El Calafate & the famous glaciar!

---

When closing in on El Calafate the change in landscape is breathtaking, you are suddenly surrounded by endless turquoise lakes and beautiful mountains. We booked our hostel before we arrived, just for two nights as the Perito Moreno Glaciar is the only real attraction near the quaint town. America del Sur was another great hostel; amazing views, great staff and spacious rooms. We booked a bus to the glaciar for the next day, we decided not to do the boat tour or the mini-trek on the glaciar due to our fairly tight budget! We then made a very cheap tuna salad for dinner and spent the first night with people we met on the bus.

The next day the bus, which takes an hour and a half, left the terminal at 13.00. The view of the huge glaciar on the drive down to the entrance is magnificant!! Once the entrance fee is paid you are free to walk around the many different walkways and platforms for about 5 hours until the bus back to Calafate at 19.30. We began at the top of the walkways, marvelling over the sheer size and beauty of the glaciar, when we heard an almighty cracking sound which sounded like thunder. Instantly we decided to head down for a closer look. For hours we waited around, poised to get photos of ice falling, and managed to snap a fair few smallish chunks falling off.

Eventually we got cold and decided to wander around to the other side of the walkways, near where the remnants of the famous ice bridge stood. Once there, we heard creaking, so started filming the glaciar hoping we would catch some ice falling much closer up. The creaking got louder and more frequent until small pieces began to fall, suddenly the entire face we were looking at broke off and fell dramatically into the water below, creating huge waves and an unbelivable noise!

The glaciar was absolutely amazing, uncomparable to anything we have ever seen before! We were very lucky with the weather and ended up with hundreds of great photos of the glaciar!



Tips:

- We chose to go in the afternoon due to the increased chance of seeing huge chunks of ice crash into the water below because they have been heated all day long in the sun. So if you decide not to do an arranged tour and just get the bus there, we would definitely recommend the later bus.

---