Day 32 - Scotch on the rocks

Perito Moreno Glacier

Without a car the options for visiting local attractions can be limiting, and in our case the thing we wanted to do could only be done as part of a tour. We had booked a "mini-trek" on the Perito Moreno glacier, only provided by one company in El Calafate.

We met our bus at 9am and then had to endure the hotel drive around to pick up more people .... some of whom weren't even ready yet. It was a little frustrating, especially considering that some of the hotels were closer to the office than we had to walk to get the bus!

We had been a little unsure about whether we were really up for another glacier visit after Antarctica, but we're glad we decided to go through with it. In Antarctica we weren't allowed to get too close to the glaciers, but here we had a great view and in addition this one calves quite often, we saw many chunks of ice fall into to water with loud booms echoing off the glacier as the ice hit the water.

The morning activity was viewing the glacier from the platforms built nearby (it moves about two metres per day in the centre, 40cm at the edges, not that we could notice), having lunch, then following the coastal trail to meet the bus. The bus then took us to a jetty, where we boarded a boat that took us to the beginning of the glacier trek by the edge of the glacier.

The trek involved us getting fitted with crampons, a quick lesson on how to walk, legs apart, knees bent going down hills, then we were off.  The top of the glacier was dirty in parts, but we were able to fill up our water bottles at some flowing streams of melting glacier ice, and the water was as you'd expect - clear, fresh and cold. After about an hour and a half of walking over the amazing ice landscape, we were treated to some chocolate and a glass of scotch on freshly crushed glacier ice - a great way to end the trek!