Today we will feel the power of earth’s most powerful waterfalls, hundreds of them, creating a truly visceral experience.

Today we visit some of the key cultural and historical sites of Uruguay’s largest city. Due to the worst banking crisis in the country’s history in 2002, many parts of the city are transforming into something different than they were 25 years ago. It’s considered to be the southernmost cosmopolitan capital city of the America’s.

Punta del Este is Uruguay’s most popular resort destination. We learned via our day-long excursion here that its iconic cityscape, glamorous parties, and incredible beaches attract visitors from all over the world.

Today we visit mainland Argentina, in the Argentine Patagonia region, and The Valdes Peninsula which is nearly 1,400 square miles in size and is an important nature reserve in South America.

This will be a day like none other for the four of us. An adventure that brought us face-to-face, up close and personal with the most amazing penguins. There were so many hurdles to overcome for this day to actually happen.

If you happened to have skipped past my early post when we navigated from Ushuaia, Argentina to Antarctica through the Drake Passage then the context for this may not be easy to track. But, for those who did read through it, I won’t repeat it here.

Yes, we had the Drake Lake on the way to Antarctica… but not this time…

There are no elephants here. It is named as such for multiple reasons. Some of the first explorers to reach these shores sighted elephant seals on its shores. As it turns out, the shape of the island is that of an elephant as well.

Yes, there are spots, places, bays, islands, a schedule, and map we will follow, and I will outline in our continuing journey. But that’s the stuff of the day. It’s not the matter of what matters, to me.

We awake early in hopes the storm that descended upon us and intensified so quickly did absolve at the same pace overnight. The Captain addresses the ship at 7 AM with the report on the overnight experience…

Today we begin our adventure within the arctic circle, just a few hundred yards from the Antarctic Peninsula. There is much to share, and there’s an extraordinary variety of different experiences and encounters we will have over the coming days…

We begin the day in the middle of Drake Passage about halfway between the southern tip of South America and Palmer Station, Antarctica…

That is ALWAYS the question everyone asks when addressing the Captain or the Officers at this stage of the trip.

Did you know? This term ‘Around the Horn’ has multiple official references:

The First Definition…

The popularity and exclusivity of this experience is something we couldn’t pass up. It’s no small task. But to our friends and family, we really thought this was worth it. What are all the pieces that makes this work? To make it official, you need the following:

Today we travel Glacier Alley to Ushuaia, Argentina, known as the ‘City at the End of the World.’ This is the last land we will be on for eight days as we then head another 730 miles to the south to the Anarctic Peninsula. We have two Beagle Channel navigation scientists joining our cruise today to help the Captain navigate this channel to Ushuaia.

Today we arrive in Punta Arenas, a city near the tip of Chile's southernmost Patagonia region. Located on the Strait of Magellan, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, it's often used as base for excursions to the surrounding wilderness and Antarctica. The Plaza Muñoz Gamero has a memorial to explorer Ferdinand Magellan.

This morning we awake in the Chilean Fjords of Patagonia on our way to Brujo Glacier. It is one of the few glaciers in the world that is actually advancing.

We will travel the Chilean Fjords for more than 2,000 miles to the South, over eight days, to reach the southernmost tip of land on earth.