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Published: November 29th 2010
We arrived in El Chalten and decided to christen our stay with some traditional Argentinian steak and vino tinto before setting out the next day on our designated “extreme activity” for the town – trekking on the Viedma glacier!! We took a boat ride out in front of the glacier, in howling winds, and took a few snaps before disembarking, strapping on the crampons and hitting the glacier. A little like Bambi at the beginning, we soon got the hang of walking on ice and were off exploring the glacier, whilst trying not to get blown off it!! Unfortunately the wind was so strong we didn’t go right to the top, but the views were spectacular nonetheless. A guide doing some ice climbing with the rest of our group was literally blown off the face of the ice wall she was scaling, so needless to say we were happy to stay a little out of the wind!!
The colours up there were incredibly vivid, the scenery spectacular, and as if that wasn’t enough we were treated to a little glass of baileys on ice – straight from the glacier!!
After a night in the local micro-brewery, we headed to
El Calafate, where we took a day trip to the amazing Moreno Glacier, one of the only expanding glaciers in the world. The glacier is a massive 5 kilometres wide, with an average height of 74 m above the surface of the water of Lake Argentino and a total ice depth of 170 metres.
As the glacier is constantly moving and growing, with pressure building from the back as more ice comes down the valleys, the front of the glacier is constantly breaking off and falling. It has to be said that seeing the glacier is only half the experience – listening to the constant creaking and crashing of the glacier is incredible, and we were lucky enough to see a couple of enormous chunks come down, completely changing the face of the glacier and the movement of the water below. There is a really well developed boardwalk system to view the glacier from loads of different vantage points, which we spent a couple of hours wandering before jumping on a boat and getting up close and personal with the face of the glacier. To date, the Moreno Glacier really stands out as one of the most amazing things
we have seen this trip - a truly stunning natural wonder!!!
From here we are heading back to Chile to Torres del Paine National Park, where we hope to update you again!!
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Annie
non-member comment
Wow!
So jealous! Looks like you're having an amazing time over there! Love the photos and updates... keep 'em coming :-) Can't wait to see you when you finally reach Sydney! LOL xx