Patagonia Part 1 - Huge Glacier!

Trip Start Mar 17, 2005
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Trip End Mar 13, 2006


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Flag of Argentina  ,
Sunday, December 18, 2005

From Buenos Aires we chose a 2 hour flight over 34 hours on a bus and before we knew it we were in southern Patagonia! This windswept and mountainous land is famous and we were excited to experience it. We landed in the town of El Calafate, which is more or less in the desert area of Patagonia, but only about an hour from the mountainous area. El Calafate`s prized draw is it`s proximity to one of the largest glaciers on earth, the Perito Moreno glacier.

The Perito Moreno glacier has a front that is 5 kilometers long and 60 meters high above the water below. Its size is amazing, larger than the city of Buenos Aires. The vertical wall is continually calving, or breaking, into large pieces that fall tens of meters into the water below. The result is usually a sound like a car crash. While we were there we were privileged enough to see many large chunks break off as in the picture below:



Okay, maybe not that big, but they seemed almost that big!

We also took a boat ride to within about 500 feet of the glacier (anything closer was suicide of sorts) for a different perspective. Overall it was an experience not to be missed.
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