El Calafate

El Calafate

In the morning we got the early bus to El Calafate.  And just to make me out to be a liar after my posting about the border crossings between Chile and Argentina, we made it through this one in just an hour and five minutes, which was a massive improvement on the previous times.

As we had only just managed to get the last couple of seats on a full bus, we figured we should buy our bus tickets for the next few trips as soon as we arrived, because undoubtedly everyone travelling with us, and those arriving on other buses, would have plans similar to ours.



Perito Moreno Glacier



We pottered around the town for a while before dinner, spotting another Dragoman truck along the way.  The town is largely one main street of restaurants, tour companies and souvenir shops, with residential areas and a few other bits off the edges.  However whilst this could be horribly tacky, it is actually quite nice.  A bit similar to Pucon, but even smaller.



Perito Moreno Glacier



The main purpose of being in El Calafate is to visit the Perito Moreno glacier in the nearby Los Glaciares National Park.  The glacier is one of the biggest advancing glaciers in South America.  The size of the glacier increases by one or two metres every day, but this is in part balanced by the fact that at the lower end, sections cleave off into the lake.  We were visiting this lower end of the glacier where it meets the lake.

Perito Moreno Glacier

We started off by taking a boat out to the face of the glacier.   The boat doesn't go right up to the edge, as the pieces come off without any notice and, as well as potentially landing on you, they can create some fairly big waves when the fall.

Perito Moreno Glacier



But still we were close enough to be able to appreciate the height of the glacier, which reaches well over 50 metres above the water, or the equivalent of a seventeen story building.  Including the section below the water the height is around 170 metres. We could see some people walking on the glacier and they looked like ants on it.

Perito Moreno Glacier



From the water, you could easily see the little caves that are created in the glacier and the different colours that form in it.  The deeper blue colours often appear where water runs through.  You can also see that the surface of the glacier is anything but smooth.  It is a multitude of jagged peaks and crevices, and you could spend hours just looking at the different shapes that the ice forms itself into.

Perito Moreno Glacier



After the boat trip we were dropped off closer to the glacier where you could see across the top of the glacier as it works its way down through the mountains.



Perito Moreno Glacier







The Perito Moreno is around 97 square miles in size.  The front edge is five miles wide.  We followed a series of walkways to get down nearer to the edge of it for some amazing views of the ice.



Ice breaking off the Perito Moreno Glacier

Ice breaking off the Perito Moreno Glacier

We could hear the ice creaking and groaning as it moved, and we were lucky enough to see a number of pieces break off and drop into the lake.  As they fall, they make a huge noise like a thunderclap, and then you see the waves spread out from the area where the piece fell.  Occasionally a piece must break off from below the waterline, as you see a swell of water and then a chunk of ice bobs to the surface.



Perito Moreno Glacier



Perito Moreno Glacier

This is one of those sights that is pretty much indescribable, and the pictures really don't do justice to the real thing, but I hope that they at least give you an idea of the magnificence of this huge glacier.



Perito Moreno Glacier