The Perito Moreno Glacier

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Hola,

We left El Chalten, albeit with some regret, and bussed passed Estancia Helsingfors (obviously some Swedes have made it to Patagonia) and we arrived in El Calafate.

El Calafate is a rather boring town, but the hostel we are at, America del Sur, has a good view of the town and the lake that it is on. Also, the main street is quite pretty and it has a very nice log cabin village where people can buy souvenirs. The town itself is on Lago Argentino. The lake looks a bit like an octopus on its side. The name "El Calafate" comes from a berry which, if eaten, guarantees a person's return to Patagonia. The berry comes from the Spanish word "calafatear" which means to waterproof. Sailors used to use the wood of the plant the berry comes from to rebuild their ships. There is your brief history lesson for the day.

The reason we are here is to see Glacier Perito Moreno. The glacier is named after Perito Moreno, who was the father of Argentinian national Parks. He was quite the significant guy as he also has a lake, a town, a mountain and the aformentioned glacier named after him. We were picked up by our tour and driven to the glacier which is in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. The views of the snow-covered mountains and Lago Argentino were spectacular. We were dropped off at the boat launch where we took an hour boat cruise out to the glacier. The thing is huge! It is easily the biggest glacier that either of us had ever seen and it is expanding by 2 metres a day. During its advance, it blocks off one of the arms of the lake, causing the water level in that part to rise. After a couple of years, the pressure builds up to immense proportions and forces the area blocking it to rupture, causing a massive crashing of ice into the lake. Unfortunatly, there was already a small rupture in the arm so it would not calve spectacularly when we were there but we did get to see many icebergs floating in the water as well as some ice breaking off and crashing into the water. It is really cool because there are after the boat, we arrived at the end of the penninsula across from the glacier and one can watch the glacier from a series of boardwalks that each afford different perspectives and excellent views. Basically, you sit there and watch the glacier and wait for the ice to break off. It sounds boring but is actually a surreal experience. When ice did break off, it was always accompanied by a thunderous cracking sound before smashing into the lake below. Visiting Perito Moreno glacier was incredible!


Bye for now,
Peter and Valerie

Things we learned in El Calafate:
-Glacial water is cold. Who'd have thunk it?
-Watching a glacier for hours is more entertaining than it sounds
-Argentinians really can't do math

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