Exploring the Perito Moreno Glacier

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WELL GOOD morning. We’ve now left El Calafate and heading out in that direction towards Perito Moreno Glacier. It’s only slightly above freezing at the moment so it’s pretty chilly out here. There are some spectacular mountains over there. There’s been a very beautiful sunrise which we’ve just been photographing. There’s another seventy kilometres to go before we hit the glaciers, so it’s going to be a very exciting day.

Well greetings from the Perito Moreno Glacier. We’re just tracking backwards and forwards across the front of it at the moment hoping to catch some calving ice. It’s hard to say whether that is going to happen today. It is quite a spectacular glacier. The front is about seventy metres high. I think the water is about a hundred and sixty metres deep. The ice is moving forward at about 1.8 metres per day so it’s fairly fast, certainly one of the fastest glaciers in the world. It’s fed by an ice field around mountains about 3000 metres high. So, we’re getting quite a bit higher now here in the Andes. We’re just coming to the end of it before turning around and heading back the other way to see the other side.

It’s quite a spectacular little glacier here and obviously it’s pretty busy here with the boat but that would be expected. The mountains are around 3000 metres high and this is apparently the largest lake in Argentina. We’re in a tiny little arm of it. It is about 100 metres above sea level so this ice has come down quite a long way as it moves down quite fast. So, we’re just exploring this little glacier for a while and as soon as we turn around, I’m going to start taking a lot of pictures again. That’s about it. We’re here for today and heading back to El Calafate this afternoon and then heading further north. Apparently, the ice field that feeds this glacier (amongst others) is the third largest ice field in the world behind Antarctica and Greenland. I’ve been to Antarctica so I’ve just got to go up to Greenland.

I should also mention the conditions here are perfect for photography with the sky being overcast. You can see the blue in the ice there. That is really brought out on the overcast days but much less so on sunny days. That’s something I learned down in Antarctica. You can see the ice is very rugged. It has been crevassed a lot and been distorted and crunched up a lot on its journey down from the mountains. There are some very spectacular peaks up there. Anyway, I’ve got to go back to the photography and make the most of this absolutely amazing spot.

I’m now at a lookout above the glacier having come back from the boat. It’s quite spectacular and there are bit and pieces breaking off at the moment. Quite a large piece came off over there just before. There’s a whole different perspective from up here because you can see across the top of the glacier to where it rises up onto the mountains. There’s a bit of mist over the top of the mountains. The glacier is about thirty kilometres long and as I mentioned before advancing about 1.8 metres per day.

There’s a lot going on here. The glacier goes right up to this headland here and on the other side is the lake we were cruising on before. That was actually blocked off at one stage with the glacier going right against here. That broke through about a year ago draining much of that lake into here. This is the main lake. That sounds like thunder, but it’s actually the ice calving. It’s quite unstable here. Anyway, I’m going to see if I can capture some more calvings and things and I’ll see you soon.