Argentina's most beautiful weather girl4/30/2024 ![]() ![]() He also helped me fill up my water bladder (what a funny name) with glacier water. Our guide pointed out these crazy ice formations and crystal clear pools of glacial melt as we trekked. I asked our guide the back story of the word “Patagonia” and he said to Google it… so I was like umm what am I paying you for?!īut then we got to the edge of the ice and I was like oh yeah, you need to help me lace up my crampons and navigate through this different planet so I don’t die… Travel makes one modest – you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world. It is here that I realized for the first time, “The North Face” brand name (that I’ve been wearing on my backpack since college) comes from glacier terminology!īack on land, we split into tour groups (English and Spanish) and followed our guides on a walk through the woods on paths that are re-carved every year to accommodate for the glacier’s seasonal receding and advancing. You had to listen carefully for the pre-crackling that would signal a coming wave, and then keep your eyes peeled and camera ready to try and capture the “calving”.Īfter our time on the walkways, we got back on the bus to another area of the park, where we caught a boat to the Southern face of the glacier – the side that is accessible to humans. Perito Moreno is one of the world’s only glaciers in equilibrium, meaning its net mass remains the same each year.Ĭhunks of ice periodically broke off the edge of the glacier and crashed into Lago Argentina below, creating massive waves and thunderous cracking sounds. Get you a girl who can do both, am I right? While global warming is causing glaciers to shrink at alarming rates like this all over the world, here it was part of the seasonal cycle of advancing and receding. The Patagonia part of our trip was quite a departure from the haute cuisine of Buenos Aires, where we ate at expensive steakhouses with white tablecloths. After making a loop and stopping often for photos that couldn’t do it justice, we sought refuge from the wind behind one of the covered shelters to pull out our (slightly mushed) PB&Js. There is a small cafe/restaurant at the park, but Veronica and I packed a lunch to eat during the walkway time. Other tour bus operators will get you to the National Park and take you back to Calafate, but keep reading for more details about the Mini Trek with Helio y Aventura. We were picked up at the hostel and dropped off at the balconies to wander around on our own for a few hours (including lunchtime), before getting on the ice itself later. Without booking the ice trekking tour, visitors to Los Glaciares National Park can only admire Perito Moreno from the balconies pictured above. Springing for the glacier hike ended up being one of the best decisions of the whole trip. It really does take a full day, so factor that into your travel decisions if you plan on continuing up to El Chalten like we did! Unlike my penguin tour, this wasn’t something I had planned months in advance… but I was careful to make sure we had at least one full-day in Calafate, in case we did decide on a tour. ![]() Many travelers we met in our respective hostels raved about the experience, so we took the plunge and booked it through our hostel. The other splurge that this post is mostly about? The Helio y Aventura “mini-trekking” excursion that is the only operator who can take you on a guided hike ON the glacier. Taxi drivers have a monopoly in Calafate because it is such a tiny town that people go to solely for Los Glaciares National Park (~1 hour away by bus), so be prepared to shell out some cash to get around! Veronica and I met back up in the Calafate airport, since she stayed in Buenos Aires for a few extra days while I was in Ushuaia gallivanting with penguins and sea lions. For scale: those liltle ants are people trekking on what I refer to as “Antarctica junior” /center> For my hostel roommate in Ushuaia, the #3 largest ice field in the world probably wasn’t high on her list of must-sees after having been to Greenland (#2) and being en route to Antarctica (#1). ![]() I guess this was surprising to some people – at least as shocking as the fact that I’d never seen penguins in the wild before. I had never even laid eyes on a glacier, much less walked on one before this trip. At times it looked like it might rain, but it ended up only sprinkling a bit before clearing up to be a perfect day. A crazy terrain: glacier lake, dirt and rocks, forest, glacier, and mountains in front of bright blue skies all in one shot. My personal favorite was seeing the wild penguins in Ushuaia, while ice trekking on the Perito Moreno glacier was simply beyond my wildest imagination. And I mean awesome in the “awe-inspiring” sense of the word. When people ask what the best part of my Argentina trip was, I always say there is my favorite part, and then the most awesome part. ![]()
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