Cruising Glacier Alley

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Destination 

Ushuaia, Argentina

Throughout the night we made our way through the fjords of South America towards our first stop in Argentina. The route taken to Ushuia was via the Magdalena, Cockburn, Ballenero, O'Brien and finally the Beagle Channel.

At 07:00 AM Crown Princess sailed along glacier alley, passing abeam España Glacier first followed by the Romanche, Alemania, Francia, and Italia Glacier at 08:19 AM. When reaching the end of the scenic cruise, the ship slowed and an Argentinian pilot boarded the vessel. By 12:00 noon the ship was safely alongside in the harbor of Ushuaia.

The onboard port expert / naturalist narrated the entire journey through glacier alley.   At the end of the cruise, we purchased the Reflections DVD set so we could relive the experience back home.






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Glacier Alley
Beagle Channel


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Beagle Channel Wildlife Cruise

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Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego)
Argentina

On Day 7 we followed in the wake of Charles Darwin, the English naturalist, who sailed on a five-year voyage around the tip of South America.

Beagle Channel was named after the HMS Beagle, the ship that carried him on that voyage.

He wrote the famous book On the Origin of Species which explained his revolutionary theory of natural selection and evolution.

The ship docked in Ushuaia, but we still gathered in the Wheelhouse Bar to check in to get stickers for our tour.  When our group was called we were escorted to the gangway.

Once dock side we met the tour guides who escorted us to one of the two awaiting catamarans.  We passed some shops along the way and figured we'd check them out on our return.

Scenic Highlights

We cruised past Mount Olivia and Mount Escapardo, two of the surrounding snow-capped peaks.  The captain of the catamaran got us very close to several stopping points during the cruise.
The first stop was at a small island for picture postcard images of the towering "Les Eclaireus" Lighthouse.  The South American sea lions were camped out on this island.  They were quite entertaining during our brief stop.

There are several species of Cormorants including Imperial and Blue-Eyed that live in rookeries along the channel.  Our catamaran approached several small islands for a close-up look the birds in their natural surroundings.

Viewing

There were plenty of outdoor and indoor seats to accommodate everyone's preference.  When we approached one of the stops the captain would circle so that no matter where you were seated you'd have the chance to view the birds or other wildlife.

Dress in layers for this excursion because the weather changed during the trip.  At times it was quite sunny and warm and other times it was cloudy, chilly and windy.  You won't go wrong if you have a hooded sweatshirt as one of your layers.

We highly recommend this excursion which you will must likely need to book through the cruise line (as they will book up all the available times).



Click on the image to the right for more Blog posts about this trip.

Related Album:

Beagle Channel


Additional photos can be found on our South America Shutterfly page

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Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat