Monday, Mar 10 – Day 84
We caught the 8:30 bus to Perito Moreno, which is 35 miles away but takes an hour and a half to reach. The road follows along the shore of Lago Argentina, the largest lake in the entire country. It covers some 1,500 square kilometers, and was formed about 15,000 years ago. It has an average depth of 450 feet, and a maximum depth of 1,500 feet! The color of the water is an eerie milky-blue. Not crystal clear, as I thought it would be. The cloudiness comes from the minerals and sediment that the glacier gathers on its way down the mountain side. The ice melts and the sediment is suspended in the water. It’s thin enough to disburse the sunlight, but not thick enough to change the color of the water. The really odd part is that, outside of the city of El Calafate, it looks like there is not a single person living on it.
The Patagonian ice field is second in size only to Antarctica. It is just stunning in its size and emptiness. Perito Moreno is the only glacier in the world that is still actually growing. The ice field stretches some 50 miles up the valley and is about 2 miles wide where it falls into the lake. The portion of the glacier that you actually see tops out at about 165 feet above the water-line. Below the waterline is another 400 feet of ice. Every 5 or 10 minutes, you hear what sounds just like thunder as large chunks of ice calve off into the lake. One of the largest pieces we saw fall had to be about the size of a 10-story building. Look at it in comparison to the boat and the people. It was absolutely amazing.
We caught the 8:30 bus to Perito Moreno, which is 35 miles away but takes an hour and a half to reach. The road follows along the shore of Lago Argentina, the largest lake in the entire country. It covers some 1,500 square kilometers, and was formed about 15,000 years ago. It has an average depth of 450 feet, and a maximum depth of 1,500 feet! The color of the water is an eerie milky-blue. Not crystal clear, as I thought it would be. The cloudiness comes from the minerals and sediment that the glacier gathers on its way down the mountain side. The ice melts and the sediment is suspended in the water. It’s thin enough to disburse the sunlight, but not thick enough to change the color of the water. The really odd part is that, outside of the city of El Calafate, it looks like there is not a single person living on it.
The Patagonian ice field is second in size only to Antarctica. It is just stunning in its size and emptiness. Perito Moreno is the only glacier in the world that is still actually growing. The ice field stretches some 50 miles up the valley and is about 2 miles wide where it falls into the lake. The portion of the glacier that you actually see tops out at about 165 feet above the water-line. Below the waterline is another 400 feet of ice. Every 5 or 10 minutes, you hear what sounds just like thunder as large chunks of ice calve off into the lake. One of the largest pieces we saw fall had to be about the size of a 10-story building. Look at it in comparison to the boat and the people. It was absolutely amazing.
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