2012

"Passionate" best captures the wild beauty and heady sensuality that is Rio de Janeiro. For Rio is the Cidade Maravilhosa - the "Marvelous City" that throbs to a samba beat and revels in the hedonism of Carnival. There is no place on Earth like Rio - as the city natives, the famed Cariocas, delight in telling you. The geographical facts read like dry dust: over five million souls live in the city, another four million live in the surrounding suburbs, the metropolis is the cultural center of Brazil. The reality is Rio: the white sand beaches of Copacabana, the swaying palm trees, the immense statue of Christ the Redeemer and always the never-ending rhythm of life lived with passionate intensity.

Founded in the early 16th century, Rio was once the capital of Brazil. The city remains the nation's cultural and spiritual center, an amalgam of Latin and African cultures.

 

"Passionate" best captures the wild beauty and heady sensuality that is Rio de Janeiro. For Rio is the Cidade Maravilhosa - the "Marvelous City" that throbs to a samba beat and revels in the hedonism of Carnival. There is no place on Earth like Rio - as the city natives, the famed Cariocas, delight in telling you. The geographical facts read like dry dust: over five million souls live in the city, another four million live in the surrounding suburbs, the metropolis is the cultural center of Brazil. The reality is Rio: the white sand beaches of Copacabana, the swaying palm trees, the immense statue of Christ the Redeemer and always the never-ending rhythm of life lived with passionate intensity.

Founded in the early 16th century, Rio was once the capital of Brazil. The city remains the nation's cultural and spiritual center, an amalgam of Latin and African cultures.

 

"Passionate" best captures the wild beauty and heady sensuality that is Rio de Janeiro. For Rio is the Cidade Maravilhosa - the "Marvelous City" that throbs to a samba beat and revels in the hedonism of Carnival. There is no place on Earth like Rio - as the city natives, the famed Cariocas, delight in telling you. The geographical facts read like dry dust: over five million souls live in the city, another four million live in the surrounding suburbs, the metropolis is the cultural center of Brazil. The reality is Rio: the white sand beaches of Copacabana, the swaying palm trees, the immense statue of Christ the Redeemer and always the never-ending rhythm of life lived with passionate intensity.

Founded in the early 16th century, Rio was once the capital of Brazil. The city remains the nation's cultural and spiritual center, an amalgam of Latin and African cultures.

 

This is the time to personalize your cruise experience—you can participate in any or all the activities scheduled onboard or do nothing more strenuous than lift an umbrella drink while reading a book poolside.

 

This is the time to personalize your cruise experience—you can participate in any or all the activities scheduled onboard or do nothing more strenuous than lift an umbrella drink while reading a book poolside.

 

Nestled between the continent's two giants, Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America. More than half of the nation's population of three million reside in the capital of Montevideo, located at Uruguay's southernmost point on the Rio de la Plata. Although small in size, Uruguay has proven to be big-hearted - the country is one of the most literate nations in the world while Montevideo is one of South America's most interesting and cosmopolitan capitals.

Montevideo is a charming city made up of 19th-century Beaux Arts buildings, parks, and historical monuments.

 

Founded in the early 16th century, Buenos Aires was transformed from a colonial port into a cosmopolitan metropolis - the "Paris of the South" - by the cattle boom of the 1880s. As in the American West, boom was followed by bust. But that did not stop Buenos Aires from becoming the city it is today. With its air of haunted grandeur, Buenos Aires is a place of icy intellect and smoldering passion. It is a city where the elegant Colon Theater, one of the world's great opera houses, stands in counterpoint to the working class barrios that gave birth to the tango. Perhaps the city's enigmas and contradictions are best embodied by its two most famous citizens - the reclusive librarian and literary genius Jorge Luis Borges and the showgirl turned First Lady, Evita Peron.

 

This is the time to personalize your cruise experience—you can participate in any or all the activities scheduled onboard or do nothing more strenuous than lift an umbrella drink while reading a book poolside.

 

This is the time to personalize your cruise experience—you can participate in any or all the activities scheduled onboard or do nothing more strenuous than lift an umbrella drink while reading a book poolside.

 

The Falklands long served as a way station for ships, particularly whalers, bound to and from Cape Horn. The islands' rigorous environment is immediately apparent: Stanley Harbor is dotted with the hulks of vessels that succumbed to the fierce winds and waves of the South Atlantic. While their strategic location led to important roles in both World Wars, the islands are best remembered as the cause of the 1982 war between Argentina and the United Kingdom. Today, travelers increasingly journey to the islands to view their rich assortment of bird and marine life.

Colorful houses occupy the low rolling moorland bordering Stanley Harbor. Stanley's climate resembles London's - cool and rainy though summer visitors are often blessed with clear, sunny skies.

