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Published: April 21st 2007
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Petito Moreno Glacier
The mighty Moreno Glacier...check out how small the people are down the front! On a bus heading south, we´re not talking just a little bus ride, but one that involves 26 hours on the same damned bus. Luckily Argentina possess some of the nicest buses on the earth so it makes travelling a little more pleasant. We leave El Bolson and arrive in Rio Gallegos 26 hours later and too late at night to catch a connecting bus, so that night is spent in a family run hostel where I find myself cooking in the kitchen surrounded by Argentinian and I had to laugh at where the hell I was. The next morning we are on a bus heading towards a town called El Calafate, which is down the south of the country and back near the mountains. We are coming from the east where the country is really flat and boring and as we turn the corner there in the distance again is the Andes in all their glory with the sun shining. I arrive in Calafate and find the cheapest hostel in the country for hang in and then have a look around town only to decide to grab a bottle of wine and head to the lake and take it
all in. Ended up booking myself on a tour to see the glacier the next day, something that I usually don´t do but after talking to some people who told me it was one of the best deals and was a good price, I decided that I couldn´t be bothered having to go speak spanish and make a decision.....you live and learn from your mistakes. Next morning I wake to heavy rain and very grey skies and I was thinking that it was possibly the worst weather to try and see a glacier in. While I sat and had breakfast I was hoping that they would cancel, but they don´t like to cancel here and I was hoping that it was going to be a flop of a day. On the way to the Glacier the rain turned to snow and the guide gave us wonderful information about things we were supposed to be able to see out the window. Convinced that we were not going to see anything I got out of the bus and walked down to where we were going to catch a boat and too my suprise you could see a lot more than expected. We
took a boat out to about 50m from the glacier and sailed around there for an hour and other than having the coldest hands in the world, wish I had those damned gloves, the glacier was unbelievable. I am still struggling to be able to explain the whole glacier as it´s just a monster. The rest of the day was spent hanging out on the view platforms, learning how cold the human body can go as I was the only one not in wet weather gear, and watching this massive hunk of ice. It stopped snowing and raining the clouds did move on for a bit so we did manage to see quite a lot and the clouds just make it a lot more mysterious. The next day I get up early and head to the bus stop to move on but realise on the way there that my plans are not going to work. I change my mind and consequently can´t get on a bus until the next morning. So now I have a day to spare and in the time it took me to change my mind the sun had risen and given yet another sterling start to
Petito Moreno Glacier
Glacier Day 1, being a tourist! the day. The weather was great and the glacier was calling again, so I was left with the decision whether I wanted to just be happy with what I had seen and whether I wanted to spend more money....ahh the decision making process! Anyway I came to the decision that I was going to grab the Israel girl out of my room and we´d hitch to the glacier. Managed to get the second car that came along, who happened to be a guy who was working with the construction that was going on up at the glacier. This meant that he could drive straight past the entrance, helping us to avoid the entrance fee...the day was getting better. When we arrived at the glacier it was in full sunlight and absolutely amazing! So we spent the next coupla of hours hanging out and watch again this big hunk of ice...its amazing how long it can entertain you! I think I was just blown away by what the hell it is and that second day we had heaps of chunks of ice falling from the glacier. So its hard to describe the whole experience of seeing the glacier but here are
Petito Moreno Glacier
Hitching on day 2 with Mario the driver and Richeli some facts that might interest you.
*The glacier is in between 2 mountain ranges and as it snows the
snow gets trapped and packs down to form ice.
* It is about 50-60m high
* You can see for approximately 14km back up between the mountains
but it runs for about 28km
* The ice at the front of the glacier is 200 years old
* The glacier moves at 2m per day in the middle and 40cm on the
edges
* It is one of the only glaciers that is replacing itself at the same rate
that it is falling off
* It´s total size is the same size as Buenos Aires, with all its people,
cars, transport etc included
* About 257sq km
* Its possibly the most impressive thing I think I´ve ever seen!!!!!
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Caz
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AMAZING!!
Simply amazing (yet again!!)