The southernmost city on Earth, is located on the shores of the Beagle Channel, on the island of Tierra del Fuego and this is where our voyage to Antarctica starts and ends.
On the first day of the voyage, participants will arrive on board the Eldorado, settle in their cabins and get to know the ship and the crew. After a welcome word from the captain, the crew will conduct a safety briefing and assign the participants to their watches.
A Drake Passage crossing can truly be in your bucket list as you can feel Drake Shake as well as Drake Lake there. Whatever the weather may be, it requires coordinated teamwork of all crew members.
Next we'll visit Greenwich Island and the beautiful Yankee Bay. The American navigator Nathaniel Palmer discovered and described the amazing site in 1820, when he sailed his ship Hero near the polar continent and around the South Shetland Islands, looking for sheltered beaches for his seal-fleet. Here we’ll see several thousand Papuan penguins. There are also the remains of whale bones as a reminder of the heyday of whaling in the Southern Ocean (1906-1925).
British Antarctic station Port Lockroy
Half Moon Island is an island in the eastern part of the Livingstone Islands, South Shetland Group. The name comes from its unique shape. Weddell seals and sea elephants often roost on the shore here, and a colony of Antarctic penguins (about 3,300 breeding pairs) nests higher up the hill. Seabirds also love the place: Antarctic terns, skuas, blue-eyed cormorants, gulls and Wilson's capercaillie can be found here. The Argentine polar station Cámara is situated in the south-west of the island.
Deception Island is a part of the South Shetland Islands. Its flooded caldera is known as one of the best natural harbor of this region. There are few animals here because of the volcanic activity.
The small island of the Enterprise holds the secret of the wreck of the whaling ship Gouvernoren: only the prow of the ship towers above the water. Whaling was active here between 1915 and 1930, and some remnants of this activity are still visible on the island's beaches today.
The Melchior Islands are a group of 16 snow- and ice-covered islands in the Palmer Archipelago. They were first mapped during the 3rd French Antarctic Expedition led by Jean-Baptiste Charcot in 1903-1905. Here you can see colonies of penguins, whales and seals swimming near the shore, as well as incredibly beautiful large icebergs.
Port Lockroy station is the most visited tourist destination in Antarctica. The mountainous scenery, rich wildlife and historical heritage attract lots of travellers. This British polar station has now been converted into a museum and a post office. It even has its own colony of Papuan penguins.
Orne Bay was first described by the Belgian Antarctic expedition led by the navigator Gerlache in 1898. It is a rocky bay with steeply sloping mountains, which tops are covered with snow profusely even in summer. Papuan and Antarctic penguins and Weddell seals can be seen here most often.
Punta Arenas is one of the southernmost cities on Earth. It is located on the coast of the Strait of Magellan. It is an ideal starting point for exploring Antarctica: PUQ International Airport is located here, with regular daily flights to King George Island.
Cuverville Island combines both high uplands and a sprawling beach with a large colony of Papuan penguins. The colony has around 6,500 breeding pairs, the largest nesting population of these birds in the entire Antarctic Peninsula. From here you can see the 'gallery' of icebergs and Minke whales come to feed in the nearby Errera Channel.
One of the most thrilling moments of our voyage is the passage of the Lemaire channel. 11km long, 150m deep and 700m wide, this channel is surrounded by high mountains with glaciers. A complex current system often brings large amounts of icebergs and sea ice into the channel, making it temporarily impassable to ships. Seabirds, humpback whales and minke whales often appear on the surface of the water.