I first became interested in glaciers back in Egypt. There were obviously no glaciers nearby, but I spent part of my hotel captivity watching documentaries. My brother recommended Chasing Ice, a fascinating story of the journey to photograph the effects of global warming on glaciers. He watched it with his 3-year old son (who, yes, will be the smartest kid in class because of all the documentaries he’s watched) and thought we would like it, too. Stop reading this blog and go watch it on Netflix – you won’t regret it!
Fast forward a few months, and we’re in Argentina. I’m like… we have GOT to see some glaciers. So, yeah… we spent a long weekend chasing ice!
We flew into El Calafate, a quaint town that benefits immensely from its close proximity to the national park. We spent Friday walking the town, eating empanadas and walking to the lake. The weather was in the 50s – not nearly as cold as we were expecting! The locals explained that El Calafate typically is covered in snow by now, but they have yet to see snow this winter. Fine by me 🙂 but perhaps proves the point of Chasing Ice’s creators.
During our long walk back from the lake, we passed a restaurant with meat smoking in the front window. Meadows immediately determined we had to eat dinner there. After researching to make sure the reviews were good, we headed to Mako for an incredible dinner. It’s actually called Mako: Fuegos y Vinos… fires and wines perfectly sums up our meal; we indulged in steak cooked perfectly over the fire and awesome wine.
On Saturday morning, we began one of the best adventures of this year. Our guide picked us up from the hotel and drove us about an hour to a harbor on Lago Argentino. We boarded our small yacht as the sun began to rise for our Glacier Gourmet excursion: boating around the lake to multiple glaciers with a 5-course meal and local wine.
On board, we sat with two other couples (two sisters and their significant others). It was a total small world moment: all four of them were Filipino! They gave us tons of advice and tips for our next round …since we’ll be in Manila, Philippines!
Back to the cruise, though. Watching the sunrise over the lake was simply awe-inspiring.
As we cruised through the lake, we marveled at the snow-capped mountains, icebergs and cloudscapes of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares.
And let me tell you… it was COLD! Fortunately, we packed our bomber hats from sophomore year of college.
A quick lesson on glaciers: The ice is extremely tightly compacted for so many years that there are no air bubbles in the ice (unlike the ice we make in our freezers). As a result, the dense ice absorbs every other color of the spectrum except blue; therefore, the ice appears very blue.
After taking in the scenery for a while, our first stop was the Upsala Glacier. Upsala is actually the largest glacier in Argentina, although you can’t tell from my photos! For reasons that I still do not understand, we were not allowed to get very close to the glacier. The glass-like water made for beautiful photos as we approached the glacier (on the left).
The black line through the glacier is sediment. This allows us to easily see the flow of the ice. This thing is massive: 50 meter high wall (164 feet high out of the water) and an 760 sq km ice field (293 sq miles).
Another glacier lesson: the dense glacier ice powerfully scrapes the rock floor of the valley. This creates a white powder that mixes with the melting ice, becoming “glacial milk” or “rock flour.” Regardless of what you call it, the powder causes the milky, Tiffany-blue water. Seriously, this isn’t the work of Photoshop – the water is actually that blue!
From here, we ate lunch. I devoured five delicious courses so quickly that I did not take one photo! We had empanadas, salmon (three ways!), a beef stew, some fabulous Malbec and more!
As soon as we finished lunch, we sprinted outside to get an up-close look at the Spegazzini Glacier. It’s a smaller glacier, but its wall stands insanely tall at 135 meters (442 feet out of the water).
Here, we got to see some calving, which is when ice breaks off into the water. The sound terrifies you; it’s so loud that you think the world might be ending! And then you find where the calving is occurring, and you can’t believe that the breakage is so small. When you finally consider the scale of it all, the “small” calving activity suddenly isn’t so small!
I took maybe a thousand photos of this blue giant before we set sail again. From here, we cruised to Puesto de las Vacas, which is an old sawmill and home overlooking a peaceful area of the lake.
I cannot believe someone lived here! I’ll let the photos tell you about the phenomenal view, but you must know that this is about as remote as it gets!
With the calm waters of the lake, the blue color really shines through.
Though we were sad to board the boat for the end of the day, the staff lifted our spirits with champagne! We, of course, took our champagne to the rooftop for a very frigid, but very happy toast. Cheers to an amazing day chasing ice!
Back in El Calafate, we enjoyed a dynamite sunset and a relaxing dinner at our hotel.
Our original plan for Sunday was to relax, walk to lunch and pack up for our 3pm flight. That all changed when our new friends from the cruise insisted we go back to the national park to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. Thank goodness they did! We hired a taxi driver to take us (and our luggage) on the hour-long drive to the park at 9am and to the airport from there. We could tell from the views on the way to the park that we made the right decision.
Admittedly, I am completely geeking out reliving this whole trip. The Perito Moreno Glacier is so cool because it creates a peninsula of sorts, so you can see so much of it! Unlike Upsala (where the area covered is huge but the “mouth” is small), Perito Moreno sits so exposed.
We started by seeing the southern side from afar. The morning light and the reflection of the mountains on the lake made for heaven.
Our driver then dropped us off at the official walkway around the glacier – over a kilometer walk! You can really capture the glacier from every angle.
We got to see the sunrise over the mountain, saving Perito Moreno from the shadows and bringing it into the light.
We got to see some calving, which was so loud and impressive! The other unique feature of this glacier is its propensity to bridge with the adjacent land mass. Over the years, an ice bridge forms; this also dams the lake, so waters rise on one side! Typically every three years, the bridge ruptures and water rushes through. The most recent rupture was in March. Check it out here – the photos and videos are wild!
The final moments of the weekend were not our finest… We got lost in the park and had to sprint back to the car. [It meant we weren’t cold anymore, though!] As we were driving out of the national park, we saw a red fox! We almost missed our 3pm flight, but we were starving from skipping breakfast. The only food we had time to purchase was a can of Pringles …not our best lunch! Thankfully, we made it back to Buenos Aires in time for a normal dinner.
ALL of the ice will be melted by 2008!!!!!