ARGENTINA - CHILE - AUSTRALIS CRUISE

DAY 01

Buenos Aires. Arrival, reception and transfer with local guide to the hotel. At the time scheduled, half day city tour through Buenos Aires, visiting Plaza de Mayo, Casa Rosada, the Metropolitan Cathedral, and the Cabildo. Then you will arrive to La Boca neighbourhood to walk around Caminito Street and see how the first immigrants who arrived to Buenos Aires used to live. Overnight.

DAY 02:

Buenos Aires – Ushuaia – Mare Australis Cruise. Breakfast. Transfer to the airport to take the flight to Ushuaia. Arrival and visit to Tierra del Fuego National Park at Lapataia Bay. Optional tour: ¨End of the World Train¨. In the afternoon, transfer to the port to embark the Expedition Cruise Ship Mare Australis. The Capitain and the crew will give a welcome cocktail reception on board. Immediately afterward, the ship will set sail for ¨the uttermost part of the earth¨. Through the mystical Strait of Magellan, we will travel to Southern Patagonia, including Tierra del Fuego. This is the beginning of a Great Adventure. Overnight on board.

DAY 03:

Mare Australis Cruise. We will sail through the Beagle and Murray Channels to disembark in Cape Horn National Park. Cape Horn, a sheer, almost 425-meter-high promontory, where the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean merge, was discovered in 1616 by the Dutch commercial expedition organized by Isaac Le Maire. The Cape owes its name to the Port of Hoorn, the expedition's departure point. In the afternoon we will disembark in historical Wulaia Bay, once the site of one of the region's largest native settlements. This area is also renowned for the spectacular beauty of its vegetation and geography. We will walk through a Magellanic forest filled with Lengas, Coigües, Canelos, ferns and other species to reach a look-out point. Overnight on board.

DAY 04:

Mare Australis Cruise.In the afternoon, we view awe-inspiring Gunther Plüschow Glacier, named after the region’s pioneering German aviator. Then we sail to Chico Sound, where we disembark in Zodiacs to observe majestic Piloto and Nena glaciers.

DAY 05:

Mare Australis Cruise – Punta Arenas – Puerto Natales. Early in the morning, we go ashore on Magdalena Island, the home of an immense colony of more than 120,000 Magellanic Penguins that we can watch during our walk to a lighthouse, which guides ships on their way through the Strait of Magellan. The island’s penguins migrate in April; as a replacement we visit Marta Island, to observe a sea lion colony. After our visit, we sail to Punta Arenas, disembarking at 11:30 a.m., concluding the adventure. Transfer to the bus station to take the bus to Puerto Natales. Arrival and transfer to the hotel. Overnight. .

DAY 06:

Puerto Natales – Torres del Paine. Breakfast and full day excursion visiting Torres del Paine National Park. This National Park covers 181.000 hectares on the Seno de Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope Inlet). There are many hiking paths that cross widely differing types of terrain, such as pampas and thick Magellanic forests, and run along lakes with huge glaciers and icebergs. The park is surrounded by huge, craggy mountains, including the famous Cuernos del Paine (Paine Horn). Overnight inside the National Park.

DAY 07:

Torres del Paine – El Calafate. Breakfast. Transfer to the limit between Chile and Argentina to take the bus to El Calafate. Arrival and transfer to the hotel. Overnight.

DAY 08:

El Calafate. Breakfast. Full day Perito Moreno Glacier tour. The majesty of nature at its best. Departure from El Calafate bordering the southern arm of the Argentine Lake to get to Los Glaciares National Park (90 km away) and reach the paths to the Glacier. Perito Moreno Glacier is about 30.000 years old. Its surface is 192 km2, the front wall is 5 km long and some of its peaks are 80 metres high. The deep blue base is almost as dark as the water that surrounds it. The deep silence is suddenly interrupted by the tremendous noise of huge pieces of ice that crack from the glacier and fall into the lake to float on the Canal Los Tempanos (Icebergs Channel). Overnight.

DAY 09:

El Calafate – Buenos Aires. Breakfast. Transfer to the airport to take the flight to Buenos Aires. Arrival and transfer to the hotel. Rest of the day at leisure. Overnight.

DAY 10:

Buenos Aires. Breakfast. Transfer to the airport to take the flight back.