Travel article: Perito Moreno

We are ready to discover a monster and icon of Patagonia, the famous glacier Perito Moreno.

To get there from El Chalten, we boarded a bus for 3 hours on the famous Ruta 40, ride which passed very quickly in the middle of the plains, guanacos and skirting the lakes Viedma and Argentino, with crystal colors. Lakes that by the way are much more beautiful from far than close (optical effect?).

The sadly famous Patagonian wind had risen and take everything away! (including us, we barely stand up)

We arrive at El Calafate, base to discover the Perito Moreno Glacier. Our hostel has a problem (double booking again ?!) but we are upgraded to a top class apartment with breathtaking views of Lake Argentino. We can’t complain!

We quickly visited the Laguna Ninez Reserve and see many birds and flamingos.

To avoid the crowd we decided to visit the glacier from 1pm to 7.30pm (tourist buses leaving the site around 1pm in general). Well we sure did well, we were almost alone on the trails (well we were 4 with our new friends of the day!).

We are immediately captivated by the vastness of the glacier!

70 meters above the water, more than 700 meters deep in some places, 30 kms long and 250 kms2 of ice, it is huge.

Because of its orientation, it is one of the few Patagonian glaciers that doesn’t decrease in size because of global warming, we are lucky.

The afternoon is sunny and the sun is reflected in the ice that looks very much like meringue!

Every 15 minutes a roar sounds, a piece of glacier comes off for our greatest pleasure, causing a big wave in the turquoise lake on which it is. The colors change as the day goes, it's amazing.

5 hours on the site were not too much to inspect it in all its forms and we came back to El Calafate delighted (and freezing)!

No photo does justice to this glacier, one of our best travel memories!

Some recommendations:

# prices in pesos at the rate of April 2019: 1 euro = 48 pesos. Argentina= inflation at 50% each year ... this greatly affects the price of a trip (and especially the lives of locals who year after year see their purchasing power decreasing drastically ...) .

# all ATMs charge huge fees! We found the cheapest: Banco De la Nacion with 215 pesos for a maximum of 4,000 pesos per withdrawal.

# Many buses are organized from El Calafate to reach the glacier. 1h30 journey for 800 pesos return tickets per person. We recommend the one of the afternoon and the last return (7.30pm) to be alone in front of the monster!

# entrance to the glacier: 700 pesos per person. Cash only.

# It is possible to walk on the glacier (very expensive) or to cruise (800 pesos) but we were already so close, we did not feel the need to get closer.

# accommodation: Keoken Hotel for 900 pesos a night. The hostel looked very good but we were moved and upgraded for free.

# transport to Puerto Natales: 6 hours bus (includes a border crossing) for 850 pesos per person. Book it as soon as you can, we got the last tickets by buying 2 Days tickets in advance and being off-season.

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