 

Located on Chile's Isla Hornos in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, Cape Horn is widely considered to be the southernmost tip of South America. The culmination of the Andes mountain range, the legendary Cape is prone to unpredictably strong winds, choppy waters, icebergs and rogue waves - none of which phase the Princess ships that sail here. Nevertheless, hazardous maritime conditions have protected the rocky region from human settlement, so you'll enjoy the same views as the earliest explorers discovered centuries ago. Unusual rock formations with deep grooves and granite cliffs covered in trees are its signature features.

Navigating around the Cape was a near-impossible feat for sailors who braved its intense winds and treacherous waters in the 17th century. However, those fortunate enough to return from a successful trip were entitled to numerous benefits, including dining with one foot on the dinner table and wearing a gold loop earring to boast of their seafaring victory.

Though Cape Horn became a significant trade route between the 18th and early 20th centuries, the opening of the Panama Canal rendered this route obsolete - but that hasn't prevented adventurers from recreational journeys to the Cape, or the bragging rights that come along with them!

 

Magellan called it Tierra del Fuego, "the Land of Fire," having seen flames rising from the darkened islands. For over three centuries, the name struck fear in the hearts of mariners. Howling headwinds, mountainous seas and rocky coastlines spelled a sudden end to many voyages. Today, Ushuaia, a former Argentine penal colony, serves as your gateway to this wilderness where snow-capped mountains plummet to the icy waters of the Beagle Channel.

In the late 19th century, Reverend Thomas Bridges spent years working with local tribes, compiling a dictionary of their Yaghan tongue. The work outlived the Yaghan: by the beginning of the 20th century, they had succumbed to disease.

 

Punta Arenas lies atop rolling hills, looking out over the Strait of Magellan. In the days before the Panama Canal, this was a major port as ships plied the waters of Cape Horn. Punta Arenas remains a prosperous town today, thanks to its rich natural resources. The city is also the gateway to Chilean Patagonia, a maze of fjords, rivers, steppes, and mountains to the north. To the south lies the great frozen mass of Antarctica. Adventure awaits in any direction at this port located near the end of the earth.

Across the Strait of Magellan lies Tierra del Fuego, the lonely, windswept island discovered by Magellan in 1520. The region was settled by Yugoslavian and English sheep ranchers in the 19th century.

 

This is the time to personalize your cruise experience—you can participate in any or all the activities scheduled onboard or do nothing more strenuous than lift an umbrella drink while reading a book poolside.

 

This is the time to personalize your cruise experience—you can participate in any or all the activities scheduled onboard or do nothing more strenuous than lift an umbrella drink while reading a book poolside.

 

This is the time to personalize your cruise experience—you can participate in any or all the activities scheduled onboard or do nothing more strenuous than lift an umbrella drink while reading a book poolside.

 

A bay bordered by steep hills, stately old Victorian homes, cable cars - no, it's not San Francisco, California. Welcome to Valparaiso. Populated in 1536, and named after the birthplace of conquistador Diego de Almagro, Valparaiso is Chile's oldest city. It is also the gateway to Chile's central valley and the capital of Santiago. With a population of over 5 million people, Santiago sprawls at the feet of the snow-capped Andes. The Maipo Valley, Chile's internationally renowned wine district is a short drive to the south.

 

A bay bordered by steep hills, stately old Victorian homes, cable cars - no, it's not San Francisco, California. Welcome to Valparaiso. Populated in 1536, and named after the birthplace of conquistador Diego de Almagro, Valparaiso is Chile's oldest city. It is also the gateway to Chile's central valley and the capital of Santiago. With a population of over 5 million people, Santiago sprawls at the feet of the snow-capped Andes. The Maipo Valley, Chile's internationally renowned wine district is a short drive to the south.

 

A bay bordered by steep hills, stately old Victorian homes, cable cars - no, it's not San Francisco, California. Welcome to Valparaiso. Populated in 1536, and named after the birthplace of conquistador Diego de Almagro, Valparaiso is Chile's oldest city. It is also the gateway to Chile's central valley and the capital of Santiago. With a population of over 5 million people, Santiago sprawls at the feet of the snow-capped Andes. The Maipo Valley, Chile's internationally renowned wine district is a short drive to the south.

 

Istanbul is supremely exotic, warmly welcoming, and quite unique – after all, where else can you tour Europe and Asia on the very same afternoon? Must sees include Haghia Sophia, decorated in 30 million tiny mosaic tiles, the greatest church in Christendom for 1000 years, then a mosque and now a museum; and Topkapi, palace of sultans, complete with harem quarters. And of course shopping in the Grand Bazaar, a medieval version of a mall, for unusual gifts to take home, stopping along the way in a café for a cup of Turkish coffee or mint tea.