Pictures were taken during a National Geographic sponsored trip to Southern Argentina and Chile which included four days of a ship exploring the Magellan Strait and four days exploring Torres del Paine National Park in Chile.
Overview
We flew from Buenos Aires, a beautiful city to Ushuaia Argentina often regarded as the southern most city in the world. There we boarded the Ventus Australis Ship. For four days we cruised to the tip of Cape Horn and on through the Strait of Magellan. We stopped at glaciers, for beautiful hikes and saw a colony of penguins. We landed at Punta Arenas where we traveled by bus to the Tierra Patagonia hotel near the Torres del Paine National Park where we stayed and hiked for four days.We ended up in Santiago Chile.
Features
- We visited Cape Horn, the southern most tip of South America
- We boarded zodiaks which held only 8 people to get up close too the glaciers
- We came across and photographed birds, penguins and other wildlife on our hikes
- Hikes to beautiful landscapes with jagged peaked mountains called the Mastiff Mountains
- We horseback rode with gauchos on beaches and meadows in the Chilean countryside
- Overnight stay at the historic Hotel Casa Real within the Santa Rita Vineyards near Santiago
Torres del Paine National Park
Torres del Paine National Park, in Chile’s Patagonia region, is known for its soaring mountains, bright blue icebergs that cleave from glaciers and golden pampas (grasslands) that shelter rare wildlife such as llama-like guanacos. Some of its most iconic sites are the 3 granite towers from which the park takes its name and the horn-shaped peaks called Cuernos del Paine.