A Journey of Majesty and Wonder.
Silversea’s 20-Day Chilean Fjords and Antarctica Expedition
By Kathi Myers Couch.
Despite the passing of time, I’m still thawing out from being in Antarctica. . . not physically, but mentally, with memories frozen in time that make my recent expedition one of the most spectacular trips of my life. For me and my husband, Dale, this was our third expedition cruise with Silversea, but this one was different.
It was utterly defined by majesty and wonder.
As Silversea groupies, we always know we’re getting the-best-of-the-best when it comes to service, quality, destinations, and itineraries. After our week-long expeditions to the Arctic and Galapagos, we added Antarctica to our Silversea wish list. This past fall, we went all in, embarking on a 20-day journey with 230 passengers.
The route would start in Valparaiso, Chile, sail the Chilean Fjords, to Argentina, through Drake Passage, along the Antarctic Peninsula and Shetland Islands, and end in Puerto Williams Chile.
On Day 1, we boarded in Valparaiso and set sail with a leisurely lunch followed by time to explore the ship, unpack, and of course complete the mandatory safety-lifeboat instruction. The fact that one of the two full days at sea was on Day 1, meant we had time to get settled and informed.
Our trip had three distinctly different portions: The Lakes Region (Los Lagos) of Chile, the Chilean Fjords, and our finale of expeditions in Antarctica. The first section of the trip was very similar to a traditional cruise with outsourced excursions provided by third party vendors.
The biggest difference were our ports, where we anchored in towns that rarely see a cruise ship.
As such, they do not have a large pier. We always anchored in the harbor and accessed shore activities via zodiacs. The first two days, Dale and I chose to explore Chile via our hiking boots and then took a more culturally focused experience to tour small villages of the Chiloe Islands.
By way of a bus and small ferries, we visited four villages and three churches in Chiloé and Achao Islands. The unique experience included a traditional Chiloé meal steamed in a sand pit filled with hot coals and covered with leaves. The entire chain of islands is considered a UNESCO world heritage site.
In some sections of our navigation through the Chilean Fjords, it was only 500 meters wide – a fantastic, relaxing, scenic and smooth day of sailing through the fjords. At one point, there was a seal swimming alongside the ship and playfully jumping out of the water. For the record, the seal was faster. Towards the end of the day, our ship emerged out of the protected area, and we were rocking and rolling along on our Southward journey. Thankfully, we had our sea legs by that point.
Our Day at Sea, on Day 6, navigated the ship to the community of Tortel, Chile. Officially now in Patagonia, the town is an archipelagic area made of an abundance of small islands and the channels that connect them. We spent the morning on a zodiac tour exploring some of those channels and stopped to explore Isla de los Muertos (the island of the dead). There are over 100 buried there, but only 34 marked graves. It was a somber yet beautiful and peaceful island.
Back onboard, we enjoyed lunch at La Terrazza, our favorite lunch spot since it has a salad bar and wide assortment of other items to choose from. Then we went back to the zodiacs to visit Tortel. The on-shore activities—such as birdwatching, a botany walk, and the “survival hike” were all led by the expedition team. We opted for the hike, which our expedition leader later referred to it as a “challenging leg stretch.”
It took our group of approximately 28 guests and three guides roughly three hours to travel the 3-mile route up 550 ft of elevation. We started on the town’s sidewalks which are all raised, cypress boardwalks. Approaching the edge of the “footbridge city,” the boardwalks became staircases. We ascended about 200 steps and then found our trail. It was comprised of a combination of narrow planks built up to protect the underlying vegetation, a bit of sandy path, a lot of mud, some mossy areas, some rocky areas, and later sections of double-wide planks.
People were well-warned that this would be a very technical hike and (thankfully) most were prepared.
The scenic views were reminiscent of our trip to Norway. Each time we turned a corner of the trail; the vistas were spectacular and amazingly diverse in each direction. We could see the surrounding islands, the Carretera Austral—also known as the Southern Highway it runs through Patagonia and passes near Caleta Tortel—and caught glimpses of our ship from many vantage points.
On Day 8, we awoke to smooth cruising through the Chilean Fjords. It is such a beautiful, scenic, journey, very much like being on the inside passage of Alaska for days on end. Just before noon, our ship made its carefully timed entrance to the English Narrows and took navigation to an entirely new level. The tight turns and narrow sections of fjord (some only 250 meters across with an even narrower navigable channel) were fantastic to watch and most of the ship turned out on deck for viewing.
Since most of the day was spent navigating the fjords, our arrival at Glacier Pio XI was not until late afternoon. This was our day to kayak! Our group of 16 kayakers and two guides were bundled up and ready with our life jackets at 4:45 and we did not return to the ship until about 7:45. It made for a very late dinner, but kayaking through an ice field next to a glacier that is 4.5km wide and 80 meters high was worth it. Simply spectacular. I don’t have enough words to describe the sounds of the crackling and popping as the air that has been trapped in the ice chunks for thousands of years bubbles up to the surface around you as you paddle through.
