day 5: chilling with p. moreno

day 5 was also verrr early because we had an 8am bus out of el calafate to see the glacier perito moreno. i knew perito moreno existed, but had no idea how unbelievable it was. in the midst of "global warming", or whatever you think it is that's making the earth warmer, perito moreno is still advancing, unlike other glaciers. over 5km wide, and 30km deep (and almost 300 feet tall out of the water, another 300 feet lie beneath the water), it creeps forward everyday, causing huge chunks of ancient, condensed ice to fall into the icy lake that it created. it really is incredible. we got to the welcome center at the top, and ran into an old irish couple who spoke english. they highly recommended the boat tour, so we decided to take the bus 15 minutes back down the mountainside to catch the next boat.

view from the bus ride to perito

perito moreno from the bus

the bus driver was nice enough to pull over so we could snap some fotografías

hahahahha

thaaa boat

perito from the boat

for an additional 500 pesos, you could trek on the glacier for an hour

the boat ride was so worth it, vale la pena, as the argentines say (literally, "it is worth the pain"). we also agreed that it was not only vale la pena, but los pesos as well. because perito is still active, we were only allowed to get within 400 feet or so of it, in case any chunks fell off. the boat tour was about an hour long, and after, we returned to the welcome center, where we tried to eat our poverty lunch inside because it was cold, but got kicked out. so, we ate on the curb of the parking lot with our bread, cheese, and carrots. #homelesspeopleproblems

our bus didn't leave til 4pm to pick us up and return to calafate, so we decided to explore the over 2 km of boardwalks that surround perito moreno. bri's guidebook said to plan on spending 2 hours on this said boardwalk to take pictures from every possible angle. we spent over 2 hours just walking around and listening to the ice fall. the boardwalks are beautiful and new, and the parque nacional de glaciares did a really nice job making sure the aesthetics of the boardwalk didn't take away from the natural beauty of the glacier. it's a tough decision: perito moreno is beautiful and people should have the ability to see it up close, but tourism is at the expense of destroying the nature around it by constructing boardwalks, a boat launch, etc. i bet in the next decade or so, the area will be much more touristy, but for now, it is a good balance between tourism and natural beauty.

ice chunks

you can see how extensive the boardwalk is

just chillin' with p. morenes

we hopped on the bus right at 4pm, arrived back in el calafate by 5:30, had an early dinner, and packed our stuff up for another early (8am) bus to el chaltén: the final destination of the trip!