Glacier Perito Moreno

El Calafate is a pleasant, small town on the banks of Lake Argentino and has grown a lot in recent years due to its relative close proximity to the glacier., Perito Moreno.
This afternoon, Tuesday, we had a good walk around the town and the lake in beautiful sunshine and it is a lot warmer than Puerto Natales was. We continue to be so lucky with the weather.
Currency in Argentina is already proving to be a challenge. In recent years they have experienced raging inflation and before we left UK we were unable to secure any Argentinian pesos and advised to take US dollars. Some fellow travellers told us of a place (not a bank) where we could change dollars into pesos. This turned out to be a small office above a restaurant, all very cloak and dagger. We received 675,000 pesos to 90 dollars; it’s like Monopoly money. We are though finding it difficult relating pesos to dollars to pounds!
Had a very good meal last night. Having had a lot of meat in recent days settled on salmon.
We were collected this morning at 9am for our tour to the glacier. There were about a dozen of us. The hour long drive was excellent driving by the lake with snow capped mountains in the distance. The Andes continue to be a real highlight.
We arrived at the glacier and what a sight it is. Spectacular doesn’t do it justice, neither do photos. We spent a couple of hours admiring it from different levels . From time to time you hear what sounds like thunder as pieces break off and crash into the water.
In the afternoon we took a one hour boat trip to get even closer to the glacier. The trip took us past some small icebergs which demonstrate how cold the water obviously is. This glacier is one of about ten in Patagonia and is the one that is most accessible. Truly amazing.Read more