After enough “day drinking” and visiting a giant mountain, the next leg of our trip around Argentina took us to El Calafate. Originally, we hadn’t thought much about this spot but then, while in Buenos Aires, we heard about the glacier and the beautiful country in that area and we started to get excited about our quick stop in El Calafate.
Getting to El Calafate
Our trip to El Calafate required two flights so we spent a leisurely day getting from Mendoza to El Calafate through Cordoba. We arrived in El Calafate while it was still light and the scenery and high mountains were beautiful. We also noticed something interesting while passing through the airports, you could take liquids with you through security. While we dumped our water, we started noticing that everyone else had full water bottles. I guess Argentina just rolls differently than the rest of the world.
Our stay in El Calafate was really only one day, bracketed by travel days. One getting to El Calafate and one getting to Ushuaia. I was concerned that we wouldn’t be spending enough time there but after our hike, I was satisfied that we had seen the highlights.
Hiking the Balconies
Our guide for the day kept referring to balconies and we weren’t really sure what he meant, we soon found out. While this wasn’t traditional hiking on dirt trails, we did spend the day walking more than 5 miles and going up and down more than 20 flights of stairs. At least according to my Pedometer application and it always underestimates the number of floors when I’m climbing stairs. I must admit that I felt new parts of my thighs for several days after this walk.
A funny name for 5-plus miles of up-and-down metal walkways, balconies are called that because they extend out over the land and water directly facing the glacier. These balconies provide an up-close view of the glacier in action. You can easily hear the creaking, groaning, and calving. We saw a giant piece of the glacier separate and fall into the water forming a large iceberg.
Perito Moreno Glacier
We visited Perito Moreno Glacier, which is part of Glacier National Park. The glacier is located in the high Andes between the Pacific Ocean and Lago Argentino, the lake where the town of El Calafate is located. The National Park comprises a landscape of mountains, lakes, and forests, including a vast portion of the Andes Mountains practically covered in ice and snow to the west and the arid Patagonian steppe to the east.
It owes its name to the presence of numerous glaciers that originate in the great Patagonian Ice Field – the largest ice sheet in the world after Antarctica – which occupies almost half of the Park. Also known as Patagonian Continental Ice, it feeds 47 large glaciers, of which 13 descend towards the Atlantic basin. In addition, there are more than 200 smaller glaciers, independent of the Patagonian Ice Field.
The view of the face of the glacier was absolutely fabulous. Some of the balconies were in line with the top of the glacier and some took us much lower down where the glacier enters the lake. This entire area is part of Patagonia, which is actually a huge area in southern Argentina.
We were fortunate enough to witness a huge calving event. Afterward, we kept watching and listening for another large calving but we didn’t see any more. Even so, just being that close to the glacier was incredible. It was a much richer experience than seeing the glaciers in Alaska. But, unfortunately, this glacier is receding at more than two meters per year. Over time, the face of the glacier will get further and further away from the balconies. You can see the amount the glacier has receded just by looking at the signs posted along the walkways.
See the glacier while you can. Patagonia is vast and varied and it was wonderful to see this unique part of it.
Boat Ride on the Lake
On the way to the glacier, our guide offered a boat ride on the lake so we could get even closer to the face of the glacier. In the morning it seemed like a good idea and we watched the boats all morning from the balcony. But when we finally got on the boat in the middle of the afternoon, our boat ride was disappointing. We barely got any closer to the glacier than we had been from the balconies and we didn’t seem to get very close to the face of the glacier. That experience certainly wasn’t worth the time or expense, and I do recall thinking it was expensive.
Our Day at the Perito Moreno Glacier
But aside from the disappointing boat ride, our day at the glacier was definitely worth the trouble getting there. I would tell you not to miss seeing the glacier if you are ever in the area. Here in Argentina, you can get closer to the glacier than we did in Alaska even though the glacier is receding at a rapid rate. Our guide showed us the areas that were once covered by glaciers and are now just dirt.
We really enjoyed spending time at the glacier, looking at the blue color, and the crevasses, and seeing how the glacier rolled back into the mountains toward its source. The entire day at the glacier was just a stunning experience.
What have your glacier experiences been like?
