The Perito Moreno Glacier; Awesome, Incredible and Well Untruly Breathtaking

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Feeling surprisingly refreshed and ready to go after our bus ride down from El Bolson we were keen to make the most of our time in El Calafate, all of the two days we had.

The first day was almost a write off after arriving into the town at 1.30pm, then getting to the hostel, sorting out our things and of course showering. It left us a few hours in the afternoon to do a couple of things. First and foremost to do our very routine scan around the town to see what was is on offer and have a look in the abundance of expensive outdoor shops, including a very tempting sale at a Patagonia store. The chocolatiers carried on in El Calafate too, the main difference was that this chocolate tasted amazing! We spent more than we would have liked to in the two days here on all kinds of chocolaty goodness. Even the Swiss would like it.

After the hour long scan of the town we ventured to the 'recommended' wildlife reserve; teeming with flamingos, birds of prey and water birds. It was a good job it wasn't a long walk and prepare for disappointment if you ever go there. There was a solitary flamingo and a couple of ducks, so we refused to pay to go into the sparsely populated swamp instead taking a look from the roadside. A wise move from what we heard from people who went in. Within the afternoon we had seen everything in the town, the main reason for coming was to be seen the following day.

One of our lovely room mates set an alarm for 5.50am and then considerately chose to snooze it until, at the earliest, 7.30am with it going off every 5 minutes. It wouldn't have been half bad if the alarm was a song but he had the full on air raid siren alarm. He made no friends that morning and was in for an ear bashing if he was their the second night. We were up therefore with plenty of time to make sandwiches and have a long breakfast before hopping aboard the 8am bus to the Perito Moreno glacier.

Pfffft, another glacier! New Zealand had glaciers that took our breathe away however Argentina has this glacier that will knock even a hardened geologist over. As we approached the glacier on the bus, it looked enormous, spanning across the whole valley and going 14km back into the mountains. This alone would have been impressive however this was only half of it. As we rounded the last bend, the entirety of the terminal wall was on display spanning 5-6km across and averaging 60m high. No matter how many photos we took nothing could put into scale just how big it is.

So the bus dropped us off, along with everyone else, at 10am and wasn't to return until 4pm. What the hell are you suppose to do at a glacier for 6hours, especially when all you can do is look at it, take photos and poddle on some of the 6km walkway. It turned out 6 hours was not enough. All of our time was spent looking at this unbelievable face, receding in summer at a rate of 2m a day. Somehow, even when receding at 2m a day it is the only growing glacier in the world and definitely doesn't look like its getting smaller any time soon. But 2m a day is a lot meaning that huge chunks of ice are constantly falling, often the size of a car but once or twice a day the size of a multi storey building. A poor mans cinema, showing a film fit for a king.

Once we had finished the walkways, we picked a spot to stand, camera poised and waited for the once or twice a day occurrence. All the time, the glacier was creaking, rumbling and making noises that make your hairs stand on end. We met a couple from Australia and ended up betting on two huge chunks of ice as to which would fall first. His was bigger than mine, but mine had more action happening (talking about the glacier here!). Their bus was at 2pm, giving us a two hour betting window and plenty of time to get to know each other. He was a geologist so this was his bread and butter, but I had a good feeling about my chunk. And then it happened......a couple of little (car sized!) blocks broke off from the side of my chunk and suddenly the whole 60m high, 10m wide slab crashed into the water. The sound was unbelievable, all the smaller break offs made a huge bang but this sounded like a bomb exploding followed by all the associated tremors of the waves hitting the nearby icebergs. The initial splash put the John Smith Cannonball to shame. I've no idea how big it would have been but it caused a rainbow to form at the foot of the splash, and we got it all on camera. It was worth every minute of the wait, to see something that huge, fall from the face and of course to win the bet!! Neither the pictures nor the description will do it justice, but this is one thing in the whole of our trip that we will not forget. Unreal!

For the remaining two hours we waited and watched more massive pieces of ice slide away in front of us but their bit never fell. It looked like it would have in the next couple of hours however we will never know, when it does though, the noise and sight of it will be amazing. I'm very jealous of all the people who will see it.

It cost us £40 (275 pesos) each to get there and to enter the national park, which at the time seems a ridiculous amount to not really do anything for 6 hours. Knowing what you actually see and experience there, I would pay it again tomorrow and be more than happy to do so.

To top it off on the way back, we saw our first of hopefully many, condor. The biggest bird of prey in the world with a wingspan frequently over 3m, standing up to 1m off the ground. He was a fair way off but without a shadow of a doubt a condor. Fingers crossed we will get closer to the next and in reach of a good photo.

The Perito Moreno Glacier; awesome, incredible and well untruly breathtaking.........go!!!

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