In El Calafate we were excited when we found a well supplied supermarket, but we were less excited when we found out the prices for excursions to Perito Moreno. It is only about 25 miles from El Calafate in southern part of Los Glaciares N.P. The price for a return bus ticket was 500 ARS per person, so we decided to hitchhike. This way we could actually spend way more time there then if we went by bus or excursion. To get there we got a lift from a family from Buenos Aires, who squeezed us into the trunk of their fully packed jeep.
There are few short trails around the glacier (all have roughly about 3 miles). Glacier is enormous and you can often hear it cracking or hear a splash, when part of its wall falls into the water. Sadly we did not get to see a massive part of the wall fall down, but even the “small” pieces make a proper rocket! The sound of the ice cracking sounds like a shot with a big gun in a place with echo.
Few interesting facts:
Perito Moreno is one of the few glaciers that are not receding. In fact it regularly advances all the way to the other side of the channel, thus blocking the flow of water between lakes (it advances 2.2 meters every day). When the water level in the top lake rises and pressure builds enough, the blockade falls down and the whole process is repeated. When we were there the channel was blocked and the level of the top lake was a good few meter higher, but the blockade was still stable. There was just a little hint of a tunnel forming.
The glacier has 254 km², for comparison the area of Buenos Aires is 202 km². It is about 30 km long and the bottom wall 70 meters high above the water surface.
