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Published: November 22nd 2007
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Visiting Superman
Its just like that part of the movie where he throws the crystal to make his fortress of solitude! Remember that? Here´s a riddle: What´s three times the size of Buenos Aires, sounds like thunder, and is surrounded by wild cows and pink flamingos?
The answer, of course, is ice.
"That´s it James," you may be thinking. "You´ve taken way too many busrides and you´ve finally snapped." And while you may be right about the bus rides - you haven´t truly learned Spanish until you´ve attempted to translate four Charles Bronson movies
in a row - I assure you that I am still of sound mind, and that the Perito Moreno Glacier, in all it´s strange and mind-boggling glory, does exist.
The
Parque Nacional Los Glaciers was a big draw for Suzanne and I, and the main reason why we had even picked Argentina in the first place. We have seen so many pictures and heard so much about the park that I was beginning to think there was no way it could live up to our expectations. The glaciers did not disappoint.
Our first trip into the vast city of ice was aboard a boat with 200 other tourists. Not our favorite way to sightsee, but when the scenery is so enormous it doesn´t really matter how
many people you´re with. The bus ride into the park was much the same way, with as many people as possible packed into a van to wait in a huge line to buy entrance passes. The journey there made up for it with scenery that snapped our sleepy eyes wide open. The flat plains of dry bushes and endless sheep quickly made way to toothy mountains made of rock and loose gravel, interupted by huge sky blue lakes. Something like a cross between Arizona and Alaska, this part of Patagonia definetly hangs with the big boys when it comes to "ruggedness."
Not much lives out here, except for foxes, guanacos, the ostrich-like rhea, and ....flamingos? All along the shallow edges of lakes and ponds the lanky pink birds with the scoops on their noses were bent over to eat something. I had always thought these guys like the shrimp of warm weather climates like Africa and Florida - what were they doing here? Even stranger was the sight of cows perched on outcroppings of rock high up in the cliffs. Let loose by ranchers when their land was claimed during the establishment of the park, these mountain goat wannabees
Big Cube
only 15% of the ice is showing above water. were now breeding on their own. We were actually told not to get too close if we encountered them as they were no longer domesticated livestock and now considered "wild cows."
The boat trip was an all day affair, mostly spent while our ultra-modern catamaran navigated the "Northern Arm" of the immense Lago Argentino. It wasn´t very long into the voyage before we spotted our first icebergs, which had now turned the lakes´s turquouise waters to a pale grey. This is known as "glacial milk", a result of mineral deposits from the melting ice swirling into the lake like coffee creamer. As we moved farther down the arm, the icebergs grew to Titanic sinker size, and revealed caves where holes bore deep into the neon-blue hearts of decades old ice. Amazingly, the 3 to 4 story tall cliffs of visible iceberg we saw only reveal about 15 percent of their size, hiding their true immensity in the cloudy water below.
Our scenery became more and more extreme as we pushed through what was now becoming an increasingly crowded parking lot of ice. The mountains, now covered in dense conifers, grew taller until their summits were obscured by a
constant haze of snow. It was always snowing up there. The sheer weight of the buildup would eventually form into super dense, deep-blue ice, and gravity would begin to slowly pull it down from it´s mountain home toward the water´s edge....
The catamaran unloaded us on the edge of what looked like your typical haunted forest: very old and gnarled trees covered in the eerie, light-green fur of "old man´s beard". A smaller boat that had arrived before us had thrown a rope around the top of a small iceberg that floated to close to the dock, and was slowly dragging it to a safer distance. Our huge numbers were divided into smaller groups, and we began the march towards our first glimpse of a glacier. The path followed a fast moving river that connected two lakes, and it make for such picture-perfect scenery that I couldn´t stop pressing the buttons of my camera. Somewhere into the 16th photo, I spotted large shadows lurking in the trees on the other side of the river. A chill ran down my spine and my legs were frozen in fear. It was the dreaded wild cows, staring at me with the eyes
Really Cold Scenery
It is really important to dress warmly when visiting a lake full of icebergs. of calculating killers while they chewed their cud and planned their savage attack.
Our group reached the iceberg lake just in time for lunch, and Suz and I hid behind a boulder to limit our exposure to the wind. The snow factories high up in the mountains blew hard on top of us, picking up a bone-chiling cold off the lake packed with icebergs. The Spegazzini glacier lay like a road of ice in the distance, crawling it´s way up the mountain to it´s place of birth. All the floating ice had broken off it´s face and now fed the lake, which fed the river, which fed the Lago Argentino. Seems like an awfully long process to create a body of water, but it sure was beautiful to see.
Back in the boat, we again zig-zagged in between floating islands of ice to see the highlight of the day, the Upsala Glacier. If the Spegazzini was a road of ice, this was the superhighway. Three times the size of the city of Buenos Aires, Upsala´s ice formations went as far back into the mountains as the eye could see. It was so large, that it swallowed up the
Upsala Glacier
Three times the size of Buenos Aires mountains around it. By Suz´s estimation, it was enough ice to make at least 42,000,000,000,000,016 frozen margaritas. As the boat crept up to the edge, our perspective changed even more. The glacier was at least 15 stories tall, meaning that each column that broke off was the size of an office building. Suz and I were just blown away by how enormous it was. There are few things that can douse the fiery intensity of the ego with enough humility to cause a person to feel completely insignificant. This is one of them.
The next day we were able to get even closer with a visit to the Perito Moreno Glacier, which advances every 4 years to ram itself into the observation point. Being so close we were able to see the amazing colors of the glacier, which ranged from glassy white to black crevices caused by decades of scraping against mountains. The view over the top was just like dropping by Superman´s neighborhood; jagged pillars of ice criss-crossed all the way into the horizon. We spent the afternoon running around the different levels and waiting for cataclysmic events to happen.
The great thing about Perito Moreno -
other than being able to get so close to it - is that it´s a really fast moving glacier. At two meters per day, you are guaranteed that a big chunk will break off while you are there. And the only thing more amazing than watching something the size of a house fall into a lake, is hearing the sound of it. High-pitched snaps and the sound of shattering glass keep you in suspense, as the glacier constantly adjusts it´s weight and tries to get comfortable as it crawls along. Then with an enormous
crack!, the slow-motion fall is swallowed by the water in a deafening thunder that echoes off the mountains. This is then followed by the tinkling sound of all the small, shattered pieces hitting the surface. I guess you could say it is like a very short thunderstorm. It is addictive once you´ve experienced it, and after awhile you realize you´ve been staring at a wall of ice for 3 hours in anticipation.
The Parque Nacional Los Glaciers was on of those things that make the headache of travel worthwhile. Even if we had been forced to eat grilled Spam sandwiches everyday to get here, it
Spegazzini Glacier
It originates in the mountain, then runs down to the water. would still have been worth it. It gets you into that whole "we´re a tiny part of something bigger" mindset, and has the power to alter your perspective on a lot of different issues in life. "Maybe my neighbor doesn´t have to mow his lawn more fequently," or "maybe I don´t need that new 57" TV". Or maybe even Charles Bronson´s movies aren´t all that bad after all.
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ryan
non-member comment
42,000,000,000,000,016 frozen margaritas...that's big time. those pictures are amazing. what an experience. careful of the cows. love you.