It felt extremely good to get off the plane and step into warm weather again from El Calafate to Buenos Aires. But I absolutely MUST share this incredible experience before I run off and explore this new city. Perito Moreno was a perfect Adios to my Patagnoia explorations.
I had a really lovely time in Patagonia, and I will miss it’s beauty! El Calafate was my final Patagonia stop, and my first city in Argentina. I am leaving behind this region with many special memories and new friends (including Federico, an Argentinian boy who hardly speaks English, working at the hostel, who seems to have fallen madly in love with me in about a day).
From El Calafate I went on an unforgettable excursion to Perito Moreno. Perito Moreno is a national park which is home to one of the most impressive glaciers I have seen. Amazingly, It is one of the world’s only glaciers that is not shrinking. It gains as much ice each year as it loses, and in the past 100 years scientists have observed that it remains the same size year after year.
Aside from it’s apparent beauty, this glacier is special for visitors from around the world for it’s “minni trekking” adventures offered by wonderful guides at the park. That’s right, “trekking” on the ice. This was a really “wow” experience that is hard to describe in words. Even the pictures, beautiful as they may be, can’t capture the feeling of walking through the deep trenches of a massive ice cube.
Having done this, I have an entirely new appreciation for glaciers. While I was aware of their beauty and importance to our planet – I didn’t know until Perito Moreno how extremely alive a glacier is. Knowing intellectually that glaciers are moving, melting, and dropping ice chunks into the sea is completely different from walking it’s crevices and seeing its running waterfalls and experiencing the drastic changes that occur on the ice in short amounts of time. I had the pleasure of drinking water from one of the glacier’s countless lakes – the purest, most refreshing water I will ever drink in my life. So much for not drinking the water in South America.
My latest fashion statement.
Notice the size of the people in this picture. You are viewing only a teeny tiny little corner of this massive chunk of ice.
On the way back from the park, our boat had trouble pulling in to shore because of all the iceburgs in the water!