February, 2017

By surface area, 80% of South America’s glaciers are located in Chile. There are five ice fields that feed the multitude of glaciers in Chile.

While cruising around South America, we stopped in Puerto Montt, Chile for a raft ride down the Petrohué River. Puerto Montt is located in the Los Lagos Region, near the northern edge of Chile’s Fjords. One of the highlights of the ride was the views we had of the glacier topped Osorno Volcano.

Further south, near Puerto Chacabuco in the Aisén Province, we saw more glacier topped mountains.

These glimpses merely served to whet our appetite for what was to come as our ship cruised deeper into Patagonia, through the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region. When we reached the Amalia Glacier (also called Skua Glacier), our ship turned around so that passengers on both sides had good views. Amalia, a tidewater glacier, is located in the Bernardo O”Higgins National Park, and covers 61 square miles.

We got much closer to the Italia Glacier in the Alberto de Agostini National Park. Italia is located on a stretch of the Beagle Channel that’s known as Glacier Alley.

The city of Ushuaia, capital of Tierra del Fuego Province, is surrounded by the glacier covered Martial Mountains.

And, at sunset, those glaciers look like molten gold.