DAY 01: Arrival at Punta Arenas
Welcome dinner and introductory talk in a historic Patagonian mansion, built in the XIXth century.
Overnight.
DAY 02: Punta Arenas - Antarctica (King George Island)
Transfer to the Punta Arenas airport to board our flight to the King George Island (South Shetlands Archipelago). The flight takes a little more than 3 hours. Visit to the Chilean Polar Base Eduardo Frei, the largest on this side of the Antarctic. It was founded in 1969 as the Weather station Meteorological Centre Presidente Frei.
The base is one of the major centres of scientific research and one of the three principal weather stations and navigation complexes of all Antarctica.
In the afternoon we will visit Hannah Point on Livingston Island, a very particular place with a great variety of wildlife. It was named so in 1858 after the British sailor out of Liverpool, who foundered here on Christmas Day 1820. Hannah Point is a marvellous place, with an abundance of rookeries with breeding pairs of Antarctic and Papua penguins. We have even found a Macaroni penguin nesting in the midst of a colony of the Antarctic Chinstrap Penguin. There are also many mammals such as Southern elephant seals and leopard seals around.
DAY 03: Antarctica - Navigation
In the morning we will visit Aitcho Island, belonging to a group of small islands close to the northern entrance to the English Straits, in the Southern Shetland Islands, between the Greenwich and Roberts Islands. There we will find some mammals such as Weddell seals, and Southern Elephant seals and colonies of Paua penguins and chinstrap penguins.
In the afternoon we will visit the Isla Decepcion - Deception Island, of volcanic origin. The ship will enter the inside of the crater flooded by the sea. We will make a landfall and visit the remnants of the Norwegian Whaling station and the shelter of the British Antarctic Survey - BAS, which was evacuated in 1967 after the volcano, erupted. Guided tour to Neptune\