South America, around the horn cruise photo gallery

[BPCooper]

This past December-January, I took the cruise from Santiago to BA around the horn on the Norwegian Dream. At either end of the trip I also visited Torres del Paine and Iguazu Falls.

 

I have finally finished putting together a big photo gallery from my trip. I figured anyone who is going to take this trip, or considering, and who might want to get an idea visually of what it's like might be interested in seeing. And of course if you went you might be, too! I hope people will find this useful. In my planning for trips I always like to look up others' photos, and I remember going through some flickr galleries I had found here.

[Travelight]

Fantastic! Thank you!

[lancelady]

BPCooper -

We had done the same trip in Jan. '05 into Feb.'05 on Celebrity Infinity and did the ship's tours and had not seen most of what you were able to photograph.

Were these your photographs or other photo's you put into this site?

If these were your photo's how were you able to capture these photo's when on tours? We have found on tours you could not venture to far

from the group.

In Santiago, we had a private guide and driver booked thru our travel agent possibly they were just not wanting to take us to the shrine as

they stated it was a very dangerous area. Looking at your photo's

of Santiago and Valpariso I really don't see where that was a big issue

you have the same problems anywhere you travel. I never felt I was

in danger. In Valpariso before boarding the ship they took us to an

area that overlooked the port area where they had outside vendors.

It's very interesting to see what other travelers have seen to compare

with what you were able to see. We are both photographers and

would have loved to get to area's to do more photo's than we were

able to do.

Would love to redo this trip but a different time of the year?

Thank you for sharing the photo's.

[S&B]

BPCooper,

Thanks for sharing your wonderful pictures. I have enjoyed them and I am sure I will be going back to look again.

 

We are on the NCL Sun, February 2009, BA to Santiago. I have a couple of questions to ask if you don't mind. Maybe your answers will also help someone else.

 

Which excursion did you take in Ushuaia? We are currently on the Beagle Channel and National Park excursion, 5 1/2 hours. We are in that port for 7 hours so that means we will have to rush to take any pictures of the town.

 

In Puerto Chacabuco, which excursion did you take? I have read that many cruisers were unhappy but when I look at your pictures you have seen beautiful scenery.

 

We are very excited to be sailing around the horn and hope that we have weather as good as you did.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

S&B

 

(a Florida native and as I am sure I am older than you I can remember the first rockets that were lifted off. We had a very close friend that worked at the cape. Those were the days when you could go out on the beach to watch. No communication so you had to take your chances if it lifted off or got scrubed. Sorry for anyone else who doesn't understand this. I just had to add this note. Many memories!!) :)

[BPCooper]

Thanks guys and I am glad you find them useful. Yes, these are all my photos. It is my personal website.

 

lancelady - I did not have to venture beyond the excursions we did to get any of these photos, actually. In Santiago I had no guide. We toured the city on our own for one day. We did not get to see Valparaiso. The few images I took there were from the bus or ship. I would say that I never felt in any danger in Santiago, but that I did hide my camera sometimes if I felt we were away from where tourists are. For example, we visited their famous market (I forget the name) and did not take it out in there as it was very crowded.

 

Sure feel free to ask more questions I'm happy to help.

 

S&B - In Ushuaia we took the excursion to Tierra del Fuego National Park. They had one with or without the Beagle Channel boat ride. I opted for more of the park and inland time because we get to see the channel from the boat a great deal of the time. After returning from the park tour there were still 90 minutes or two hours to explore the town itself on our own.

 

In Puerto Chacabuco we did "Patagonia nature in depth" which is in Aiken del Sur park The scenery around that port is spectacular (and we had a very rare sunny day...apparently it rains 300 days a year there as I recall). The hike itself did not provide a lot of that scenery, however, though it ends on a nice lake as seen there.

 

We really did have very good weather for the majority of this cruise, and nothing was canceled.

 

Thanks for the note at the end, too I envy anyone who got to see a Saturn V.

[dileep]

This past December-January, I took the cruise from Santiago to BA around the horn on the Norwegian Dream. At either end of the trip I also visited Torres del Paine and Iguazu Falls.

 

I have finally finished putting together a big photo gallery from my trip. I figured anyone who is going to take this trip, or considering, and who might want to get an idea visually of what it's like might be interested in seeing. And of course if you went you might be, too! I hope people will find this useful. In my planning for trips I always like to look up others' photos, and I remember going through some flickr galleries I had found here.

