A Taste of Patagonia

On arrival at Punta Arenas or Puerto Natales airport you will be met and transferred to the Singular Patagonia hotel at the edge of the Fjord of Last Hope. The afternoon is at leisure to relax at the hotel, maybe enjoy the spa facilities or explore the grounds surrounding the hotel. In the evening you will be briefed on the excursion options for the following day.

The Singular Patagonia features 57 spacious guest rooms that look out over the fjord and the mountains, cosy lounge areas, an eco-spa with indoor and outdoor pools, sauna and steam room, a restaurant and a staff dedicated to personalized service. The restaurant serves dishes based on traditional Patagonian recipes, made using locally grown ingredients. A range of excursions and activities are offered including horseback riding, trekking, cycling, kayaking and fly fishing.

Singular Patagonia have a set of activities that you can choose from onsite, allowing you to create your own personalised experience deep in Patagonia. Below are suggested options you may like to choose from through-out your stay.

You may choose to do the full day experience the Balmaceda and Serrano Glaciers. You will depart from The Singular’s dock in route to a full day experience of the Balmaceda and Serrano glaciers. The navigation will take you throughout fjords and eventually sea lion colonies will be glanced. After one hour and 30 minutes, you will disembark at Parque Nacional Bernardo O’Higgins. Short trekking to the glacier’s view point. Return to the vessel to slowly navigate in front of Balmaceda glacier to admire its natural beauty. You will continue navigation to an Estancia to enjoy a typical Patagonian lunch. Horseback riding or trekking to follow in the surroundings.

Singular Patagonia have a set of activities that you can choose from onsite, allowing you to create your own personalised experience deep in Patagonia. Below are suggested options you may like to choose from through-out your stay.

In the morning you may choose to take part in a horseback ride of Laguna Sofia. A horseback excursion that lasts approximately 2 hours through valleys, knolls, lenga and nirre forests trails, visiting caves where remains of prehistoric animals (3.900 years) were found. We will also see Cerro Benitez and the condors that overfly it.

In the afternoon you may choose to take a cultural excursion into Puerto Natales. The excursion starts by the costanera bordering the Canal Señoret towards the city center where we will stop at the main Plaza, Municipal building and the church, built during the cattle fever in the Magellan region. We will also visit the Historical Museum where we will learn more about the history of the area, the handicraft market and Puerto Bories small town.

After breakfast you will be transferred to Punta Arenas to board your Australis cruise.

Check in at 1398 Costanera del Estrecho Ave. (Arturo Prat Port) in Punta Arenas between 13:00 and 17:00 (1-5 PM) on the day of your cruise departure.

Board the vessel at 6 PM. After a welcoming toast and introduction of captain and crew, the ship departs for one of the remotest corners of planet Earth. During the night we cross the Strait of Magellan and enter the labyrinth of channels that define the southern extreme of Patagonian. The twinkling lights of Punta Arenas gradually fade into the distance as we enter the Whiteside Canal between Darwin Island and Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego.
Overnight on-board Stella or Ventus Australis

By dawn the ship is sailing up Admiralty Sound (Seno Almirantazgo), a spectacular offshoot of the Strait of Magellan that stretches nearly halfway across Tierra del Fuego. The snowcapped peaks of Karukinka Natural Park stretch along the north side of the sound, while the south shore is defined by the deep fjords and broad bays of Alberto de Agostini National Park. We go ashore at Ainsworth Bay, which harbors copious bird life and a colony of southern elephant seals which can sometimes be spotted from the Zodiacs. Two guided excursions are available: one is along the edge of a stream, peat bog and beaver habitat to a waterfall-and-moss-covered rock face tucked deep inside a pristine sub-polar forest; the other is a more strenuous hike along the crest of a glacial moraine. Both afford views of Marinelli Glacier and the Darwin Mountains.

Leaving our Ainsworth Bay tour behind, we sail west along the sound to the Tucker Islets. After lunch, we board the Zodiacs again for a close-up view of the Magellan penguins that inhabit the tiny islands. More than 4,000 penguins use Tucker as a place to nest, give birth and nurture their chicks. Many other bird species also frequent the area including king cormorants, oystercatchers, Chilean skuas, kelp geese, dolphin gulls, eagles and even the occasional Andean condor. In September and April -- when the penguins live elsewhere -- this excursion is replaced by a short walk to a glacier at nearby stunning Brookes Bay.
Overnight on-board Stella or Ventus Australis

Overnight we sail around the western end of Tierra del Fuego via the very narrow Gabrial Channel, Magdalena Channel and Cockburn Channel. After rounding the remote Brecknock Peninsula, the Australis cruise tacks eastward and enters the Beagle Channel again. By morning we are entering Pia Fjord and boarding the Zodiacs for a Pia Glacier tour. After disembarking we take a short hike to gain a panoramic view of the spectacular glacier, which extends from the mountaintops down to the sea or a longer much more difficult walk up a lateral moraine of the old Pia Glacier.

No one knows for certain how the hulking mass of snow and ice got its feminine moniker, but one theory says it was named for Princess Maria Pia of Savoy (1847-1911), daughter of the Italian king.

Back onboard the ship, we continue east along the Beagle Channel through an area called Glacier Alley. Living up to its name, the passage features a number of impressive tidewater glaciers flowing down from the Darwin Mountains and Darwin Ice Sheet on the north shore. Most of them named after European countries -- Holland, Italy, Germany, Spain and France
Overnight on-board Stella or Ventus Australis

During the morning we cruise across Nassau Bay into the remote archipelago that includes Cape Horn National Park. Weather and sea conditions permitting, we shall go ashore on the windswept island that harbors legendary Cape Horn (Cabo de Hornos). Discovered in 1616 by a Dutch maritime expedition -- and named after the town of Hoorn in West Friesland -- Cape Horn is a sheer 425-meter (1,394-foot) high rocky promontory overlooking the turbulent waters of the Drake Passage. For many years it was the only navigation route between the Pacific and Atlantic, and was often referred to as the "End of the Earth." The park was declared a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 2005. The Chilean navy maintains a permanent lighthouse on the island, staffed by a lightkeeper and his family, as well as the tiny Stella Maris Chapel and modern Cape Horn Monument.

In the afternoon we navigate the narrow Murray Channel between Navarino and Hoste islands and drop anchor at historic Wulaia Bay, one of the few places in the archipelago where the human history is just as compelling as the natural environment. Originally the site of one of the region’s largest Yámana aboriginal settlements, the bay was described by Charles Darwin and sketched by Captain FitzRoy in the 1830s during their voyages on the HMS Beagle. This area is also renowned for its mesmerizing beauty and dramatic geography. After a visit to the Australis-sponsored museum in the old radio station -- which is especially strong on the Yámana people and European missionaries in the area -- passengers have a choice of three hikes (of increasing degrees of difficulty) that ascend the heavily wooden mountain behind the bay. On all of these you will be strolling through an enchanted Magellan forest of lengas, coigües, canelos, ferns, and other endemic fauna to reach a panoramic viewpoint overlooking the bay. Before leaving Wulaia Bay, drop something into the wooden mail barrel inside the museum – letters or postcards meant to be hand delivered by future travelers – an ancient mariner tradition revived by Australis.
Overnight on-board Stella or Ventus Australis

The following morning we sail into Argentine waters and dock in Ushuaia, the world's southernmost city.

Arrival at 08:30 a.m. and 9:30 am according to date of departure.