March 17, 2014 - Monday. Calafate, Argentina

MARCH 17, 2014 - MONDAY   Glacier Moreno

BOTTOM LINE:
Took city bus to Los Glaciares, Perito Moreno

BACK STORY:
After packing up our day packs, having breakfast and picking up our bagged lunches that we ordered from the hotel we hiked up to the city bus station to catch a 9:30am bus up to the "Moreno Glaciar."

It was a cool brisk day with clear blue skies...perfect for an outing.  The bus was more of an oversized van with high ceilings, perfect for viewing upwards and picture taking.  I could feel that this was going to be a day of beauty...and beauty it was.

As we headed out of town and into the plains area we could see in the distance spectacular huge snow covered peaks. I actually swelled up with tears and the incredible sight!  Unlike tour buses, there was unfortunately no commentary.  The bus driver was quiet and sent out vibes to not be bothered.  His job was to safely transport a bunch of people round trip to a destination.  Thankfully we had maps and a sense of where we were going.

Driving toward the glacier national park

As we made it up a twisty mountain road we stopped at a Los Glaciares National Park entrance where a woman boarded the bus and systematically collected day use fees of $13 per person.  A woman across from us said in broken English that in the past there was no entrance fee to pay.

park entrance

A few miles into the park we could see the aqua blue glacial waters of Lago Argentino, the largest lake in Argentina.  The bus descended into a parking lot where people were boarding a boat.  We were a bit confused as the bus driver rattled off something and people started getting off of our bus.

At this point we had befriended a Japanese couple and their three year old daughter who had taken a years sabbatical and were traveling around the world.  They spoke no Spanish but could speak English, so they stuck close to us.  We were able to understand that this was a stop for those that wanted to go on a one hour boat excursion up to the face of the Moreno Glacier.  The bus would circle back in one hour and pick us up and take us to the observation deck where we would have approximately three hours to hike, get lunch or whatever.

My unspoken thinking was, "how different can another glacier be?"  We have seen the glaciers in Alaska, Canada and just saw Frans Joseph and Fox Glaciers in New Zealand.  Just then Bruce said, "we've come this far so it wouldn't make sense not to go!"  I love this guy of mine!

We paid our money, boarded the boat and we were off for one of the most stunning views of my life. As the boat took off the first thing we saw was a large blue floating iceberg.  We were told that it was a piece of ice that had broken off of the main glacier and was floating in the lake.

first iceberg

As the boat turned a bend in the lake shore, our view opened up to the glacier which lay before us. Glistening like various shades of aqua Moreno glass from Italy, this mass of growing ice was a scientific splendor. In the blink of an eye I was quietly crying at the privilege I was having at viewing this.  As I looked through blurry eyes, the tops of the mass resembled the meringue on top of a "lemon-you-rang" pie...a name our daughter Kimberly called her favorite type of pie.

First glimpse of glacier from boat

Massive walls of ice

spectacular upheaval of traveling ice

 My thoughts instantly darted to my Dad and how much he would have enjoyed seeing this (luckily we got to share an Alaska trip with him in 1989 and saw the glacier out of Anchorage)...to our girls and how much I wanted to share another piece God's creation...to my "science" neighbor and friend Diane and how much I wished she were standing next to me witnessing it.  I knew that any pictures that I could possibly take would pale to the beauty of the glacier, but what the heck...I started clicking away!

unusual formations and colors

telephoto of spires of ice

designs left on rocks by moving ice

meringue-like tops of glacier

The boat slowly moved around the area allowing us to see all angles.  At one point I saw small moving specks on the ice to one side.  I took a picture and immediately enlarged it to find a group of people hiking across the ice! I later found out that it was an excursion option to practice trekking over the glacier's surface. It was a two hour stroll amidst deep blue ice cracks, slopes and underground water channels...thank you but not my cup of tea.

Ice trekking over a moving glacier!

The Moreno Glacier is a glacier that is growing.  As the massive Andes Mountain range stalls clouds which then dump rain and snow onto the peaks, the accumulated snow weight bears down on the snow below.  The compressions and pressure causes the snow and ice to move down the glacier slope at a rate of six feet per day.  When the glacier extends beyond the shore line of land it floats on the lake until the fragile mass breaks off into the water causing icebergs which then float and move around in the lake due to wind or currents.  Ninety percent of the iceberg lies under the water surface!

As glacier surfaces go, Argentina has the third largest glacial area next to Antarctica and Greenland.  This glacier was just one of the many in Argentina.

An hour later we disembarked and were picked up by our bus driver.  He took us up the mountain and down the other side to the end of the road.  There we found a cafeteria, banos, and a well planned maze of metal meshed hiking and viewing platforms which took you front and center to the area of the glacier that has the most active break-offs.  There were plenty of benches for sitting.

As we took a seat to enjoy our bag lunch from the hotel we could hear people "oooing and awwwing."  Suddenly we started hearing the buckling, cracking, scraping and heaving sound of ice moving and then crashing into the lake.  We finished eating and quickly made our way down, down, down to the lowest level and closest viewing platform to the glacier.

view of enormous Glacier Moreno

awestruck!

shades of blue cracks, holes and fishers

breaking off of glacier

We were separated by a narrow channel of lake water that had a swift moving current.  The crashing sound that we were hearing were pieces of ice that were breaking off all over the glacier surface and falling into the crevices and eventual water below.  The current was carrying the ice debris and forming a floating platform to one side.  Our eyes were glued to the outer vertical edge of the glacier that would every few minutes succumb to the intense pressure of moving ice and send a broken chunk or shard of ice crashing and splashing into the water below.  Wave action followed with such intensity that some chunks ended up on surrounding rocks.

It was a spectacular sight and a spectacular day!