Perito Moreno glacier, emotional roller-coaster

After a full week in Buenos Aires, it is time to finally go to the much awaited region of Patagonia. Initially we thought of going there by bus, but is a 2 day trip, and only a few hours by plane. Turns out the bus is actually more expensive than the plane! So we booked a direct flight from Buenos Aires to El Calafate, but with the strike, our new plane has a layover in Bariloche. Not too big a deal, especially since we didn’t even have to change planes!

We get there early afternoon and will spend 2 nights in El Calafate. When we arrive the sky is blue, the sun shining, but it is only 50°F outside.

El Calafate is a little town in the middle of nowhere, but still has a small airport. It serves as a base to go visit the famous Perito Moreno glacier. This glacier extends over 18 miles long, 3 miles wide and is 2,300 ft deep at its deepest point. And even more impressive, this glacier moves forward at a pace of about 6 ft per day!

We spent a quiet night at the hostel, chit-chatting with the guy at the reception. Indeed the hostel is empty so he doesn’t have much to do. We learn that he is a South African guide, who has been living in South America for 4 years now. And he arrived in Patagonia a few months earlier with the project of accomplishing a tour of Patagonia, on a kayak, on his own for 9 months! Absolutely crazy!

After a good night of sleep, we head out to the glacier. The weather is fantastic in El Calafate, and we hope to have the same weather at the glacier. To get there, buses leave at 9 am and drive you back in the afternoon. Our bus was supposed to pick us up at 8:45 am just in front of our hostel, even though it is across the street from the bus terminal. But instead a taxi comes to pick us up with two other tourists. At first we think it’s a mistake, but no, the driver confirms the name of the bus company we booked with, and he even had our names. We guess that they didn’t have many people for the day, and a full bus might have been too expensive. So we drive off in the taxi, with two Germans on vacation in South America. The ride lasts about an hour and a half and is stunning.

Before arriving, we stop at a first mirador, that offers a great view on the glacier.

After that, the driver drops us off at the beginning of the trails and we can start the visit. The weather completely changed from El Calafate. It is grey and there is a heavy fog coming our way. The visit of the glacier is done by following several trails, that are in fact walkways built in the woods. The trails offer different views of the glacier, with tons of miradors along the way.

As we start the lower part of the first trail, it starts snowing. And after a few minutes the fog becomes a lot more dense. We can’t see much, and the snow keeps falling harder and harder. We are barely able to see the glacier.

Maider is inconsolable. This glacier was on her bucket list for a while, and not only is it snowing, but it is really cold and we can’t see a thing. And the weather doesn’t seem to be getting better. We take a few pictures, just to say we were there, because we know they won’t be very good.

The glacier remains absolutely stunning and very impressive, but we are disappointed that we can’t see it in better conditions.

Around 11:30 am, it is still very cold, but at least the snow stopped falling, and the fog dissipated a little bit, but the sky is still grey and cloudy.

We decide to go grab a coffee inside to warm up a little, and hope the weather will get a little nicer before we have to go back to the car at 3 pm.

Around 12:30 pm, the fog is completely gone, and we can finally see the entire glacier with its impressive colors.

The scenery is spectacular. We are stunned by this immense natural wonder.

The most impressive is the noise made by pieces of ice that fall from the glacier into the lake. The loud sounds of breaking coming from the glacier are amazing. It was impossible for us to take pictures of these pieces of ice falling, because it goes way too fast, but here you can still see the trace of freshly fallen ice in the water.

Sometimes is looks like only tiny pieces of ice are falling down, but when you hear the noise it makes when it crashes in the water, you understand the piece of ice was huge, it just seems tiny compared to the size of the glacier.

Unexpectedly, we see little bits of blue sky making their appearance in the early afternoon.

And suddenly the entire sky is blue and the sun shining again! And we have to say it makes the scenery so much more beautiful.

We still have an hour and thirty minutes left to enjoy our walk along the glacier, under an amazing blue sky. As we said in the title, a real emotional roller-coaster, after the weather we had this morning, we could never have imagined to finish the day like this. People had warned us that we could expect to go through all 4 seasons in just one day in Patagonia. And we can confirm that it is the case! Maider can’t stop taking pictures from every possible angle.

The last trail is along the lake, with its turquoise blue water. It is magnificent. And with the reflection of the sun on the lake, the scenery is just absolutely stunning, we can’t believe what we have in front of our eyes.

We are a little early for our meeting with the driver, so we decide to go a little closer to the lake, to watch the glacier one last time and take our final pictures.

And with some of the ice! We had to touch it!

This little area around the lake is very cute, and offers a last view on the glacier. And with the sun as a very welcomed guest!

A fox is even there to say goodbye.

We come back absolutely delighted by our visit, especially because we were almost all alone. Indeed, it is still the beginning of spring here, so the high season is barely starting. This place gets really crowded in December and January, so there aren’t a whole lot of tourists yet, for our biggest delight.

Of course we would have preferred having an amazing weather all day long. But we were so much more happy seeing the sun come out, knowing what we experienced earlier that morning! We feel so lucky that the fog and snow finally stopped, and come back exhausted but with a huge smile on our faces.

Our stay in El Calafate is already over, the next day we head out to Puerto Natales. Our starting point to the W trek in Torres del Paine, still in Patagonia, but on the Chilean side now.

Below is a short video of this epic day :