El Calafate - Christmas At The Glacier

El Calafate is home to the famous Perito Moreno Glacier, which is one of the most impressive and, more importantly, accessible glaciers in the world. The infrastructure at the glacier is superb with well-build/maintained staircases to walk close to the glacier's face.

Once we had our first clear view of the glacier, we were speechless. It stretches far into the distance (it has multiple arms that feed the glacier), but at the highest point the front face of the wall was 70m high. The colours ranged from white to a milky blue, to a very intense and shining dark blue that was mesmerising to look at.

In addition, the glacier constantly kept on making noises as huge blocks of ice broke off, falling tens of meters down either within the glacier or into the water in front of our eyes. Watching ice break off is really cool and we were lucky to witness quite a few cracking away.

At one moment, we managed to witness a huge block of ice in the water turning upside down, revealing what the bottom looks like. The first thing that came to mind when I saw it was that it looks very much like a diamond - absolutely crystal clear, shiny and elegant.

We really enjoyed our time looking at the glaciers and observing its little ecosystem. The sheer size of it is difficult to comprehend and was nothing any of us has ever seen (not even in New Zealand!). I am still amazed thinking about it. Places like this really remind me why I love travelling so much.

The following day it was Christmas Eve. Throughout our time in Patagonia, there were literally zero Christmas feelings. No meaningful street decoration or beautifully-decorated Christmas trees. Nada. For a country with a Spanish history that was odd to us. Thus, we were also in no Christmas mood really.

It was of course also strange to have 20+ degrees on the 24th December. To make the most out of it, we cooked some steak and literally ate outside in the sunshine - something really unimaginable in Germany. It didn't feel like Christmas (the second time in two years for me, as there was no Christmas feeling in Vietnam for me last year, either), but we still made the most out of it, calling home, playing yatzy and chatting the day and evening away.

A Christmas well spent with the memories of the simply stunning Perito Moreno Glacier still lingering in the back of our minds.Leggi altro