Honeymoon Day 13: Perito Moreno Glacier

By necessity, we were up in plenty of time to see this beauty of a sunrise. Because of the Andes to the West, water from this lake runs all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, via Rio Santa Cruz.

At the end of the glacier trek, the guides cut off a piece of ice and served everyone a celebratory whiskey, over ~400 year-old rocks.

Hiking on the glacier. I think it will take a long time, maybe years, before the significance of this experience fully sinks in for me. The Perito Moreno Glacier, about 1.5 hours west of El Calafate, is named for the famed explorer. Moreno discovered and named just about every place we’ve visited on this trip. You drive to the national park, continue to the end of the road, and board a boat to cross to the glacier. After a short hike you get your crampons and helmet, and walk around on a tiny area of the massive 100 square mile glacier. After the hike, and having enjoyed a whiskey on-the-glacial-rocks, you ferry back and view the glacier’s eastern and northern faces from a network of catwalks on the adjacent hills. It’s summer here, and it’s hot. As always during summer, on display is the hypnotic, quaking sight and sound of apartment-building-sized ice chunks cracking, tilting, and crashing into the water 200 feet below. The sound is like something from an another dimension, mechanistically translated to ours.

Tomorrow, we’re looking forward to a more relaxed day, visiting a nearby ranch. But for now, I’m going to cheat and add some more pictures—the usual three won’t cut it today. “¡Chao!”