South America & the Chilean Fjords

Chile’s modern capital of Santiago is one of the largest cities in the Americas. Its impressive neoclassical, neo-Gothic, art deco and other architecture spans several centuries. Santiago’s gateway, Valparaíso, is often compared to San Francisco for its many cerros , or hills. The city prospered as a major port until the opening of the Panama Canal rendered it unnecessary. Quaint Victorian-era architecture recalling its 19th-century affluence and steeply sloped barrios are linked by ascensores , or funiculars, and winding byways. From Los Cerros, the views are spectacular.

Valparaíso is the gateway to Santiago, Chile’s scenically set capital boasting a rich repository of historic architecture. Fashioned in 1910 after the Petit Palais of Paris, the impressive Palace of Fine Arts houses Santiago’s celebrated National Museum of Fine Arts. Palacio de la Moneda, a neoclassical gem, was built as a mint during Chile’s early days. Meanwhile, the city’s theater, Teatro Municipal, with its graceful arcades and Corinthian columns, hosts Chile’s ballet, opera and symphony, which enthrall concertgoers as much as their home’s elegant facade does.

Sail Mar Pacífico , meaning “peaceful sea,” dubbed by Ferdinand Magellan when he crossed these waters almost 500 years ago.

Puerto Montt is considered the capital of the nation’s Northern Patagonia province. The city was founded in 1853 after government-sponsored immigration brought Germans here to populate and develop the remote region. By 1912, a train linked Puerto Montt to Santiago, opening up trade and transport with larger cities. Beyond this cultural center, Chile’s second-largest lake, Llanquihue Lake, is watched over by the snowcapped volcanoes Osorno and Calbuco. On the lake’s shores, villages boast endless delights, magnificent gardens and charming architecture from Old Europe.

A pristine paradise of soaring peaks, countless lush islands teeming with wildlife and a tapestry of glaciers and rivers spilling into shimmering waters, the fjords of Chile are heralded as one of the most rugged and untamed places on earth. The crystal waters are a breathtaking sight as they journey through vast ice fields, towering mountainsides and serene fishing villages that hug tranquil shores against backdrops of dramatic forested hills.

The Amalia Glacier, part of Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, is a marvel of nature. This massive glacier skirts the northern rise of the Reclus volcano located behind it, slowly eroding the hulking mound’s slopes. Amalia’s ice floe journeyed here millennia ago from the heights of the Andes—a fractional segment of one of the world’s largest continuous ice fields, the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. In the vicinity, Andean condors and cormorants soar above, and marine otters reside in the waters below.

Punta Arenas was founded as a penal colony by Chile in 1848. Nestled amid spectacular mountain vistas on the eastern shores of the Brunswick Peninsula, it played host to mariners crossing the continent by ship. Europeans followed, searching for newly discovered gold and establishing vast swaths of sheep farms locally and throughout the surrounding region. Over time, Punta Arenas became one of Chile’s most important ports as, before the opening of the Panama Canal, it laid on the northernmost transcontinental shipping route.

Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world. Its splendid setting, tucked between the Beagle Channel and the southernmost slopes of the Andes, lends it an outpost atmosphere, as do the Antarctic explorers readying for the expeditions that depart from here. Ushuaia is the capital of and gateway to the celebrated Tierra del Fuego, the “Land of Fire,” named by Spaniards upon seeing the constant flames burned by the indigenous Yámana to keep warm. This largely unspoiled region comprises the large island of Tierra del Fuego and countless Chilean and Argentine islands.

Rising above the point where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans converge, Cape Horn, named for the Dutch city of Hoorn in The Netherlands, is part of the Hermite Islands archipelago. This remote, stark and treeless place is often considered the continent’s southernmost point. Soaring from Hornos Island is an enormous prehistoric-looking massif of Jurassic volcanic rock. Atop, stands its historic lighthouse near the water’s edge. A beacon of assurance and safety for countless sailors since 1991, it is the world’s southernmost traditional-style lighthouse.

Sail the Atlantic Ocean, divided in half, north to south, by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Longer than the Rockies, the Himalayas and the Andes combined, this underwater mountain range is the longest on Earth.

The Falkland Islands are a British Overseas Territory comprising almost 800 small islands. Visitors to the main island of East Falkland, from curious travelers to expedition ship crews en route to Antarctica, experience British warmth in Port Stanley’s pubs and at the charming Victorian stone church. Remarkably, there are about 200 sheep for every person in this starkly beautiful archipelago, yet the Falklands are also known for their biological diversity. Five penguin species call the islands home, from the king penguins to the gentoo, and the Magellanic on farther shores.

Sail legendary waters, where medieval Europeans believed “there be dragons” beyond the ocean’s horizon.

Puerto Madryn is Argentina’s second-largest fishing port. In the mid-19th century, the Argentine government encouraged European emigration to remote Patagonian territories. But the heritage of the original immigrants lives on in the region’s distinctive windmills and chapels. Several towns have retained their Welsh names; Puerto Madryn was named for the estate of Sir Love Jones-Parry, one of the colony’s founders. Today, the city is the gateway to the scenic Peninsula Valdés, an important nature reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The nutrient-rich waters of the Atlantic Ocean are home to more than half of the world’s fisheries, annually providing millions of tons of fish and other marine species for human consumption and industrial purposes.

The Atlantic Ocean derives its name from Greek and means “Sea of Atlas,” a reference to the mythological Atlas, a Titan who supported the heavens on his shoulders as a punishment for fighting the gods.