 

Excellent pictures!

[auntdot]

I have finally finished putting together a big photo gallery from my trip.

 

Fabulous photos, BPCooper; thank you so much for sharing them. We are headed around the horn in February and your albums have whet our appetite, that's for sure!!

 

Dot

[luv2cruise450]

Ben...thank you sooooooo much for sharing these fabulous photos from your trip!! Enjoyed them very much! We will be taking a cruise next Jan to SA that has several ports similar to your itinerary...and just hope that we will get shots as beautiful as yours.

We are hoping to do a separate 'excursion' type cruise in the near future to Antarctica itself. Plus we are eyeing an 18 day land package to Chile and Argentina in the next 2-3 years.

For your time in Antarctica...did you have to purchase any special kind of case/housing for your camera? I know that the cold can drain the energy from the batteries really fast (among other possible photography equipment problems).

Again...thank you so much for sharing these great photos and taking the time to write captions and other information to go with them.

Happy sailing!!

 

Betty

[BPCooper]

For your time in Antarctica...did you have to purchase any special kind of case/housing for your camera? I know that the cold can drain the energy from the batteries really fast (among other possible photography equipment problems).

Betty

 

Hi Betty, thanks! No I did not. It was about 30 degrees F when we arrived and as the sun actually came out on our visit, it warmed up about ten degrees. I have a grip on my main camera with two batteries, which was a great investment for that trip alone if nothing else. I shot 600 photos in Antarctica in that one 12 hour span. I would like to return and do a dedicated Antarctic cruise with stops and more natural up close viewing than this, but this was well worth it!

 

All I can ever say on a dedicated trip is absolutely see Torres del Paine. I would like to return there, and also I would like to see Parque Nacional de los Glaciares in Argentina, where Perrito Moreno glacier and the Fitzroy/El Chaten mountain range is. I mistakenly was under the impression beforehand that Morene glacier might be accessible from T del P. It looks spectacular as well. Someone actually felt, before this trip, that I would appreciate a land trip more but I wanted to see a lot so we did a combination of the cruise and pre and post trips.

[tgh]

Just wanted to add to the compliments... great shots..

Looking forward even more to our land tour of TdP and the Sea trip to Cape Horn.

Sadly I'm all enthused out , the slr is staying at home and the point and shoot is coming along...

 

btw... for what it is worth .. Strait is the correct term for the Magellan .. or any other narrowish waterway

[casakey]

This past December-January, I took the cruise from Santiago to BA around the horn on the Norwegian Dream. At either end of the trip I also visited Torres del Paine and Iguazu Falls.

 

I have finally finished putting together a big photo gallery from my trip. I figured anyone who is going to take this trip, or considering, and who might want to get an idea visually of what it's like might be interested in seeing. And of course if you went you might be, too! I hope people will find this useful. In my planning for trips I always like to look up others' photos, and I remember going through some flickr galleries I had found here.

 

Those are the most amazing pictures!!!! I feel like I have already been on the trip...but still look forward to our NCL trip on Jan 4th!!! Joyce and Craig from Key West Florida

[BPCooper]

btw... for what it is worth .. Strait is the correct term for the Magellan .. or any other narrowish waterway

 

Thanks for the comments everyone. Glad it is being useful. And thanks for the correction! What a bad mistake on my part. I have fixed all of them.

[groover121]

This past December-January, I took the cruise from Santiago to BA around the horn on the Norwegian Dream. At either end of the trip I also visited Torres del Paine and Iguazu Falls.

 

I have finally finished putting together a big photo gallery from my trip. I figured anyone who is going to take this trip, or considering, and who might want to get an idea visually of what it's like might be interested in seeing. And of course if you went you might be, too! I hope people will find this useful. In my planning for trips I always like to look up others' photos, and I remember going through some flickr galleries I had found here.

HOW DID YOU LIKE THE NCL CRUISE? WE ARE CONSIDERING BOOKING AND NOT SURE IF WE WILL SEE EVERYTHING AS COMPARED TO INFINITY (BOOKED UP) OR HAL (TOO EXPENSIVE)?

