Programme détaillé cruise "Valparaiso - Ushuaia"

Embarkation from 3.30PM to 4.30PM

To the north of the Magellan Strait is a large island called Chiloe (Chile) which is very different from the rest of the country, not just because of the gentler countryside but its mixed cultural heritage. By virtue of being central, Castro (Chile) is the capital of this island which is home to around 150 churches that are famous for their striking architecture. Indeed, 16 of them are registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Located on Latitude 40^o South this lovely region is a natural garden and boasts an incredible concentration of volcanic cones, like Lanin or the spectacular snow-capped Orsono volcano.

This small Patagonian village with its curious architecture – houses on stilts linked by a maze of piers, walkways and endless stairs which make up the roads – clings to a hillside in total isolation amidst the glaciers, lakes, forests and mountains. This is a unique opportunity to meet the locals who are always very welcoming to Le Boréal passengers.

Discover the Chilean Channels at the foot of the Darwin Cordillera mountain range, and venture right into the heart of this maze of fjords to see the glaciers which tumble into the sea. Sea lions, fur seals and dolphins are completely at home in the unspoiled grandiose nature of this region.

After the Patagonia channels, Puerto Natales (Chile) appears at the end of the Ultima Esperanza Sound. An ideal point from which to cross the Andes, the town is in the heart of the Torres del Paine National Park and the Andean scenery here is breathtaking.

Your first contact with this land at the end of the world will be Cape Horn, a promontory that in 2005 was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Known to sailors simply as “the Horn”, the summit of this spectacular cliff has a sculpture in the shape of an albatross to honour all those who have perished trying to sail round it. A unique experience awaits you as we cruise through the Beagle Channelexploring the magnificent scenery of the Tierra del Fuego (literally “land of fire”) National Park.

Regarded as the world’s southern-most city, Ushuaia is the capital of Tierra del Fuego in the extreme South of Argentina at the end of Beagle Bay. This amazing little town of over 45,000 people is surrounded by mountains and fertile plains. The first inhabitants here were nomadic hunters and gatherers who arrived on foot to the Isla Grande over 10,000 years ago. Nature lovers will be bowled over by the Tierra del Fuego National Park and its amazing wealth of flora and fauna: beavers, albatrosses, guanacos, penguins... Here forests cover the slopes of the Andes mountains then give way to snow-capped peaks… a truly unique and unforgettable landscape.

Disembarkation