I’ve been fortunate to combine trips to South America and Antarctica twice. My first trip was on a Princess Itinerary that sailed around the southern tip of South America with 4 days in Antarctica. This was an easy way to visit many ports along South America’s coast, combined with some scenic cruising in Antarctica.
My second visit started with a three-week Patagonia exploration, followed by an 18-day sail on Ponant’s L’Austral from Ushuaia to Antarctica, South Georgia Island, and the Falkland Islands. The ship then headed north to Puerto Madryn, Argentina, and finished in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
On both these cruises, I had many wonderful and unique experiences in each port town that the ships stopped at.
My South America cruise port excursions
Valparaiso, Chile
My Princess cruise to South America and Antarctica started in Valparaiso, Chile. After landing in Santiago the day before my scheduled departure, I took a cab from the airport directly to my B&B in the heart of Valparaiso’s Old Town.
I spent a quiet afternoon strolling the colorful Valparaiso Old Town on my own. This UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site was filled with vibrant murals, brightly painted houses, and unique graffiti. Though parts of Valparaiso have a reputation for petty crime, I felt quite safe on my own in this tourist-laden neighborhood.
I capped off the day with a lovely meal at the Restaurant La Concepcion before turning in for an early night to catch up on sleep.
Punta Arenas, Chile
My Princess cruise was scheduled to stop in Punta Arenas, but due to weather issues, that port had to be canceled. Fortunately, I was able to visit Punta Arenas on my Patagonia sojourn.
A cruise to Magdalena Island to see the Magellanic penguin colony is a popular excursion. The boat ride from Punta Arenas to the island was relatively quick. We had about an hour to walk the path around the island and watch the penguin colony. At one time, there were as many as 60,ooo penguins here, but now there were barely 6,000. Still, it was fun to watch them waddle and interact with each other.
Ushuaia, Argentina
On my first visit to Ushuaia with Princess, I booked one of the Princess’s offered shore excursions, Penguin Rookery Navigation. This was a new excursion for this itinerary that was offered for the first time on our sailing.
This was exactly the type of tour I was looking to do on my own once we docked at Ushuaia. I chose the Princess version because the logistics were easier, especially considering that our arrival time changed compared to the original cruise schedule.
We boarded a large catamaran that was docked on the same pier as the Sapphire Princess. Our cruise took us past rocky outcroppings with imperial cormorants, sea lions, and the famous Beagle Channel lighthouse.
We continued along the Beagle Channel to Isla Martillo, or Hammer Island, where many, many Magallanic and Gentoo penguins populated the shoreline. To protect the penguins, we didn’t get off the boat, but the catamaran got very close to shore, which allowed for good photos.
It was interesting to see that the penguins were not at all bothered by our presence and went about their normal routines. In fact, one little guy or gal came right up to our boat and started, what can best be described as dancing.
My second time in Ushuaia was to board my Ponant cruise to Antarctica. I spent two days there before the cruise, exploring more of this southernmost city and the surrounding scenery. I booked two tours through Get Your Guide that took me into Tierra Del Fuego National Park and also along the Beagle Channel to the little fishing village of Puerto Almanza.
Port Stanley, Falkland Islands
Wow – what an amazing day this was! I saw so many penguins!
The Falkland Islands are known for their penguin population, which outnumber people 300 to 1. I didn’t know if I would be able to see penguins since all the ship excursions and the private tours were fully booked far in advance.
But the town of Stanley has a bus that, for $20, takes you from the pier to nearby Gypsy Point and back. This cove was home to nesting Magellanic penguins, visiting king penguins, and a rookery of Gentoo penguins. There was quite a bit of walking along the beach to see all of them, but it was well worth it.
I spent almost the whole day at Gypsy Cove watching these engaging creatures and taking about a million pictures. I share all the details in the post An Unforgettable Day With the Falkland Island Penguins.
Montevideo, Uruguay
I don’t normally like big group, big bus city tours – too much time spent on the bus or time wasted getting on and off. However, I chose the “Montevideo and Carnival Performance” offered by Princess because it gave me a chance to see some of the unique Murga Carnival performances and costumes for which Montevideo is famous.
These type of performances can normally be seen in the evenings at dedicated venues around the city during Carnival time, but our ship left too early to be able to catch one. This particular performance was put on just for our Princess tour group so it was not something I could have done on my own.
The performance was at the Carnival Museum which actually is just across the street from the pier where the ship was docked. Before the show, the bus drove us around Montevideo so we got a window seat look at some of the main plazas and neighborhoods, along with a couple of brief photo op stops.
The highlight though, was the Murga, which is a form of musical theater performed by a troupe made up of a conductor, three percussionists, and 13 vocalists. All were decorated in colorful costumes, fancy headdresse,s and face paint.
At the end of the performance, the audience members were asked to join in the fun as they, too, donned costumes and danced and sang along with the troupe.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
I have started and ended trips and cruises in Buenos Aires. There were plenty of day tour options to see the major sights around the city if I had the time. During one pass through the city, I did take the time to go to the Recoleta Cemetery to see the tomb of Eva Peron. Free Walks Buenos Aires offers an interesting daily guided tour of the cemetery.
Cruising around South America from one side to the other was a very easy introduction to the rich wildlife and cultural heritage in this region.
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Thanks for visiting.
Rose
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