[BPCooper]

HOW DID YOU LIKE THE NCL CRUISE? WE ARE CONSIDERING BOOKING AND NOT SURE IF WE WILL SEE EVERYTHING AS COMPARED TO INFINITY (BOOKED UP) OR HAL (TOO EXPENSIVE)?

 

I loved it. What are the differences in the ones you are looking at, though? If it were the same ports of if NCL had more, I would take NCL personally.

[S&B]

BPCooper,

Can you tell me what kind of vehicle you rode in during your tour of Ushuaia? I really do not like these big 40 passenger buses and I am hoping they take something smaller when going into the national park.

 

Groover,

You really have to sit down and weigh everything out. It is true that NCL does not spend the entire day at Stanley or Ushuaia. I chose NCL because I want free style dining. It seems that everytime we want to watch a sail away or a sunset it was 6:00 and time for dinner if you chose the early seating. I don't mind waiting a few minutes in line as long as I get to see the sail away. It seems there is no perfect solution. I think it depends on what cruise line you are used to. I know that Celebrity had a price deduction according to one of the threads I read. We are on the Feb.1 sailing of the Sun.

 

S&B

[groover121]

we like ncl because of free style as well. Just want to make sure we see a good penguin spot and lots of great scenery. I am going to book Jan 4, but excursions are a headache. could you list private excursions you did, as well as ncl excursions? It would be a great help. We try to do private as much as possible but do not know anyone who has cruised this area before. Thanks a lot.:)

[BPCooper]

BPCooper,

Can you tell me what kind of vehicle you rode in during your tour of Ushuaia? I really do not like these big 40 passenger buses and I am hoping they take something smaller when going into the national park.

 

S&B

 

It was a big 40 passenger bus for that excursion. I was amazed they could navigate through some of the dirt roads.

 

Lets see, a Puerto Montt we did the lake and falls, unquestionably the one mos tpeople choose. It was a bad first taste, as the one thing I fear is being in a mob of people and unable to enjoy what we are seeing. This was the one place we had this situation (I was able to get my shots, though). Luckily, though, it never happened again and everything else was excellent.

 

At Chacabuco we did the nature in depth hike. At Stanley (I booked all of these as soon as I booked the cruise months beforehand) we did the Sparrow Cove penguin tour, which is limited to about four or six separate groups of ten people at a time, which was nice (and quickly sells out). Between that and Lagoon bluff you will get a good penguin experience. The better one, though, was Puerto Madryn where we did Peninsula Valdes (goes by that name as well as the name the Patagonian adventure, they are similar) and saw them up close. Beautiful, unusual pebble beach where they nest. Most people in that port choose Punta Tombo but I did not. I cannot attest as to whether it is better but I can tell you you will not be disappointed with the one I did. In short, from those I did, if you only want to do one penguin excursion, do it at Puerto Madryn. There are also ones at Punta Arenas, but I cannot attest to those.

 

Finally, at Montevideo we just did the city tour with winery which was just fine for a taste of everything there. I hope this helps, feel free to follow up with more questions as I am happy to help!

[Gatormomma]

Your photos are beautiful!!! Thanks so much for sharing. We're going in January for 50 days and now look forward to it more than ever.

[luv2cruise450]

for answering my camera case question....hope you don't mind but I have another query...did you need to bring various polarizing type lenses because of the snow and possible glare in Antarctica and other glacial areas?

Gracias...

Happy travels...

 

Betty

[BPCooper]

I brought a polarizer but only used it occasionally. I didn't feel I must have it, just a personal preference.

[BellaBeauBean]

Your photos are awe inspiring. You have a great talent. I have booked this trip on the Sun for March 2010. (I know its a long way off, but it will take me that long to save for it). Your photos have made me ever so much surer that it will be a wonderful trip. And I am so jealous of your talent.:o

[terri23]

Wow - thanks for posting. I have a year-and-a-half to wait!! :eek:

[MMDown Under]

Thank you very much. Really enjoyed your beautiful photos, which I have saved to my favourites. Have forwarded the link to my daughter, who is doing a small ship cruise to Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Islands, in January 2009, as well as pre cruise land content.

 

It is on our future to-do-list.

[JEBurton]

Photos are stunning! What camera are you using?

 

thanks, john

[BPCooper]

Photos are stunning! What camera are you using?

 

thanks, john

 

All of these are with with my D200 or D40.