Patagonia perito glacier. What to take with you

You know, there are places on the planet when the brain refuses to think rationally, and any logic crumbles before the greatness of real NATURE. This is one of the most beautiful places on Earth that I have seen from all my travels. This is the Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia in Argentina.

For the first time I visited Argentina back in 2008, applying for a passport for a visa at the consulate in Kiev, my eye clearly fixed a poster on the wall with this incredible glacier. Then I saw only Buenos Aires, but Perito Moreno, without any reservations, was on my tourist wishlist.

The ideal roads of the steppe part of Patagonia are boring and monotonous, but as soon as you approach the mountain range, you want to make photo stops literally every few kilometers. The name of the glacier translates as "scientist Moreno" or "expert Moreno" and is named after the explorer Francisco Pascacio Moreno.

Perito Moreno is the only large glacier in the national park that is ideal and easy to visit. Do not be confused by the popularity of the place, because no matter how many tourists come there, all these people are just pathetic spots against the backdrop of a huge mass of the advancing glacier!

The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of three persistent glaciers in Patagonia. Periodically, the glacier advances on the Argentino lake curved in the shape of the letter L, reaching the opposite shore and creating a natural dam that divides the lake into two parts. Without runoff, the water in the southern part of the lake can rise up to 30 meters above the level of the main lake. The enormous pressure of such a volume of water as a result breaks the ice barrier holding it, which is a very spectacular event. The cycle of dam formation and its breakthrough is irregular and repeats with different frequency - from once a year to less than once in a decade.

Here in this video from 1988 you can see an arch and a huge flow of water from one part of the lake to another and the destruction of the arch at the end of the video:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Dfl4DAtHkYQ

First of all, I was pleasantly surprised by the infrastructure for tourists. There are many paths and hiking trails along the edge of the peninsula, and every angle is different from the last.

The ice mass looks from above and below in different ways, and the main thing is the movement of ice and the noise of breaking off ice blocks, it cannot be forgotten and cannot be reproduced in the recording. The sensations on the spot are simply enchanting!

Perito Moreno has an area of ​​250 km². The width of the Perito Moreno tongue is 5 km, the average height is 60 meters above the water surface. The average depth is 170 meters, the maximum is 700 meters. The glacier is 30,000 years old. Its speed is 2 meters per day (approximately 700 meters per year). However, the mass loss is about the same, therefore (not taking into account small deviations) the tongue of the glacier did not recede and did not advance for 90 years.

In general, the glacier is very bright and white, not dirty gray like in New Zealand, for example.
And the color of the ice in the places of fresh breaks is just piercing blue:

And the panorama, if you haven't seen it, is clickable, look at the entire screen (4500x1300 pixels):

Hayrez 4500х1300px

To be continued...

My partner on this incredible journey:

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Where is Perito Moreno located

The Perito Moreno Glacier is part of the Los Glaciares National Park, located in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz in southwestern Argentina. The base city for visiting the glacier is El Calafate.

When is the best time to visit the glacier

The best time to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina is from November to March, i.e. from the end of the Argentine spring to the beginning of autumn. At this time, it is already warm enough here (+ 15-17 ° C), and you can catch the longest daylight hours. The length of daylight hours is important as you have to admire the wildlife.

How to get to the Perito Moreno glacier

LATAM and Aerolineas Argentinas planes fly from Buenos Aires to El Calafate; you can also get here from Ushuaia and Bariloche with Aerolineas Argentinas. From Buenos Aires, the flight takes 3.5 hours, with a one-way ticket usually costing $ 150-200. It is advisable to book flights 2-3 months in advance, since the price can increase significantly.

Things to do around Perito Moreno

There are several ways to look at the Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia:

• Come to the national park and walk along specially equipped paths with observation platforms;
• Go for a boat ride, which will bring you close to the glacier;
• Take a mini-walk along Perito Moreno itself;
• Arrange a trekking for 3-4 hours on the surface of the glacier.

What else to do in and around El Calafate?

• Take a tour to one of the highest points in the vicinity of El Calafate, offering stunning views of the city, Lake Lajo Argentino, mountains and the Perito Moreno Glacier. Tours are run by off-road vehicles and ATVs.
• Go horseback riding. There are hiking options for 2-3 days.
• Go to other glaciers of Los Glaciares National Park.
• Arrange kayaking on lakes among icebergs.

Where to eat in El Calafate

Almost every El Calafate hotel has a restaurant, in most cases they are not worse than city ones, so the choice is quite simple. The rest of the establishments are mainly located on the main street. Here are some options:

• La Posta is a good restaurant. Lots of exquisite dishes, i.e. little food for big money, but delicious 🙂
• La Zorra is a great place for those who want to drink excellent beer and eat it with fries or burger. Inexpensive and cheerful.
• Don Pichon - the restaurant is somewhat remote from the center, but still attracts a lot of visitors. Especially famous for its meat and Patagonian lamb.

