Blogs from Perito Moreno Glacier, Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America - page 9

It was obvious as soon as we had arrived into El Calafate that we had found one of the those super tacky touristy places that we try to avoid and we immediately wanted to go back to the cosy little mountain village of El Chalten. Unlike in El Chalten where tourists have to hike to see the glaciers, here in El Calafate you are driven to the glacier (it is 80km away so hiking is a little out of the question for a day trip!) which is possibly why it attracts lots of tour companies - arggh! The Perito Moreno Glacier attracts tourists by the coach load due to its stunning beauty, accessability and activity. In fact the Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the most active glaciers in the world, so tourists such as ... read more

Flying to Calafate, we had our first glimpse of glacial milk, greenish-blue opaque water that resembles some kind of artificial colouring-laden icing. It's somewhat healthier, however; this shade is a result of mineral input from the glaciers. We later discovered that the "milk" has even spawned an ice-cream flavour in a convincing turquoise hue. But enough about ice-cream for the moment and back to the natural wonders of Patagonia. The town of Calafate is a handy base for visiting the southern part of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Located on the Lago Argentino, the third largest lake in all of South America, the park is home to the Upsala, Spegazzini, Agassiz, Onelli and Perito Moreno glaciers, amongst others. Boat trips allow you to get up close to the glaciers and freeze your bits off on deck ... read more

El Calafate is the home of a great Glacier, Pertito Moreno. The Glacier calves regularly which means huge blocks of ice the size of cars or bigger regularly fall off into the lake causing huge waves. It is very exciting to watch, as it is preceeded by a thunderous rumble. The Glacier itself is beautiful, great towers of blue ice, 60 metres high, jagged against the beautiful background of the lake and the mountains. We were lucky while I was there because a large piece of ice from underneath the Glacier broke off and emerged from under the water like a blue whale, as it is the underneath ice it was a completely different colour, like aqua jelly and it was so incredible, like watching supermans house rise from the crystal depths. I traveled to the ... read more

From Puerto Natales (Chilean Patagonia), we did a day trip across the Argentinian border to Glaciares National Park, containing 350 glaciers including the most famous, Perito Moreno. It is one of the only glaciers in the world that is not receding. For the last few years, it´s been in equilibrium - growing 2 metres a day but also receding 2 metres a day. The border crossing - our first of many dodgy overland crossings - was quite funny as there´s just a little hut and they don´t even bother checking your bags!! Argentina are much slacker than Chile, we didn´t even need to get off the bus. The Moreno glacier is breathtaking - 5 kms wide at the front and rising 60m above the water, and 200m below. You can feel the cold of the ice ... read more

Visiting this UNESCO World Heritage site was a highlight of the trip (see Route 40 for more description). The drawings are mostly of the outline of hands, and of the 800 some hands, only 40 are of right hands (meaning they were painted using the left hand). The drawing also include hunting scenes of guanaco, guanaco and women giving birth, armadillos, and maps. They used iron oxides for the red, gypsum and clay for the white, manganese oxides for black, and copper for green color.... read more