Glaciers Galore

So, it turned out that glaciers featured quite highly in the Patagonia part of this trip.  First there was Pio XI viewed from Navimag (see previous post, but pictured here to stick with the thematic).  This was spectacular and the boat went really close, but there was a signiciant amount of rain and mist which constrained viewing somewhat.

Next up was  Glacier Grey in Torres del Paine National Park.   

Chris had already been to Torres and done the whole of the famous “W” trek a few years ago (so called because it roughly follows the path of that letter) so we chose this time a scaled down version of the two outer arms plus a little bit in the middle, covering some of the best scenery of the park.  

 I really enjoyed our time here, despite what felt like hurricane force winds on the first day, that really did make it hard to keep my feet on the ground at times (check out my hair!). 

The walk to the glacier was fantastic, great scenery all the way, and the glacier itself did not disappoint. 

We stayed in a lovely little refugio that night, right by the glacier, providing welcome shelter from those gale force winds.

This is the view from the boat crossing Lake Pehoe on the second day, after the glacier walk. 

The weather then turned quite scorchio, which was a bit of a welcome surprise, allowing me to walk in shorts which made me very happy! 

 We went on a short walk in the centre of the park, going to a viewpoint of “Los Cuernos”, one of the signature views of the park.  The scenery here really was stunning.

 

On our last day in the park, we walked up to the “Torres”, named after the Towers, as seen on the photo.  I found this something of a challenge, especially as we had a very tight timetable, to get back to catch an unmissable onward transfer.  Despite starting off at 6am, we were still running the last bit back.  But it was worth it, the view at the top of the Towers is incredible.

There hasn't been much mention of Llama awards recently, mainly due to the slight disagreements between myself and Christopher as to exactly how they should be awarded. However, we concluded that TDP should get a gold, due to the large array of amazing walking and scenery. 

The third glacier was the absolutely stunning Perito Mereno, near El Calafate.  In the same way that Iguacu cannot be described as “just a waterfall”,  this is far more than “just a glacier”.  I’ve seen a fair number of glaciers around the world on my travels, and this totally stood out from anything I’ve ever seen before.  It’s vast, it’s growing, ice breaks off on a frequent basis, making loud cracking sounds, and there’s lots of mini icebergs floating around.  

One of the faces can be viewed from a boat trip and the other from a set of fairly amazing walkways built around this section of the national park.  We happily spent a good few hours wandering around these walkways, viewing the glacier from every possible angle.  And this wasn’t just me being a geeky geographer, everyone we met in Argentina who had been here was equally enthusiastic about it.  We were in firm agreement that another gold llama award was appropriate.

The final glacier really belongs in the next post, and in the end we didn’t view it as close up as we had planned, but it still deserves a mention here– that is Glacier Martial in Ushuaia.