It takes a lot to take my breath away.
The Perito Moreno glacier may be the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. And I have been lucky to be in many spectacular places in my life.
It makes you gape in wonder constantly and, approximately every 20 minutes or so, makes you gasp in a reality-defying awe.
Here’s the deal with the glacier: you could stare at it for hours and never get bored. You might want to trek around to get different views of it, you may want to get out on Lago Argentino in a boat to get views from the water or you may want to go ice-trekking on the glacier itself (my traveling companion Greg and I did all three at the end of February).
But a few times an hour you get a special, special treat: bits of it break off.
If you are fortunate to be watching when a giant, oh, say 20-foot-long shard of the glacier shears off and crashes into Lago Argentino perhaps a couple of hundred feet below, with a pitch approaching that of a thunder clap, and throws a spray of water 30-50 feet in the air, there are few experiences in nature that approach the sheer magnitude of witnessing such grandeur.
Glaciar Perito Moreno is one of the world’s most accessible icefields. It is in Argentina and it is part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. The glacier is stable. That is, sections of the face detach all the time (I believe it moves about 10 feet a year), but it is replenished by the ice that is continually being formed from the packed snow coming off the Andes.
When the sunlight shines through the ice, it gives the ice below the glacier surface a wondrous, almost cerulean blue color beneath the white ice on top.
Ice-trekking on the glacier was a special treat, especially once you get further in and all you see is ice and sky. And sinkholes, with the most vividly-coloured light/water exchanges, attract your gaze much as a bee is drawn to a flower. Multi-day trekking with overnight camping on the glacier is possible too, if that is your thing.
Oh yeah, and near the end of our “mini-trekking” (two hours) on the glacier, our guides rounded a curve in the ice, where, about 30 feet away, sat a wooden chest and table on the glacier. That was odd. But the chest contained chocolates, glasses and bottles of Scotch. Which we proceeded to enjoy (see photos).
To get to the Perito Moreno glacier you can fly roundtrip to El Calafate from Buenos Aires for about US$300. The glacier is about an hour and a half by bus from El Calafate. Tour agencies such as Hielo y Adventura in Calafate organize boat excursions to and trekking on the glacier.



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