Perito Moreno

Perito Moreno is probably one of the most famous glaciers in the world. This is because due to its vicinity to the Magallanes island it creates a unique growing and breaking process, at every breaking (which happens only once every few years) creating beautiful archways to let the Rico arm of Argentino lake flow through.
We get the chance to learn a lot about this glacier and even walk on the ice during the so called Minitrekking. It formed because of the strong patagonian wind, which carries clouds loaded with water from the Pacific Ocean towards the Andes, where they unload as snow (in the mountains that appear on the pictures it snows 360 days per year). The snow masses are compressed over many years until they become ice, the spikes showing how the "flows" of snow had to go over stones and through bottlenecks. Although Perito Moreno grows about 2m per day, it is not enough to balance the pace at which it melts. As almost all other glaciers in the world, it is receding ever faster.Read more