Thursday 10/01 - Los Glaciares National Park:After a good night's sleep, we got up at the crack of dawn and prepared for our 7:30 pickup. Today we were going to visit Los Glaciares National Park located approximately 40 miles to the west of El Calafate and bordering Chile on its western edge. It's one of the largest national parks in Argentina and the host to several huge glaciers the most famous of which Perito Moreno. While not necessarily the largest (it's approx 100 square miles), Perito Moreno is the most accessible and therefore visited glacier in the park. With Hielo y Aventura being the only operator to offer trekking tours on the glacier, we just had to decide between the two tours they offer, mini-trekking and big-ice. Essentially it's the same excursion with the difference being the amount of time spent on the ice. Since we're not the most active people, we decided to play it safe and stick with the mini-trekking tour offering 1.5 hour on the ice for 1,500 ARS PP including transportation from El Calafate.
After covering ourselves in more layers than I can remember, we were picked up at the hotel and started
hakufes picking up tourists from all over town. We then switched over to a comfy coach bus and headed out of the city on route 11. The sweeping views kept us entertained during the 1 hour drive. Upon entering the park, a couple of rangers entered the bus to collect the admission fee (ARS: 160-Argentinians / 200-
Mercosur / 260-everyone else). They asked my wife where she's from (Mercosur) and then doubled that for our total. 60ARS FTW...
Views along route 11:
From the park entrance it was another 1/2 hour drive to their boat landing where we embarked on one of their boats for a 15 minute ride across the south arm of lake Argentino, Brazo Rico. During the ride we got our first view of Perito Moreno.
Note that this rises approx. 200-250 feet above the water!
Upon arrival to the other side of the lake we were given a couple of minutes to use the restrooms and organize what we wanted to take along for the trek or leave behind in their cabin. They also offered cheap knit gloves for anyone that hasn't brought along their own, as it's quite important to prevent cutting your hands while on the glacier. We then started the approx. 1/2 hour walk towards the glacier starting with a boardwalk and then crossing some sort of beach no less. Our guide would stop every couple of minutes to point out this and that, like how we were closer to the Pacific Ocean than to the city of El Calafate at this point.
The weather was beautiful, with no cloud in sight. According to our guide, the glacier only sees about 5 days a month with weather like this. Although cold, the wind was quite calm. It was the perfect day for trekking.
Near the glacier they had a couple of small wooden sheds where they got everyone fitted with crampons and taught us how to climb and descend the glacier (all I remember is that it resembles penguins...), and off we went. At first it felt like I was going to slip any second, but after a while you get the hang of it.
Crampons!
Groups before us starting their climb:
We spent almost 2 hours on the ice, and every minute of it was fun. Exploring crevasses, drinking the purest water imaginable (and freezing our hands off doing it...) and simply enjoying the scenery. The guides showed us a 3-4 story moulin while holding onto us, letting us bend over to see how deep it goes - #Argentina.
Makeshift stairway:
3-4 story moulin:
Same moulin from a couple of feet out:
Towards the end they served whiskey with freshly chipped ice right from the source and some chocolates. They were cleaning the glasses in between tours with some more whiskey...
Heading back:
The town is named after this bush - The Calafate:
After getting back to the cabins we we're given some time to eat lunch and then were taken back to the other side of the lake where we got back on the bus for a short drive to the walkways (catwalks) where we got about an hour to walk around and explore on our own. We saw some ice calving (you have to be quick to get a picture in) and after a while we were back on the bus heading back to town.
Views from the walkways:
Just an interesting note about Perito Moreno; it’s one of a few glaciers in the world that are receding and growing at the same rate and mostly in a state of balance overall. Every couple of years the glacier advances so much that it reaches the land separating brazo rico (southern arm) from the rest of the lake thus creating a natural dam (this wasn't the case when we were there). With no way out, the water in the dammed section rises as much as 30 meters until eventually the increased pressure eats away at the ice creating a hole for the water to pass through and leaving an ice bridge on top. After a while more and more of the ice calves and eventually the entire bridge comes crashing down which is a spectacular scene. See these videos for the last collapse this past March.
Back in town, we took a stroll along the edge of the lake next to Laguna Nimez and enjoyed the flamingos from afar. We couldn't get close to them as that area is full of swamps.
We then headed back to the hotel where we had a couple of hours to kill until our flight which I used to get some rest while DW took advantage of the blue dollar situation and got a 1/2 hour hot stone massage for the equivalent of $20. At 12:00 midnight we were picked up by the shuttle and returned to the airport for just another delayed and uneventful Aerolíneas flight back to Buenos Aires.
FTE:
Adios, El Calafate:
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