Expedition cruise to Cape Horn and the Magellan Strait

We spent last 4 days on the expedition cruise ship Via Australis first sailing south to Cape Horn, the southernmost point in the world, and then navigating north through the Magellan Strait and a number of different fjords. Our last stop was the amazing Los Pingüinos National Monument, where, you guessed it, there are a lot of penguins. An experience of a lifetime, every day we were surrounded by the raw beauty of southern Patagonia with its majestic mountains and glaciers, a vivid reminder that there are still some wild and largely unexplored places left in the world. We were amazingly lucky that good weather held for our entire voyage, but bear in mind that 9°C (48°F) and sporadic rain counts as “good” weather (in this, the peak of summer) when the alternative can be 300 km/h winds, stormy waters and even snow.

Each day, we disembarked from the cruise ship by inflatable Zodiac, quite an experience itself, to visit various sites, take hikes and learn something about the geology, ecology and fascinating history of the area. Some interesting facts that we picked up include:

Cape Horn was first discovered by Dutch explorers exactly 400 years ago to the day from January 29, 2016
Over 10.000 sailors have lost their lives in the waters around Cape Horn (the albatross monument pictured below was installed in their memory)
A 22-year-old Charles Darwin navigated the area of Tierra Del Fuego with Captain FitzRoy and managed to get a mountain named after himself almost 30 years before his better known claim to fame was published