Patagonia is just the tip of the iceberg...
experience the wild and dramatic landscape.
Our adventure began in the frontier town of Punta Arenas – roughly four hours south of Santiago by plane. It is technically Chile’s most southern city but is really more like a large, sleepy town. The locals describe it as ‘like the Falkland Islands, but with trees’.
There is not a huge amount to see or do in Punta Arenas but it serves as an ideal base for exploring the surrounding countryside.
We stayed in Cabo De Hornos – a comfortable four-star hotel with rooms overlooking the town’s main square and the icy blue coast beyond.
We took a short drive outside the city on our first day and were soon surrounded by rolling autumnal green and rusty orange hills framed by a dramatic sky above.
The fins of whales could be seen poking out of the sea along the coast. We were told there are three types here – sperm, orca and humpback.
When explorers from Europe first landed in this part of the world they didn’t see much value in the landscape and quickly left for greener pastures.
The indigenous people, who had successfully carved out a living in one of the most remote and unforgiving places on earth, were left in peace.
But it was the arrival of a herd of humble sheep from New Zealand which sounded the death knell for the natives. The hardy creatures thrived, despite the difficult conditions, leading to an influx of huge numbers of settlers from Croatia, Spain, Portugal and Italy, among others.
The indigenous people were completely wiped out within 40 years of the first ‘baaa’ heard in Patagonia.
The settlers seemed to have a sense of humour about the harsh landscape they now called home judging by the names bestowed on it. There’s Desperation Island, Desolation Lake and Useless Bay to name but a few.
One of the main reasons people come to this part of Chile is to see the mammoth glaciers and visit the remote islands of Cape Horn. And the only way to do that is by boat.
We set off on a three-day trip aboard the Stella Australis – a multi-storey cruise ship departing from Punta Arenas.
The trip is pitched as an ‘adventure cruise’ and mainly attracts wealthy European and American retirees.
Our group of four journalists and one photographer – aged between 30 and 50 – brought the ship’s average passenger age down by a couple of decades. In fact, apart from a two-year-old baby I was the youngest person on board by some distance. The ship has five floors and boasts a gym, open bar and a restaurant serving a huge breakfast buffet in the morning followed by threecourse meals for lunch and dinner.
Cabins range from €1,600 to €4,200 for four nights so it is not cheap by South American standards – I backpacked around the continent for three months for €3,500 in total – but it is certainly comfortable.
The food in South America can be very hit and miss. Everything is stuffed with ham and cheese… to the point that I sometimes wonder if the ham and cheese is itself stuffed with ham and cheese. But the fare is high quality and plentiful aboard the ship.
This is adventure holidaying for senior travellers, although the jaw-dropping landscape will appeal to all ages.
It features snow-capped mountains, rising from icy, jade-blue water surrounded by rolling hills filled with evergreen trees.
But the stars of the show are the dramatic glaciers, which we admired from the ship’s deck or through its huge panoramic windows.
The ship stops a couple of times each day for hikes in the wilderness and excursions to visit the glaciers.
There’s Tucker Island and its friendly penguin inhabitants, the enormous Tia Glacier and the beautiful Wulaia Bay.
After each excursion we were welcomed back to dry land with cups of hot chocolate mixed with whiskey by the ship’s crew.
The pinnacle of the cruise is Cape Horn. This collection of remote Chilean islands are the most southern lands on earth – less than 1,000km away from the South Pole.
We arrived there on the morning of our fourth day.
The route was once the best way to transport goods from the east coast of the United States to the west and its waters are littered with thousands of shipwrecks – each marking a doomed expedition.
We made the journey to Horn Island wearing expensive, waterproof gear, life jackets, bellies full of hot food and turbo-charged dinghies.
It almost feels like cheating, but is exciting all the same.
We were warmly greeted on the remote island by a beaming couple who are its sole inhabitants. They are paid by the Chilean navy to man the lighthouse – a lonely but vital job.
The small wind-battered island consists of the couple’s house, the lighthouse and a tiny chapel.
Our guide asks if we have any questions for the smiling, solitary couple. ‘Do you have Netflix here to pass the time,’ I blurt out, before instantly regretting asking such a trivial question.
The man shakes his head solemnly.
‘We have satellite internet but no Netflix,’ he says, with a touch of sadness in his eyes. It’s obviously a sore subject.
Like much of Patagonia, the island is barren but beautiful, not unlike the Burren.
But the squawking penguins and monstrous glaciers that dot the landscape are a sharp reminder of just how far from home you are.
‘Do you have Netflix to pass the time,’ I ask. The man shakes his head solemnly