El Calafate & Perito Moreno Glaciar

Blue ice of Perito Moreno
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El Calafate is quite a touristy town on the shores of Lago Argentino, developed due to it´s proximity to the Perito Moreno glaciar in the National Park Los Glaciares.  We had struggled to get a bed for the night despite calling a number of hostels ahead but we chanced it anyway and turned up and started looking.  Fortunately (or not!) we found a garden shed with 2 empty dorm beds at Los Dos Pinos, an establishment with a wide variety of accommodation.  It was nothing more than a glorified wooden shed with just space for 3 sets of bunk beds but it was a roof and a cheap one at that ($6.50).  We headed off straight away to suss out buses to the glaciar and then buses on to Puerto Natales.  We decided to take an organised trip to the glaciar as it meant more time there and included a guide, rather than just the public bus. We booked our onward transport back to Chile and then relaxed in the sun for a few hours with a couple of beers.

Snout of the glaciar
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The next day we were collected at the civilized hour of 9am to drive the few hours to the National Park. Our guide spoke perfect English and as we were the only English speakers we received undivided attention once he had given the info in Spanish.   Unfortunately as we arrived at the Park the rain started and did not stop for the rest of the day but it did not affect the views of the glaciar.  First of all we took a boat trip along the north face of the glaciar, the height of the face is in the region of 60m so it was impressive to get closer to it than the walkways permit.  There were intermittent rumblings and then a chunk would fall off the face and thunder into the lake, causing a large splash and mini tidal wave.  The ice was very jagged and so many shades of white and blue.  There were also a few large floating ice bergs in the lake, from where large chunks had calved.  The rain did not dampen our spirits or our amazement at such a sight.  After the boat trip we dressed in wet weather gear from head to toe to walk the wooden walk ways above the glaciar, this gave us closer views especially of the channel at the front (the snout) where sections calve more frequently and we were treated to the spectacle of ice plunging into the lake on many occasions.  At times the glaciar advances to such an extent that it reaches land and creates a large mass on to the other side, which creates a dam and then the water level at that side of the lake rises significantly until the pressure of the increased volume of water forces it´s way through the ice and breaks the glaciar bridge.  We had seen a video the previous day of the last time this happened which was March 2006 and it was impressive.  The ice is beginning to advance to land again but has yet to cut off the flow of the lake.  This was the first glaciar we have seen in Patagonia but one statistic that sticks in my mind is that the glaciars of the world contain over 75% of the world's fresh water!  Global warming therefore will have catastrophic effects on these huge ice floes and consequently sea levels.