El Calafate and the Perito Moreno Glacier

After the Torres del Paine National Park, the road in Chile is interrupted by a huge national park, so there are two more ways to get north, by ferry through the Chilean fjords for 4 days or through Argentina. In the next town in Argentina is the Glacier National Park, which shows the extensions of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. Here you can find the three largest glaciers in South America: the Viedma, Upsala, and Perito Moreno glaciers. The latter is the 'smallest' of the three but can be reached without an expensive boat trip.

With its 5 kilometers in width, the glacier tongue extends 40-70 meters high into Lake Argentino. It is a very active glacier that moves forward 2.2 meters a day, causing occasional breaking off at the front. We were lucky with the weather, the sun was shining all day and we saw some huge pieces of ice breaking off and falling into the lake with a loud thunder. Besides, a huge piece of ice detached underwater and slid into the glacier. You don't see something like this every day!