About half of the tourists and crew who were shipwrecked in the Antarctic this week have arrived in mainland Chile on a military transport plane.
The Chilean air force Hercules flew the group from their refuge on King George Island to the city of Punta Arenas.
The flight had been delayed by bad weather but a second plane is now on its way to complete the airlift.
The 154 tourists and crew had taken to lifeboats after their ship hit an iceberg on Friday and later sank.
The first Hercules flight arrived in Punta Arenas at about 2230 GMT carrying 77 of those rescued from the Explorer.
Some passengers whooped for joy and punched the air in relief as they stepped off the plane, the BBC's Gideon Long in Punta Arenas reports.
"I feel wonderful, very pleased to be alive," Danish tourist Jan Henkel, 42, who proposed to his girlfriend Mette Larsen after they survived the ordeal, told AFP news agency. "Everybody was afraid to die, I think."
"On the honeymoon, we will go to a warmer place, I think."
A Chilean air force spokesman said that while in the military barracks on King George, the tourists had been "doing very well and some of them have been in touch with their families via the internet".
Some 23 Britons, 17 Dutch and 13 Americans were among those on board the ship.
There were also 10 Australians and 10 Canadians and other nationalities included Irish, Danish, Swiss, Belgian, Japanese, French, German and Chinese, said Gap Adventures, the Toronto-based tour company. ( BBC )