Glacier hiking highlights

We were staying in an estancia with a calf collection station near El Chaltén. You can even feed and name the cute animal babies. From the village, you can go on great hikes in the Los Glaciares National Park. The most spectacular, but also most challenging one, is probably the hike to Fitz Roy. One of the most beautiful trails we have ever walked. A total of 21km and 850 meters of altitude through forests, valleys, river landscapes, past lakes and glaciers, with a view of the steep cliffs of Fitz Roy. And all of this in perfect weather. What a stroke of luck! After the last difficult 1.5 kilometers with 500 meters of altitude, which took almost an hour, you are rewarded with an incredible view of the 400m high vertical cliffs, side glaciers, and the lagoon in front. Enjoying well-deserved sandwiches and cookies is of course essential.

In El Calafate, there was something very special, namely a wellness area in the hotel. O.o. we have already had quite unpleasant experiences with that. But how about giving it another chance? And for South American standards, it was actually quite good. The sauna was not suitable for lying down, as it was too small, and not really for sitting either, as it was poorly designed and therefore uncomfortable. Furthermore, it seems that North and South Americans are very shy and therefore want to wear swimwear in the sauna. But at least it wasn't a requirement. And there was also a heated pool, where we had fun joking about architecture. But in general, it was good.

An absolute highlight is the Perito Moreno Glacier, one of the few glaciers in the world that constantly gains mass. In perfect weather, we went on a tour boat and got very close to the up to 70m high glacier front. The bright sunlight makes all the crevices in the ice shine bright blue to royal blue; it actually looked as if neon tubes had been installed for lighting. And afterwards, you can take a long walk and admire this fascination. Why, it's just frozen water, right? Not quite, this ice mass is constantly working and moving. With higher sunlight, like we had, there is rumbling, creaking, and cracking every half a minute, acoustically comparable to thunder or gunfire. It is particularly exciting, and we were lucky to witness it when chunks of ice fell from the front into the water, which was surprisingly loud. It is more exciting than watching TV, especially when a particularly large chunk broke off and fell 20 to 30 meters into the lake.