The best of Chilean Fjords – Valparaiso to Ushuaia

The port city of Valparaiso (Chile) meaning “paradise valley”, of which the historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage site, is one of the most beautiful and picturesque in the central region of Chile. Dominated by 44 hills forming a natural amphitheatre overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Valparaiso has been immortalised in the writings of Pablo Neruda. With its delightful funicular railways and colourful hillside dwellings, this is undoubtedly one of the most charismatic and historic ports in South America.

In the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, the Agostini Glacier sits at the back of the eponymous fjord, framed by the Cordillera Darwin. Named after the Italian missionary and explorer Alberto Maria De Agostini, this imposing blue-tinged glacier offers a stunning view over the fjord.

Cape Horn is a rocky headland on Hornos Island, in southern Chile’s Tierra del Fuego archipelago. It’s surrounded by wild seas off the southern tip of South America where the Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet. The albatross-shaped Cape Horn Monument commemorates the lives of thousands of seafarers who perished attempting to sail around the cape. A secluded lighthouse and the tiny Stella-Maris Chapel are nearby

Capital of Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego province, Ushuaia is considered the gateway to the White Continent and the South Pole. Nicknamed “El fin del mundo” by the Argentinian people, this city at the end of the world nestles in the shelter of mountains surrounded by fertile plains that the wildlife seem to have chosen as the ultimate sanctuary. With its exceptional site, where the Andes plunge straight into the sea, Ushuaia is one of the most fascinating places on earth, its very name evocative of journeys to the unlikely and the inaccessible…