El Calafate

Well, just when we thought it couldn´t get any better than Ushuaia, we arrived in El Calafate. Its a small town that´s cute and touristy, but the main attraction is the Perito Moreno Glacier that is about 50 miles from town in a national park. We got there late at night and went straight to a hostel. We had only planned for one day there, but since it was so late there was no way to make arrangements to go to the glacier without an extra day. So our first day there we spent walking all over town running errands. Planning our excursion to the glacier, finding out how to get there, buying groceries, etc. Its amazing how it takes an entire day to get things figured out here. At home, we probably could have done all the planning in an hour or two online, but not in South America. We walked around comparing prices of excursions and ended up deciding to rent a car out to the glacier, which took more walking around trying to find the best deal. What makes it even more difficult is that almost everyone takes a siesta (nap) from 1-5pmish. So in the middle of the day businesses close and the planning stops. Anyway, by the end of the day we had booked an excursion with a company called Ice and Adventure where we could actually hike on the glacier. We picked up our car that night and took it to our hostel so we´d have it early in the morning.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast and realized that my fleece wasn´t dry from washing it the night before. Oops. So we asked ourselves, "what would MacGyver do?" So 30 minutes with a hairdryer later we were ready to go. :) We hopped in our rental car (it was so fun to have our own car!) and headed for the glacier. We met up with our group where we took a 20 min. boat ride to the other side of the lake near the base of the glacier. We hiked for an hour and a half next to the glacier, then got fitted for our crampons and started on the ice. We hiked for 3-4 hours on the ice and it was incredible. We had never seen anything so amazing. It is massive.

Our first glance of the Perito Moreno Glacier. It sits down in a valley between two arms of Lake Argentina.

Putting on my crampons

Walking on the glacier! There were 10-12 people in our group.

There were little streams and lakes on the glacier. They were all this beautiful blue color. This is looking down into a really deep crevasse filled with water.

This is the lake we sat next to as we ate lunch. Stunning.

 

Seth at our picnic spot

It doesn´t look like it in this picture, but the wall of ice behind us is 60m high (about 196 ft.)

 

A closeup of one of the faces of the glacier. This reminded us of Narnia.  

After we came back off of the ice, we had the hour and a half hike back down to where we started. From there, our boat picked us up and took us back to port. The rest of our group got on a bus headed back to El Calafate, but because we had rented a car we were able to go back up the panoramic viewing area and spend about two more hours just walking around in awe looking at the glacier from every possible angle. I wish we could show all of the pictures we took (we got a little picture happy) but I hope these give a good feel for how incredible it was. 

Now, as if this isn´t amazing enough, the glacier is constantly moving forward. The middle part is moving at a rate of 6 ft per day. Because of the constant movement, there are huge chunks of ice that fall of the face of the glacier at any given moment, all day every day. To see such huge pieces of ice crack off and fall into the water is unbelievable. It makes a really lound sound that sounds like a rifle crack. Even if you´re not close enough to see the glacier, you can still hear the ice breaking and crashing into the water. (we could even hear it from inside the visitor´s center!) We caught a couple of them on video. INCREDIBLE. We were both amazed at how awesome God´s creation is.

 

Our boat coming in to take us back to the port
 

our little rental car! 

 

 From one of the panoramic walkways

 

Even though it was now bitterly cold and windy, we stood ready to video any crashes that might happen

 

Here are few statistics about the glacier that might help put it into perspective: Its 21.7 miles long, 3.1 miles wide, and 196 ft. tall at the face. 

When we finally peeled ourselves away from the glacier we made our way back to El Calafate. It was a beautiful drive back to town. The only scary part was dodging the jack rabbits that are everywhere around the park and run across the road. The guy at the rental car place warned us about them and he wasn´t kidding!

Here are a few pictures from town. 

Our hostel in El Calafate

A little shopping center in downtown El Calafate

Im not going to lie, Perito Moreno Glacier is going to be tough to beat. It was truly a life-changing day. But then again, leaving Ushuaia we didn`t think anything could top the penguins! Now on to Bariloche!