Looking back at our records it was nearly ten years (almost to the day) ago that we boarded a Cruceros Australis ship to journey through Tierra del Fuego/Beagle Channel and land on Cape Horn.   Last time we did this trip in November 2008 we sailed from Ushuaia in Argentina to Punta Arenas in Chile, but our 2018 journey would be the opposite direction on board their brand new ship, Ventus Australis.   This would not be a 'normal cruise’, with a maximum of ...

After the Monday morning dash to the airport in Santiago de Chile we had a few hours to make the most of at the airport before flying down to Punta Arenas . . . so it was a bit of plane spotting for an hour or so after having lunch before the four and a half hour journey to the south of Chile which included a 45 minute stop at Puerto Montt. Once in PA we boarded a taxi and headed to our hotel - the taxi driver was a Punta Arenas native and explained how things...

Having a relaxing start to a holiday is quite a rare treat for us. Normally it's a dash after work to the airport, or travel down to London for the last Eurostar departure of the day from St Pancras. Having no alarm set for the Friday there was plenty of time to get to Birmingham airport for our flight at 17.10 to Paris, so much time that we could enjoy a leisurely lunch before getting to the bag drop. Our flight to Santiago de Chile (SCL) was booked through Ai...

Looking back at the photographs taken in Santiago de Chile we seemed to have crammed quite a lot into our few days in the capital city . . . . as you may well expect! Our hotel (Hotel Orly) was centrally located although this did mean dropping the bags off at the hotel first and then taking the hire car back to the airport. It seemed a sensible idea at the time and from memory driving in Santiago was not too bad although like most cities you need to look after y...

After the flight from Punta Arenas to Santiago we stayed for one night at an airport hotel which was slap bang opposite the airport terminal. This enabled us to make a quick get away and head out by hire car to the Pacific coast about 100 km west of the capital city. We made a stop at Casa Pablo Neruda, the home of the Chilean poet before making our way to our hotel on the coast. Our first hotel on the Pacific coast was in Algarrobo and the Medio Mundo Hotel whi...