Blogs from Perito Moreno Glacier, Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America - page 6

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Fresh from finishing the W trek on Monday afternoon (and happy to have managed to shower and clean some clothes before leaving), I bid farewell to Chile and left for El Calafate, Argentina at 7am on Tuesday morning. El Calafate is really just a base for trips out to see the glacier, Perito Moreno, which until recently was one of the world's last advancing glaciers. Unfortunately global warming has now even got to this one and it is neither advancing nor receding now. Anyway the town has really only grown because of tourists coming for the glacier and I think our guide said the town has had 500% growth in population in the last 10 years and loads of jobs have been created from the tourism. So at least that´s one good thing, I suppose. We ... read more
Perito Moreno Glacier
me and the glacier


Een epische tocht van 36 uren door de leegte die Patagonië heet brengt ons in El Calafate. We rijden door een heel erg ontoegankelijke en monotone streek. Uren verstrijken zonder dat het landschap verandert. Indommelen, terug wakker worden en geen idee hebben hoe lang je weg geweest bent. Buiten is er niets veranderd. Nog steeds dezelfde vegetatie: wat stug gras en doornige struikjes. Geen bomen in deze contrei. De planten hier zijn echte overlevers. We zijn in El Calafate om de gletsjer Perito Moreno te zien. Deze rivier van ijs en sneeuw die langzaam naar beneden stroomt is gigantisch. Wat cijfers: de gletsjer is 30km lang, aan het einde is hij 4km breed, steekt hij gemiddeld 60m boven het water uit en de hoogte van het ijs is daar 170m. De gletsjer beweegt aan 2m/dag en ... read more
PM2
PM3
PM4


Not a great start to the day. I'd forgotten to set the alarm and awoke 10 mins before we were due to be picked up. Fair to say I wasn't popular, but the benefits of a low maintenance hair style was clear. Got ready in approximately 9.3916282 mins just in time for the bus. The bus however, wasn't made by the Swiss and turned up over 2 hours later. By this time we'd at least grabbed some breakfast and had read all the leaflets in reception as well as instruction guide for the TV. The bus drive to the glacier felt more like Scotland. Dense forest and torrential rain. The sun cream seemed optimistic, it looked like we were going to get properly soaked. However, as quickly as the rain rolled in, it rolled out again. ... read more
Oh aye its good like
Wife and ice
Team portrait - with ice


Perito Moreno Glacier The highlight around El Calafate, this windswept part of Argentina, is the Perito Moreno Glacier. It´s located in the Los Glaciares National Park, and it´s an arm from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. This Icefield is the third largest extension of continental ice after Antarctica and Greenland!! It´s 350 km long and has an area of 16 800 km2. Boerge Ousland crossed this ice field in 2003, with Thomas Ulrich. They started in Tortel, Chile, and walked for 54 days down to Puerto Natales. They covered 460 km! This was the first expedition without any after-supplies. The Perito Moreno Glacier is 250 km2, 30 km in lenght and 5 km wide in the front! It can be as high as 60-70 meter above the water surface, and 170 meter deep in total. In ... read more
Estancia´s
Steppe-land
Steppe-land


Letadlem jsem se presunul pres nekonecnou plan argentinsky pampy dal na jih do Calafate, abych usetril 2 dny cesty pustinou v autobuse. Hned na letisti se me zeptala jedna pani jestli se nechci podelit o taxika do mesta, a tak jsem poznal moje 3 spolubydlici na dalsi 3 noci. Viviana, 47 leta z Buenos Aires, Gaby od tamtez a Miriam z Izraele. El Calafate je zastrceny predrazeny mestecko uprostred pustiny, jehoz jedinym vyznamnym plusem je poloha vedle ledovce Perito Moreno, kam miri davy z cely Patagonie. Spolecne jsme nasli hostel a objednali si cestu na ledovec. V Chile jakoz i v Argentine jsou uplne normalni dvoji ceny. Nikdo se nad tim nepozastavuje a nezda se, ze by s tim nekdo chtel neco delat. Letenky proto pro cizince stoji 2x tolik co pro mistni a vstupy do ... read more
Perito Moreno
Perito Moreno
Perito Moreno


Unsere Reise ging weiter von Puerto Natales nach El-Calafate, zurueck nach Argentinien. Heute war ich im Nationalpark Los Glaciares und habe mir Gletscher angeschaut. Es war hier ziemlich windig und es treibt einem immer wieder die Traenen in die Augen. Nicht durch die Sonne und die tolle Aussicht, sondern durch den aufgewirbelten Sand und Staub. Die Gletscher sind schon echt riesig. Sie schieben sich wie eine Riesenflut durch die Berge, eingefroren in einem Augenblick, die Enden des Gletschers broeckeln im Flug der Zeit. Ein lautes Aechzen waechst zu einem donnernden Krachen heran, immer wieder, bis wie zur Erloesung ein riesiger Eisblock im aufwirbelnden Wasser eintaucht und langsam von dannen zieht. Bilder von den anderen drei Gletschern, die fuer mich ungleich schoener waren, kann ich leider nicht liefern, da ich vergessen hatte, meinen Ersatzakku aufzuladen. Wie das ... read more
Riesig schiebt sich der Gletscher zwischen den Bergen hindurch
Ein Eisblock bricht ab....
...faellt ins Wasser....


Today was even cooler than yesterday. We set off for the mini-trek in a large tour bus, and headed towards the Perito Moreno Glacier. We had read that this was the crown jewel of the National Glacier Park, but it was hard to believe it could be more spectacular than the glaciers we saw on our boat trip. But it was - more beautiful and just more impressive all the way around. First we got out where all the viewing balconies are on the shore of the lake, where you can see one side of the glacier from a safe distance. What views! We had a couple hours to walk around, view from many angles, eat lunch. Each day as we have eaten lunch sitting in front of glaciers, we both really took this in. I ... read more
close up
Glacier view 2
Glacier view 3


We arrived in El Calafate on a mission to see some ice, the bigger: the better! After traipsing around town and coming to a realisation that this is truly an expensive place, we settled on a one day tour to the main attraction in town: the Perito Moreno Glacier. The Perito Moreno Glacier is located in the Los Glaciares National Park and is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field located in the Andes system (this icefield is the world's third largest reserve of fresh water behind Antartica and Greenland). Interestingly, the Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. The Glacier is 5 km wide, with an average height of 60 meters above the surface of the water. At its deepest part, the glacier has a depth ... read more
Ice calving off the glacier
Jules at Glacier Perito Moreno
North face of Perito Noreno Glacier


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 ... read more
Iceberg Cave
Big Cube
Creepy Forest


Bye Bye whales! We are now in El Calafate, home to the Perito Moreno Glacier. It moves forward 2 metres per day. Incredible!!! Especially when you hear about all the global warming problems. The icefield where this glacier comes from produces 1 third of the whole world´s fresh water. A lot of people who we met along the way told us about the sight and we were rally excited to see it, but it´s only when you get there that you realise about how massive it is and how small we are. There are no words that can describe it. A few facts: It is 250 square Km, 32km long, 4km wide, 60m high and in places, it is 700m deep. As we got there, we saw it from a distance, like 5km away, and the ... read more
Andean Condor flying
The Glacier
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