El Calafate and Glacier Perito Moreno

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Our next Austral stop is the small town of El Calafate. Perched on the bank of Argentina's largest lake - Lago Argentino, it is the gateway town to the Los Glaciares National Park and also doesn't provide a bad sunset either! The main draw for visiting this area is the magnificent Perito Moreno Glacier. Not being tired of glaciers, we yet again dug deep and forked out more pesos. Our visit enabled us to get up close and personal with this crawling giant.

While most glaciers on the planet are receding, Perito Moreno is amongst the very few that is actually classed as stable. In fact it is so 'stable' that its advancing at a rate of 2 metres a day. At 60m high, 5km wide and 30km long the glacier carves through the rock face, churning out the debris into the pristine blue Lago Argentino. As the mighty Perito Moreno advances, sheets of stark blue ice break off and crash into the waiting lake, the splendour coming complete with a rifle-pitched cracking, displaying the immense energy involved in these seemingly gentle fields of ice. Taking a boat trip up to the glacier gave us a closer look at the spires - it was as if you could almost see its emotions in the blue glow of its rugged appearance.

Patagonia has at every twist and turn delighted and amazed us. The going is fairly slow, the roads are pretty bad, weather totally unpredictable and the wind has always got something to say. The vastness of the area is indescribable, we've already seen so much but its just a tiny fraction of what this region contains. If it wasn't so expensive, hanging around for much longer would be a hard thing not to do. But thats exactly what we will do!!! Next up the Fitz Roy Massif!!
Full Photos on Flickr

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