Advertisement
Published: January 5th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Glaciar Perito Moreno
The semi-circle of ice in the water to the rear is caused by the wave created by a piece of ice calving off the face of the glacier With the realisation that we could easily spend a month cycling to reach the southern end of our next major destination, the Carretera Austral, and that that would eat into time we want to spend in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, we decided to take the bus from Ushuaia to El Calafate. Once through the mountains north of Ushuaia we were into flat plains that continue through the rest of Tierra del Fuego and all of Patagonia. What an awesome expanse, even from the capsule of an air-conditioned bus. It had Claire reminiscing about friends and travels in similar landscapes in the western plains and the gulf country of Queensland, and the Karoo in South Africa. The Patagonian steppe of plains broken by small, rounded hills looked like the folds of old brown velveteen for hundreds of uninterrupted kilometres. And everywhere there bloomed wildflowers. Guanacos (which are related to the camel) ran from vehicles across the plains; sheep and cattle looked up absently and returned to their grazing.
We were also lucky enough to see some endangered Commerson's dolphins (
Cephalorhynchus commersonii) playing in the bow wave of our ferry as we crossed the Strait of Magellan.
El Calafate was our
The face of Perito Moreno that feeds Lago Argentino
The glacier is fed from snows that fall on the western edge of the continent, and the river that drains the lake enters the sea on the eastern seaboard base for visiting the Perito Moreno glacier, which is at the southern end of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site that protects part of the Hielo Sur, or southern ice field, the largest body of ice outside the polar regions. The 30km long glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that seems not to be retreating. Periodically the glacier advances over the L-shaped Lago Argentino, forming a dam which separates the two halves of the lake when it reaches the opposite shore. With no escape route, the water-level on the Brazo Rico side of the lake can rise by up to 30 metres above the level of the main lake. The enormous pressure produced by this mass of water finally breaks the ice barrier in a spectacular rupture. This dam-rupture cycle is irregular. The last time the water broke through the front of the glaciar was in March 2004. Today there is just a small tunnel under the ice that allows the water to flow freely from one half of the lake to the other. The glacier is very active, advancing by up to 2m a day and losing ice (called "calving") off the face
at about the same rate. We witnessed 2 large calvings and numerous small ones during the 3 hours we were there.
While we were in this part of the world, we couldn't help but go trekking in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, a world-renowned park in the southern Hielo Sur that is reached from the Chilean town of Puerto Natales. We spent four days in the park, walking through one breath-taking landscape after another. The three spires of the Torres that the park is named for are certainly spectacular. They are only one of the treats on offer, as we discovered. Just as wonderful were the Cuernos., to say nothing of the milky turquoise lakes dotting the park and the glaciers. There are 105 species of birds in this park, and we enjoyed spotting condors, chilean flamingos, patagonian parakeets, and thousands of chirruping seed- and insect-eating birds. Again there were wildflowers everywhere. We didn't see the Torres because of cloud cover, but it didn't matter. Walking up the deep valley to the lookout to these peaks was an experience in itself. The change in terrain from the open, low hills into a steep, rock and scree-sloped valley filled with
One species of wildflower common to this part of southern Patagonia
We saw lots of these at Glaciar Perito Moreno and in Torres del Paine the noise of the Rio Ascencio rushing far below us and the wind that howled out of the valley hard enough to push us off balance at times reminded us all over again how insignificant humans are in the scheme of things. It was a magnificent few days.
Life in a harsh, beautiful landscape will be our theme for coming weeks. As we travel into more remote areas, communication with the outside world will become more difficult. ¡Hasta luego!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.128s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 10; qc: 19; dbt: 0.075s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Sheila
non-member comment
contrasts
Hi to you both, happy New Year. Just looking at your blog makes me feel cold, what a contrast to the temperatures you normaly enjoy at Christmas. Seems like we switched places, we left out cold climate for sunnier ones this year and you did the exact opposite. Good luck to you both on your travels wherever you are right now! Sheila