We end my South American journey with a hike on a glacier. The Perito Moreno Glacier is huge. It’s 19 miles long and is the only glacier in South America that is not shrinking. Scientist can’t explain why.
We flew to the town of El Calafate in Argentine Patagonia from Ushuaia specifically for this trek. From our hotel, it was a short bus ride and a shorter boat ride to the glacier.
As an aside, calafate is a local blueberry. Cerveza Austral’s Calafate Ale is the best beer I have ever tasted. Alas, it’s not available States-side.
Only when we landed on a nearby rocky shore did I comprehend the enormity of it all. The glacier is 10-stories high! Gargantuan pieces of ice cracked off and crashed into the water. It took minutes for the huge waves to reach us. The calving is incredible, aurally and visually. First, you hear something akin to metal buckling, then thunder, then two trucks colliding, and finally a tumbling down like a skyscraper being dynamited.
We put on some crampons and start walking on the glacier. Dozens of visitors walk the well-worn route daily, but the crevasses still scare the living daylights out of me. The blue glow is mesmerizing.
The trek concludes with a glass of whiskey served with pristine glacier ice. A young lady who works for the trekking outfit was tasked with carrying a wooden table, bottles of whiskey, and a box of glasses for us. With her hunched over with the table on her back as she climbed with her crampons, she looked like a pack mule from afar.
At lunch, I sit on a rocky outcropping. I look down and notice what moving frozen water has done to solid rock. Nature.
Images source: Maxichamp
