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Glacier
Tours - Perito Moreno #1 - Argentina |
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After completing the tour of Iguazu (#2 on map to right), we flew back to Buenos Aires (#1 on map) for a few days or rest. We then headed to the town of This page and the next show the tour of Perito Moreno glacier, one of the world's most spectacular glaciers. The third picture page shows the next days tour of some other glaciers, including Upsala. |
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| The town of El Calafate is a cute European-style tourist town. | From town, a marsh and a lake can be seen. | In the marsh we found a flock of light-pink Flamingos. |
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| We took a walk to the lake; there was no one on the beach...?? | The lake was pretty, but it was very cold... no swimming for us! | This fashionable (yeah... right!) guy was enjoying the dunes. |
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The reason to come to this alpine area though, is to see the glaciers... which we did the next day. The first glacier we will visit is Perito Moreno; it is one of the few glaciers in the world which is still advancing. The glacier is around 60 meters high (almost 200 feet), or equal to a 15 storey building. Sometimes gigantic blocks fall into the water, causing enormous waves and floating icebergs. |
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took a taxi towards the glacier, following the left branch of Lago Argentino.
The right branch of the lake is on the other side of the
isthmus that we see on the right side of these pictures. As we drove closer, and since this only the left side of the glacier, we realized how big it was! |
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 We rounded a corner and then caught this glimpse of the right-hand part of the lake. It reminded me of Lake Tahoe! |
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| The mountains were majestic. | We went down for a closer look. | |
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| This lake was littered with iceberg remnants of the glacier... which still was out of sight from where we were standing. I have never seen icebergs before and they looked nice & peaceful. | We could not stay here long, as the threat of a tsunami wave from falling glacial ice was real! | |
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Some of the icebergs were nothing more than large ice cubes... I tried to reach one but I didn't dare enter the water since it was near freezing. Some of the other icebergs were a bit bigger and had blown towards shore. At first I didn't understand why they didn't blow all the way to shore. Then we learned that 80% of an iceberg's mass is under water. That means these big icebergs have an enormous section that you cannot see, which is why they don't reach land and are so dangerous to boaters. |
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| We walked along the lake until we could see the Perito Moreno Glacier. It is one of the few glaciers which still has an advancing face. Most others glaciers in the world have a face that is decreasing back up the mountain; the melting probably due to global warming. | ||
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This concludes the first half of the Perito Moreno tour ... to continue to the second half, click here |
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