From a base in El Calafate, in southwest Patagonia on the Chilean border, we explored Los Glaciares National Park. The five glaciers we saw there are clustered around the vividly turquoise Lago Argentino, the largest lake in the country. Nothing had prepared us for the spectacle we found there! Though technically inanimate, the glaciers and the massive frozen forms that constantly fall from them did truly seem to be life forms. As we watched, they moaned, split, and released mountainous segments into the lake, each with a thundering splash that caused several minutes of high wake. Our boat pulled close to the stunning aquamarine icebergs that resulted, some many times larger that the 200-passenger catamaran we were riding. The icebergs, too, seemed fully animated. They heaved, sighed, and turned, sometimes displaying rivulets of water streaming and
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