Where to live in the vicinity of the Perito Moreno glacier

• The further from the city center, the better. Accommodations on the outskirts of the city or outside of it usually boast gorgeous views of the region's amazing nature. Actually for this, people come here. If the hotel has a restaurant, then you don't have to enter the city at all. There is practically nothing to do there.
• Better to stay in separate cabins or bungalows which are called cabañas in Argentina. Usually these are fairly simple dwellings, but very atmospheric. The Patagonians themselves live in similar houses. So to feel their atmosphere is priceless. If, nevertheless, you need housing closer to civilization, choose an elevated hotel... This is mainly the south of the city. This will give you a better chance of getting a good look.

Accommodation outside El Calafate

For those wishing to live in houses and bungalows there is Hosteria Hainen, Complejo Don Pepe, Linda Vista Apart Hotel, Santa Monica Aparts, Cabañas Nevis.

If the budget is very small, there are many hostels open in El Calafate, for example, America del Sur Hostel, Schilling Hostel Patagonico. They can usually be accommodated in dorms ($ 15-25 per bed) or private rooms ($ 50-70).

Prices in Argentina: El Calafate and Perito Moreno

The prices are average. They can fluctuate greatly depending on the exchange rate of the national currency against the dollar, season, holidays, etc .:

• Entrance to the national park is around 20-25 USD per person.
• Taxi from the airport to the city - 20-25 USD
• Shuttle from the airport to the hotel - 10-12 USD
• Bus from El Calafate to Perito Moreno Glacier - 10-12 USD
• Short glacier hike - 120 USD
• Glacier trekking (3-4 hours) - 220 USD
• Dinner for 1 person (average bill in an average restaurant) - 20-30 USD
• Overnight at the hostel (dorm) - 15-25 USD
• Overnight at cabañas - 80-140 USD
• Overnight in a 4 star hotel - 150-170 USD
• Overnight at a 5 stars hotel - from 150 USD to infinity 🙂

2. Photo excursion on the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina

12. Or both at the same time 🙂

27. After a short briefing, everybody set out on a journey energetically. There was a rumor that "behind that ice wall there is McDonald's" 😉

43. Another crystal clear lake. Take a canister with you: in the Evian supermarket they offer 200 rubles per liter, but here you can swim in it! 🙂

This is not the first day we have been in the Los Glaciares National Park, but we are walking in the forest, admiring the mountains and rocks, and almost never seen.

This is not the first day we have been in the Los Glaciares National Park, but we are walking in the forest, admiring the mountains and rocks, and we have hardly seen any glaciers. Although, in fact, in the local area there are such huge ice fields that the tongues of their glaciers, on the one hand, slide into the Pacific fjords in Chile, and on the other, in Argentina, into lakes, from which rivers flow into the Atlantic Ocean.
Now we will correct the situation and go to one of the most famous Patagonian glaciers -.

From El Chalten we left for El Calafate.

Calafate is a metropolis with a population of 15-20 thousand people, an airport and a central street with a bunch of souvenir shops, outdoor clothing stores and cafes.
In Calafate, planes constantly fly from Buenos Aires, sometimes from / to Ushuaia, a couple of times a week - in Bariloche. We would love to fly from here to Bariloche, for example, but not only was the flight not the most suitable day, but the tickets cost some kind of cosmic money.

We arrived here in the evening, so there was not much time for a walk - we immediately went in search of inexpensive housing. We settled somewhere on the outskirts of the center in a hostel, made friends with our neighbor Frank from France, who, after graduation, went around the world for a year, fed him buckwheat and went to sleep, because in the morning we had to go to look at the glacier.

Lots of photos! (Spanish. Perito moreno, "Scientist Moreno") is a glacier located in the Los Glaciares National Park, in the southeast of the Argentine province of Santa Cruz. It is one of the most interesting tourist sites in the Argentinean part of Patagonia. The glacier is located 78 km from the village of El Calafate.

From the bus station to buses leave twice a day - in the morning and at lunchtime. Tickets are sold immediately at a round-trip fare. That is, the bus brings you to the glacier, you walk for several hours, then catch your bus at the designated time and go back to the city.
Perito Moreno glacier slides into one of the branches of the huge Argentino lake. El Calafate stands on the shore of this lake.

One of the entertainments here is a boat trip on the lake and observation of the glacier from the water. This pleasure cost about $ 20 per nose, and we decided not to participate in it. Moreover, the boat is packed with such a crowd of people as on a ferry with illegal immigrants trying to escape from Africa to Europe.

Everyone was dropped off at the pier, the driver said he would pick us up in an hour and a half. Something we thought it was stupid to sit still and went towards the viewing platforms, which are 6 kilometers away. who refused this pleasure, he drove in 15 minutes. We found out about this when the bus overtook us on the highway :)
Well, nothing, but we walked through the forest, met a couple of rabbits and other animals.

And also, due to the fact that we were walking, and not by bus, we got to the observation decks not from the front entrance, but from the “back” one. And from here, just a walk is much more interesting.

That's how he met us. Fog, not strong, but piercing wind, minimal number of people.

The average height of the ice tongue above the water is 60 meters.

It is difficult to understand the scale from the photographs. Here is ice with a bush.

And here, with a large tree.

