20 Perito Moreno glacier

Holidays and short breaks
Argentina (2001)
Chile (2002)
India (2003)
World trip (2005-2006)
Libya (2008)

Pictures
1 Croydon to Paris
2 Paris to Iguazú
3 Yacutinga
4 Yacutinga
5 Yacutinga
6 Iguazú
7 Salta
8 Purmamarca
9 Bariloche
10 Bariloche
11 Puerto Blest
12 The long walk
13 Pesca a la trucha
14 Paragliding
15 Ushuaia
16 The end of the road
17 Tierra del Fuego NP
18 Beagle Channel
19 Tren del fin del mundo
20 Perito Moreno glacier
21 Upsala and horse-riding
22 4x4 adventure
23 Hot air balloon
24 Tango
25 Oh no, the trip home!
26 Home, via Paris
27 Back to normality

Argentina

El Calafate

Thursday 5 April 2001

A relatively early start for our first day here. 8am and we’re on the road to the Perito Moreno glacier. This isn’t the largest in Argentina but is the only glacier that is stable and all the others are gradually reducing in size. The road is up to par, nicely lumpy and bumpy, not as bad as Bariloche but the car we have isn’t designed for these roads and is jumping about all over the place. We’re finally driving along one of the long straight roads we’ve seen from the plane and there are no other cars in sight. All around us to our right is the floodplain for Lago Argentina. This lake is massive, about 25km wide and 100km long. It stretches as far as you can see and is a stunning aquamarine milky green colour.

On the way we passed Estancia Anita. In the late 1920’s the workers on the estancia revolted at the conditions they were forced to work under. The British army were called in to quell the revolt and for some reason killed off all the sheep too. We can’t really find out what happened but there’s a story here somewhere.

Ironically we’re taking a detour. The main road to the glacier is closed as they’re laying tarmac! Turning off on our detour we passed a confiteria sat in the middle of the plain totally isolated and made a mental note to stop on our way back.

The last 40km to the glacier started to wind up through the mountainside. It still makes us laugh to see so many warning signs for corners that aren’t tight and hills that aren’t steep inclines. Whilst nothing unusual in the UK, I suppose if you’re used to long straight roads on flat surfaces, turning a corning whilst going uphill is pretty tricky!

We arrived at the “port” to get our boat to the glacier for our mini-trekking trip. I’ve never seen a glacier before and its amazing to see this massive wall of ice with brilliant white mixed with varying shades of blue from pale cornflower to brilliant dark hues. At the glacier side we were met by National Park guides who would accompany us. A short walk took us to the lake shore where they explained how glaciers are formed – successive layers of snow knit together to form ice, compressing and gradually sliding downhill – and more about the guidelines for our trek on the glacier. Having finally got used to the walking boots we had a new experience, crampons. With these on you can almost walk vertically up and down the ice. While essential for the walk they seemed to weigh a ton to me and each uphill step became progressively harder. Considering we were walking on ice it was surprisingly warm. This had struck us on the boat too as every now and again there was a really cool icy breeze followed by warm sunshine. The views of the glacier were spectacular. You really got a feeling of isolation (apart from the rest of the tour group) and only being able to see ice we could have been on Antarctica. Still feeling a little shaky from my bug I took refuge back on non-crampon territory. Stef carried on for a further walk and was rewarded with a tot of scotch served with glacial ice.

Back at the refugio there was time for lunch and then the boat back across the lake to the car. The boat sailed across the eastern front of the glacier and everyone was hoping chunks would fall off so that suitably stunning pictures could be taken. Whilst some did, by the time your camera was ready it was too late.

The glacier stands 40m above the lake and stretches the full 120m depth below water. Every three to four years the glacier extends fully across the lake and cuts of the Brazo Rico. The water level on the Rico side gradually rises, up to 20m above normal, and the pressure of this finally erodes the ice bar, breaks the glacier and allows the water to flow back into the main Lago Argentina.

We carried on along the road to the pasarellas, a series of wooden walkways with vantage points to view the glacier. From here we could also see the western side of the glacier. When chunks of ice slide it creates a series of shockwaves on the otherwise calm lake that hit shore after about five minutes. All around there are free floating chunks of ice slowly melting away.

On the way back we stopped at the confiteria on the floodplain. It was a single room with basic chairs and tables and it could have been anywhere in Spain or Italy. We were met by a toothy Argentinean who must have been eighty and looked like he’d not had a bath or changed his clothes in weeks. We decided he was Opa and had been left to run the confiteria while the rest of the family got on with life. We doubt he gets many visitors. He was soon plying us with tasters of maté liqueur, which tasted of apples, and calafate jam. There were two types, one made from the pulp of the fruit and one from the juice. They tasted very different but both had strong tinges of Ribena.

Local legend says that if you eat the fruit of the calafate bush you will return to Patagonia. Looks like we’re coming back!

Heading back we had our first view of Calafate at ngith and realised how small a town of four thousand people is. Back at the hotel we had a call to change the car and headed into town to switch over. Back to a VW Gol [yes, G-o-l, that’s what they’re called in South America] like we had in Ushuaia.

We had a quick look at the shops, small, expensive, but with some nice things, and headed back to the hotel for food and bed.

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