I heart Perito Moreno

The hostel we stayed at in El Calafate was named Albergue del Glacier, because the Perito Moreno glacier is one of the main attractions of the area. The hostel itself is new and quite attractive, having a main courtyard surrounded by three tiers of nice four-bed rooms. We were put in one with a couple of French girls, who were probably quite horrified to return to what they thought was their own private room to find a shirtless Tyler, still unwashed after 53 hours of gruesome travel, clipping his toenails in the middle of the room while our portable speakers (for our CD and MP3 players) blared some sort of heavy punk music. Their horror turned to delight as I emerged from the shower with only a sarong wrapped around my waist, the comment I began to make stopped short on my lips as I layed eyes on the poor frightened creatures ("Dude, do you have any more anti-fungal footcream . . . Uh, hey ladies"). Actually, they were very nice, and even volunteered, quite vocally, to change rooms. Now.

That evening, we cooked dinner, made the acquaintance of some very nice individuals, and planned our day trip to the glacier for the next day. Actually, we did no planning whatsoever, and just figured we'd get up and arrange something in the morning. Of course, early in the morning is not the best time to haggle, and we ended up barely finding a tour at the last minute.

Twenty minutes later we were riding in a small bus (or large van, whichever), with me perched in the bucket seat next to the driver/guide, trying vainly not to fall asleep and fall off my chair during his long-winded explanations of whatever. About 2 hours later, we arrived at the glacier itself.

The park is very small, basically just a few walkways leading to viewpoints where one can see the glacier from different vantages. The glacier itself is beyond words. But oh well, here's some anyway: The face of the glacier as it meets the lake is 6 kilometers wide (for those who don't know the metric system, 6 kilometers equals roughly "big"), and 60 meters high, extending like a huge river of ice away from our vantage point high into the Andes, to disappear in distance and low-hanging clouds just before it meets up with the South American Ice Field. Described as one of the 8 wonders of the world and protected by Unesco, the glacier is absolutely spectacular. We spent the three hours we had there simply walking around and staring at it, listening to the sharp rifle-cracks of ice breaking, and occasionally seeing a small piece break off and fall to the water below. After, we took a short boat ride to the actual face of the glacier, before catching the bus back to town.
- posted by Micah @ 2:19 PM