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Published: April 8th 2009
El Calafate
El Calafate is a small village (population 6,000) in Patagonia. Its economy is almost solely driven by tourism, as it lies on the borders of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the second largest park in Argentina. An aside, this park contains a giant ice cap in the Andes range that feeds 47 large glaciers. This is the largest ice cap outside of Antarctica and Greenland and is the world's third largest reserve of fresh water.
El Calafate´s streets are lined with many trees and wooden buildings, making it quite a quaint place. There are many, many restaurants, hotels, curio and sports gear shops, all focused on the masses of tourists that flock to Patagonia in the summer months.
We only stayed for three nights, as our aim was to see Perito Moreno Glacier, a major attraction of the area. We met an incredibly nice Brazilian, from the town of Florianopolis, called Eduardo. He speaks mainly Portuguese, us halting Spanish, but amazingly enough we managed to communicate and understand one another (not without the aid of many hand gestures). We hope to be able to visit him in Brazil one of these
days.
Perito Moreno Glacier
The
Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. The face of the glacier is 5km wide, with an average height of 60m above the surface of the water and a total ice depth of 170m. Its surface area is 250 km2. It’s bloody impressive to behold!
We took a guided tour from El Calafate to the glacier for the day. It is a bit of a drive, but at least a scenic one. We drove along the shore of Lago Argentino, the largest lake in Argentina. The lake has beautiful turquoise, sometimes baby blue waters and a few icebergs floating on it from the glaciers. Arriving at the glacier, we had a few hours to watch it from platforms, then a trip on a boat to the edge of the glacier.
Standing in front of this natural wonder, is an amazing experience. This is truly the single most impressive natural wonder the both of us have ever witnessed, including Galapagos. The glacier is just absolutely huge. Its colours vary from eye-hurting white to a whole palette of amazing blues and grays. It makes incredible groaning and creaking noises, as
it advances at a speed of 2m per day. This amount is also shed into the lake, when the face cannot carry the weight of the ice any more. Massive, impressive ruptures occur, hurling huge portions of ice into the lake, sounding like thunder. We were lucky enough to witness two of these ruptures, one quite large. We only managed to photograph the aftermath, unfortunately.
The sounds emanating from the glacier are, as mentioned above, incredibly loud. There were regular thunderous noises from ice collapsing inside a cave on the edge of the glacier, us seeing only the waves that resulted from this.
On the boat, the glacier looked even more impressive than from the platform. The platform has the advantage of being high, so one can see the entire glacier and its surface, giving one brilliant views. On the boat, however, one only sees this wall of ice looming 100m ahead, and one simply feels dwarfed. The small photos posted here cannot possibly do this sight any justice.
There is not much more to say about El Calafate or Perito Moreno, except: Go there if you possibly can!
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Andy
non-member comment
Hi Ber & LM
Hey there guys. WOW!!! What an amazing experience!! I am truly jealous, it must be an awesome sight. It is so lovely to see your photos and what you are up to. Sorry I have not emailed in a bit. Keep safe, keep warm and have fun! Miss you lots, Andy xx