Yesterday we flew to El Calafate, the gateway town to the Los Glaciers National Park in Patagonia. On the way we had to stop at Ushuaia, which is the most southerly city in the world, and the launch point for trips to Antarctica!
El Calafate is a nice town on the banks of Lake Argentina, the largest lake in the country.
Today we visited the park, taking a boat trip to see 3 different glaciers. It was amazing as enormous bright blue icebergs were floating around the lake! We saw blue ice in Iceland last year, but these icebergs surprised us as the colour was much more vivid - very beautiful.
We visited the Upsala Glacier, but didn’t get right up to it as huge icebergs were blocking the path of the boat.
We then visited the Spegazzini glacier, which was spectacular as it flows dramatically down a very steep mountain before meeting the lake with a huge wall of ice.
Finally we visited the Perito Moreno glacier, which is famous as it is the only glacier in the world that is advancing – up to 2 metres per day! It’s MASSIVE – where it reaches the lake it’s 5km wide and 60 metres high – a wall of sheer blue ice, breathtaking!
Because the glacier is advancing large blocks of ice regularly break free, causing mini tidal waves (not again!) on the lake - whilst sailing along the front we saw some huge chunks of ice fall off, with really loud cracking sounds, and even louder splashes!
We’re coming back to this glacier on Monday to hike across the top – can’t wait!
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