Nick's Blog

After Iguazu, we headed south to Patagonia.  In fact, I believe our visit to El Calafate set a new personal record for “southern-most point traveled to.”  Look at where we were:

Probably wouldn’t have made the trip if the nearby Perito Moreno glacier hadn’t been featured in the 1000 Places to See Before You Die book.  It is one of the few “stable,” i.e. “non-retreating” glaciers in the world today.  The river of ice is more than 30 km long, and 5 km wide where it ends at Lake Argentino.  It advances up to 2 meters a day, and pieces routinely break off into the icy lake creating lots of icebergs our boat had to navigate through.

You could hear the ice cracking as it moved.  Each time we heard it we’d stop in our tracks and look to see if something was going to “calve” — fall off into the water.  We only saw a couple small pieces fall, but they were still very loud.  Would have been incredible to see a huge piece come off.

Patagonia is beatiful country.  Reminded me of Montana.

The glacier has an average height of 70 meters above water, plus an additional 100 meters below the lake surface.  And it’s just one of many in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, and nowhere near the largest.   It just happens to be the most easily accessible from civilization.

The town of El Calafate felt like a ski-town, but without snow or a ski-area.  I think mostly because it was cold and had cabins and cutesy storefronts.  If you go, we definitely recommend the America del Sur hostel — very nice place.

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