founded just over one hundred years ago, this rustic town is situated amidst incredible snowcapped mountains, dramatic waterfalls, massive glaciers, and a forest known for its red foliage. Tierra del Fuego, the "Land of Fire," twelve miles to the west of Ushuaia, is known for its glacial landscape and its national park, which is a bird-watcher's paradise.