After a couple of amazing days exploring the very tip of South America at Staten Island, we left Argentina behind this morning and entered Chile. We spent the morning sailing down the incredibly scenic Beagle Channel. The channel was named after the HMS Beagle during its first hydrographic survey of the coasts of the southern part of South America, which lasted from 1826 to 1830. The ship famously returned to the area with Charles Darwin as a passenger to complete the survey a few years later.
It was during this second voyage that Charles Darwin, like many of us, was blown away by the beauty of the scenery, sculpted by snow and ice. His words expressed what many of us felt today as we witnessed the beauty of Garibaldi Glacier:
“The lofty mountains were covered by a wide mantle of perpetual snow, and numerous cascades poured their waters, through the woods, into the narrow channel below. In many parts magnificent glaciers extended from the mountainside to the water's edge. It is scarcely possible to imagine anything more beautiful than the beryl-like blue of the glacier, and especially when contrasted with the dead white of an expanse of snow.”
These timeless scenes will stay with us forever, their beauty now impressed upon our memories.