The speed of the glacier is about 2 meters per day. That is, every day two meters of fresh ice creeps in from somewhere out of the fog.

But, according to some cunning universal plan, an average of two meters of ice breaks off the edge of the glacier every day. Thus, the glacier seems to be standing still.

Thousands of people with cameras gather here to film icebergs breaking away from the glacier with a roar. We, so that right with the icebergs, were not lucky, but small pieces, the size of a two-three-story house, nevertheless, broke off.

Perito Moreno glacier

Why is the ice in this place dirty? Because here the tongue of the glacier periodically reaches the opposite shore of the lake, thus dividing it into two parts. He picks up dirt at the bottom. A current arises between the cut off part of the lake and the main one. Sometimes the glacier accelerates so that it completely blocks the connection between the parts of the lake, which leads to a rise in water by tens of meters. Further, the water has two options - either to arrange a catastrophic spectacle with the breakthrough of the dam and wash away all living things around, or, as it was recently, to pierce a cave in the glacier and let the water flow there. As a result, an arched bridge was formed between the coast and the glacier. On the Internet, you can find wonderful photos of both the arch itself and its collapse.

The width of the tongue is 3-5 kilometers.

In this picture, we see a two-kilometer fragment.

The color of the ice is highly dependent on the lighting.

This is not unusual, because ice is a crystal.

If the sun is shining, then a deep blue color bursts out of the dark cracks.

And the water of which it is composed also changes color depending on the weather.
Here, a little sunbeam made its way through the fog and clouds.

Somewhere there they arrange hiking for tourists. Cats, ice axes, everything. It is expensive, and I don’t think these walks are more outstanding than wandering among the cracks and seracs in the Caucasus.

If you look closely, below you can see the little men on the observation paths.

And here is the boat that we abandoned. We asked a Russian-German couple, who had been lent money for this attraction, if it was worth it. They say that they do not regret, since they have already arrived here, why not skate the whole program, but if there was a choice between a boat and observation paths, definitely, only paths.

I don't even know what else to tell.

The Perito Moreno Glacier, located 78 km from the village of El Calafate, was named after the explorer Francisco Moreno, who explored the region in the nineteenth century. The glacier played an important role in protecting Argentina's border area from the claims of its neighboring country, Chile. Today it attracts crowds of tourists, and with a selection of photographs from Martin Saint-Amand, Christoph Berger and Jakub Polomsky, you can easily see why.

The Perito Moreno Glacier, which is 30 km long and 250 km2 in area, is one of the most important tourist sites in the Argentinean part of Patagonia. It is located in the Los Glaciares National Park in the southwestern province of Santa Cruz.

Perito Moreno is one of 48 glaciers that are part of the South Patagonia ice field in the Andes mountains in Argentina and Chile. This ice field is the third largest fresh water reserve in the world.

Perito Moreno is one of only three glaciers in Patagonia that grow. The glaciologists still have not established the reason. The tip of the glacier is 5 kilometers wide and has an average height of 74 meters above Lake Argentino. The total ice thickness is 170 meters.

Due to its size and accessibility, Perito Moreno is one of the main tourist sites in southern Patagonia. It can be reached in less than two hours by bus from El Calafate, and many travel companies make daily trips here. The large visitor center overlooks the southern and eastern edges of the glacier.

Ice walking tours have been gaining popularity in recent years. The two standard tours are the "mini hike", which lasts an hour and a half, and the "big ice" hike, which lasts about five hours.

Article The Perito Moreno glacier is beautiful... Where we offer you to enjoy photographs of this far from us, where to get to dorgos, and to see the pictures - for free.

The Perito Moreno glacier is beautiful. Perito Moreno (Spanish Perito Moreno, scientist Moreno) is a glacier located in the Los Glaciares National Park, in the southeast of the Argentine province of Santa Cruz. It is one of the most tourist sites in the Argentinean part of Patagonia.

Perito Moreno has an area of ​​250 km 2 and is one of 48 glaciers fed by the southern portion of the Patagonian Glacier, located in the Andes Mountains on the Argentina-Chile border. This ice plateau is the third largest fresh water reserve in the world.

The glacier was named after the explorer Francisco Moreno, who first explored the region in the 19th century and played a significant role in protecting Argentina's territorial interests in the border dispute with Chile.

The width of the Perito Moreno tongue is 5 km, the average height is 60 m above the water surface. The average depth is 170 m, the maximum is 700 m. The speed of its movement is 2 m per day (approximately 700 m per year).

However, the mass loss is about the same, therefore (not taking into account small deviations) the tongue of the glacier did not recede and did not advance for 90 years.

The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of three persistent glaciers in Patagonia. Periodically, the glacier advances on the Argentino lake curved in the shape of the letter L, reaching the opposite shore and creating a natural dam that divides the lake into two parts.

Without runoff, the water in the southern part of the lake can rise up to 30 meters above the level of the main lake. The enormous pressure of such a volume of water, as a result, breaks the ice barrier holding it, which is a very spectacular event. The cycle of dam formation and its breakthrough is irregular and repeats with different frequency - from once a year to less than once in a decade.

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In general, the Perito Moreno glacier is really beautiful