Day 11 ironically landed on Thanksgiving, which was more than a bit unique this year as we spent it exploring Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. A major perk with Silversea is that all excursions and expeditions were included. Ushuaia offered a bounty of activities focused on the outdoors in Tierra del Fuego and the surrounding areas.
The “inflatable canoe” rafting sounded attractive, but not knowing what the weather would be, we chose a longer hike that included lunch with views of mountains and an ultimate destination of Isla Esmeralda, a beautiful glacier fed lake at about 1350 feet of elevation. There was so much beauty and diversity along our 6-mile journey. After beginning in what seemed like open scrub fields, we saw areas that had been cleared by beavers, crossed a peat bog into a thick forest, then emerged above the tree line and proceeded alongside a rushing brook. Finally at the lake, we found a stunning setting for our picnic lunch on a lakeside boulder.
Did I mention the weather? We could not have scripted a more brilliant day.
Day 12 was dedicated to crossing Drake Passage, with arrival in Antarctica on Day 13. We arrived at Fort Point on Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands around 2:00 PM. There was virtually no wind when our zodiac group was called to go out for our first landing in Antarctica.
The entire island seemed to be covered with small stones and pebbles. While it wasn’t the easiest surface to walk on, it was quite perfect for penguins to build their nests. God truly blessed us with some fantastic wildlife on this first stop. There were multiple seals resting on the island as well as three different breeds of penguins all together, a true rarity.
Day 14 began with a very early, “fresh” morning with the ship anchored near Spert Island. Being that it was early in the season of being able to explore Antarctica, everything is beautiful and pristine. It also means more ice. There were numerous icebergs that blocked our planned zodiac explorations through the narrow channels around Spert Island today. The area is known as an “iceberg graveyard” and we now understand why.
Nevertheless, expeditions are about pivoting when your plan is interrupted and we were thoroughly fascinated by the icebergs, rock formations, jumping penguins, cormorants and the all-around turbulent zodiac ride through the wind and waves. It was a great way to start the day and, as always, the Silversea team had luscious hot chocolate waiting for us as we boarded the ship.
Once all the passengers and team were back onboard, the ship set sail for the afternoon destination of Portal Point. This is the landing that many people considered a “bucket list” item—setting foot not only on an island within the boundaries of Antarctica, but on the actual peninsula itself. Our zodiac group was fortunate to be first on the island and it was a fantastic, snow-covered wonderland. Again, the weather could not have been better. Once on land, I took my coat off and enjoyed the amazing sunny day.
On Day 15, the morning’s expedition was a zodiac cruise through Mikkelsen Harbour. It was another “fresh morning” with bits of snow falling occasionally that added to the atmosphere of wonder. Each of us was thoroughly in awe of our surroundings, and the pure fact that we were in Antarctica. We spent about 90 minutes exploring the harbor with a few stops to focus on specific small groups of penguins and observe their behaviors.
Day 16 started at Andvord Bay. As much as yesterday’s zodiac cruise was all about penguins, today’s was all about whales. We probably saw 12-15 at different spots in the bay.
Day 17 took us to Fournier Bay, a lovely destination for a zodiac cruise. We passed between giant, building-sized walls of ice and enjoyed the time out on the water. As we headed into a larger section of the bay where the ship was anchored, the guide mentioned that he’d seen less seals on this trip than ever before.
It was as if someone said, “Cue the rare leopard seal!”
Just then, one of the zodiac captains called to announce they’d found a leopard seal floating on a piece of sea ice. Fantastic! He seemed intrigued by our presence and posed for a few photos.
This afternoon was also the highly anticipated polar plunge, and we remained anchored in Fournier Bay for the duration of the day. It was truly a beautiful afternoon, and we were quite comfortable watching all the “brave” souls jump into the -0.6C water.
Day 18 began our final day in Antarctica at Half Moon Island. The majority of the passengers had a wet landing to view the Gentoo penguins along the shore and, at a distance, the large Chinstrap penguin colony (with approximately 3,300 breeding pairs) further up the hill. I was surprised to learn that many penguins are excellent climbers.
We were in the lucky minority who got to kayak almost all the way around the island. It was quiet, peaceful and you cannot help but feel small when surrounded by such massive ice cliffs – the majesty and splendor of creation was on display.
Our expedition team truly made the most of this last day and our afternoon was a two-stop landing at Yankee Harbour in the South Shetlands. Chinstrap penguins “own” the island and the penguin highways were very busy. Our expedition guides served as crossing guards and stopped passengers as necessary to keep everyone at their 5m safe distance. After viewing the penguins, we took a quick zodiac ride to the other side of the harbor and were able to observe a number of seals on the beach.
Days 19 and 20 took us on Drake Lake, which was so smooth that we paused to view Cape Horn as we sailed past and arrived in Puerto Williams over 12 hours early.
As we headed home, I thought about the peacefulness of being on the water, gliding through ice chunks that are thousands of years old. In my mind, I could still hear the sound of air popping and crackling bubbles like crushed rice crispies. Despite the passage of time, I still have visions of the calm water with days where there was not a cloud in the sky. They say the weather on these voyages can often be cloudy, rainy, and downright unpleasant. But somehow, we hit it right with this Silversea expedition . . . God was certainly shining down on us!
