P.N. Los Glaciares: Perito Moreno

We set our alarm to prepare our gear for the trekking tour and to buy some snacks for the afternoon. We took gloves and warm hats to be prepared. Also we put on the sunscreen now because the sun hits different if it's reflected from the ice. For lunch we went to a nearby gas station that offered sandwiches, which turned out pretty expensive but super big 🤩 We managed to do that on time so we still had plenty of time to enjoy the big breakfast buffet. There was also enough time to ask the receptionist about tickets to go to El Chalten the next day. She said that it's not a problem and she'll take care of it by the time we return from the tour. And the bus came to pick us up by 10am sharp. So everything went pretty smooth ☺️
We were transferred from the minibus to a big bus in a group of around 30 people. On the minibus we got into a conversation with a man about insects, how he got attacked by swarm of bees in Tunesia and that there are small insects in the glaciers 😁 Very random and very entertaining! Also our tour guide was very entertaining with bad puns and just a natural charm. She just kept on bubbling over the speaker whatever came to her mind 😅 Our first stop was after about an hour at the entrance of the National Park Los Glaciares where we paid the fee and shortly after we got the first sight of the magnificent glacier Perito Moreno at a viewpoint. It was a stunning sight of intense shining blue in contrast to the white top layers.

We only had 5 minutes then we continued on to our first proper stop, the walkways "Las pasarelas". They are a network of 4 boardwalks on the opposite side of the glacier leading to different views 🏔️ We were quickly on our way to the coastal walkway which offered views on the North face of the Perito Moreno glacier. We were lucky as the clouds opened every once in a while and let the sun through to illuminate the ice walls. The broken pieces swimming in the water had all kinds of blue shades 💙 It was an amazing experience and we spent almost an hour just sitting there, eating our lunch and watching the glacier. Every now and then you could hear it cracking and sometimes some parts fell into the water.
We got picked up by the bus again and brought to the docks where we boarded a boat that brought us pretty close by to the walls of the glacier. At the point where we passed it was around 50 metres high and massive! Deep in the crevices the intense blue color was shining bright... The boat docked at a beach near the glacier and we got off board. We made a short stop at a hut to drop off unnecessary packs and then continued on to get the crampons. Fully equipped we walked on the glacier with the crampons crunching the ice under us and the omnipresent blue whites 🥰 It was surreal and absolutely beautiful how the ice colours changed constantly. We walked for about an hour with many stops for taking pictures and drinking glacier water straight from the source 💧 Shortly before leaving the ice field there was a little ice bar with Whiskey on the rocks, chocolate and ice cold glacier water. A perfect finish to the glacier walk!
After leaving behind the gear we walked back to the beach and had some nice, hot coffee. Half an hour later we were rushed to the boat, when Julia asked why they're hurrying the sailor said that the ice is coming. We joked about it but as we were on the water I saw the ice pieces closing in on the beach and the boat drove slowly close to the shore... Still we hit some ice pieces that scratched loudly at the hull 😱 Quite the scary sound but we made it through safely and back to the other side 😌

On the way back to town we slept a bit and got dropped off at our hotel at 8 where we got the bus tickets for the next day. Then we grabbed our luggage and walked for 1.5 kilometers to the hostel where we're staying tonight. There was an issue with the payment and we got it deducted from the credit card which means that it costs double for us. We tried to explain that it's possible to pay in cash but she said she didn't know and needed to talk to the manager 🙄 But we were hungry and didn't want to bother with it right now, so we dropped our luggage in the room and went to town for dinner. Yesterday we had seen a burger place with Guacamole and Diablo burger so we checked that out 🍔 Afterwards we went to the main square because it's the last day of the 10 days lasting lake festival with live music at night. Tonight a Mexican band named "Los Angeles Azules" are playing. They're quite famous in Mexico and Julia knows a few songs. We were there for about 1.5 hours and danced a bit but we were also very tired from the long day and came back around 1 at the hostel.Read more