Los Glaciares National Park - Perito Moreno Gletscher

Today we took the bus to Los Glaciares National Park to the Perito Moreno Glacier. The drive there was great. The bus kept stopping on the side of the road. Once we had to look to the left, there were several large condors sitting there. We were then told a lot about the birds. Just for your information, in El Chalten, those were condors and not vultures!!! The journey continued and there was something to discover everywhere. Two huge gray eagles sat in a tree and stared at us, that was awesome. Unfortunately the bus had to move on because the next bus was already rushing behind us.

After another curve we could finally see the huge glacial ice from Patagonia. I was speechless, such a huge, wide area was just glacial ice. CRAZINESS. Our guide said that due to climate change the size of the glacier was decreasing and "actually" it wasn't a good thing if chunks of ice broke off and crashed into the water with a thunderous noise. Hmmm, but it was gigantic and it also looked unimaginable. A large area of ice then came loose and went into the water with a loud bang. It sounded like an explosion and the force of the lump of ice caused the water to spray meters high. The sound was indescribable. We were able to photograph the Perito Moreno Glacier from various platforms. We were super excited.

Now there was a boat trip that took us even closer to the ice wall. The ice looked gigantic and it was only up close that we could really appreciate how big it was. The tips and edges, with their cracks, looked as if they would explode at any moment. The color of the ice was also impressive. It was turquoise blue. I immediately thought of blue fabric softener.
Our boat docked near the glacier. Because now came my absolute highlight of this vacation: we were allowed to go on a trekking tour on the glacier. I'm still blown away. We were given crampons tied to the soles of our shoes and a helmet as head protection. After a short briefing by our guides, Vivien and Gabriel, we started. Always “stomp” into the ice, take small steps and place your feet a little further apart. The spikes under our shoes dug firmly into the glacier ice, so we had a great grip. Step by step we went up the glacier. It was indescribable. Because again and again you could see smaller but also larger crevasses next to us and they were damn deep. We were allowed to look into a larger crevice, but were held by Gabriel! It was crazy, you could turn to all sides and there was only ice everywhere. Countless photos were taken. At the end of the trek there was a whiskey on the glacier with - of course - glacier ice. Vivien cut this out with an ice pick and put it into the glasses.
The glacier trekking was really world-class and incredibly impressive, but also somehow totally surreal. We little creatures wander around on a huge mass of glacial ice. Craziness.
After the trekking we continued with a forest trek. From here you still had a good view of the ice wall. We couldn't get enough of this sight.

Back in the "refugium" we warmed up with a cup of tea and got into conversation with an opera singer from Munich. She quit her very restrictive job and is now enjoying her freedom on her six-month trip to South America. Laura, since we unfortunately couldn't say goodbye, have a great time on this continent and all the best! :-)

Totally satisfied and overjoyed, we took the bus back to El Calafate. The first thing I had in the city was some delicious ice cream :-)!

Kind regards, with a touch of Antarctic flair,

Daniela & Anke