Day 8 - El condor pasa

The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the glaciers in the Los Glaciares National Park. The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Icefield, the world's third largest freshwater reserve. The glacier ends in a fjord in the arms of the Argentino lake. The ice is about 60 m high and 5 km wide. The glacier is about 30 km long. By day the glacier slides upto 2 meters. But every day he loses 2 meters by calving icebergs. So he kind of remains in place. The glacier is named after Francisco Moreno, an Argentine explorer who explored this area in the 19th century and managed to keep it out Chilean hands.

Today we visit the glacier and this is one of the highlights of the trip.

The journey by bus takes about an hour. While we're on the road holding a photo stop to admire the beautiful Lago Argentino and the snow-capped Andean peaks, a flock of condors come take a look. Wow, what failed the last time in Ecuador has now happened: I can admire  the flight of the condor closely. Condors live as a couple. If one dies, the other dies too. Condors have no claws to catch prey. They are scavengers and are therefore called the cleaners of the plains. They eat  what is left by the foxes and other predators. It is an impressive sight to see birds of about 12 kg flying through the air. They therefore need strong winds to be able to fly. With their wing span of about 3 meters, they cope nicely.

We take the catamaran to sail up to 300 m of the glacier. The view is incredible. The ice has a blue color in all shades. The light plays with it. Ice of course has no color, but due to the compression of the lower layers, the color is seemingly blue. The prism effect. 

In front of the glacier, there are big pieces of broken glacier ice. Everyone loves to capture the falling of such a piece on camera. The first piece is only small, but even small pieces have their charm. However, a little later a larger piece breaks  off, followed by a gigantic piece. It collapses into the water with a thundering roar..

After an hour on the water, we go to the self-service restaurant for a quick lunch.

After lunch we walk for about two hours around the glacier. The Argentines have a wonderful walkway built along the shore side. This way we can admire the glacier from above and from lower-level platforms. The ice is huge.

It is an incredible spectacle. And it's nice because we have to make little effort to go to the glacier, unlike other glaciers.

Along the way we hear the creaking of the glacier. Occasionally we hear a muffled bang like a gunshot. Another piece of ice that has broken off. A large piece occasionally causes big waves in the water. 

This is how it goes every day.

Slowly moving and breaking off explosively. Life as it is for a glacier.