Perito Moreno !!! Viva Perito Moreno

Finally I saw the Perito Moreno - the glacier , EL GLACIAR!
This was one of the high points of the tour if not the highest & today it happened... From Calafate, wich is a small town of some 16,000 people (living mostly from tourism coming to the Glaciers national Park), on the border of the Lago Argentino (lake), one drives some 70 kms through Magellan Peninsula (in the lake) to reach the spectacular observation decks. Just amazing... 1 and half hours of pure delight for the eyes and the soul. This is a beautiful planet and Perito Moreno is definitely one of the Wonders of the world. I was very lucky with the weather, mostly sunny but with some clouds bringing in different shades and tonalities to the ice-white. This time of the year the glacier 'touches' land (happens certain years) separating the lake Argentino in two: Now that causes the west arm to have 5 m more than the west one (bigger part, including other glaciers like Upsala, etc). Anyway, there are no words to descrie this wonder, you'll have to wait for the pictures. The glacier is some 45 kms long, in some points 5 kms wide, up to 60 metes high on the border (with the lake) and has a surface of some 220 sqkm, bigger than the area of the city of Buenos Aires. It is one of some 20 or more glaciers which are part of the south Patagonian ice platform (some 15,000 sqkm, some 300 km by 50 km): This region includes many glaciers in Argentina and Chile, some ending in lakes others even in fjords (Chile). This mass of ice and glaciers is due to the unique climatic and relief conditions of this region, getting the humid winds from the west, from the Pacific ocean, which cause rain when hitting these altitudes. Combined with the humidity and high altitudes, the snow becomes ice and stays and forms the glaciers. Most of them are getting smaller except one in Chile (northwest of the area) and Perito Moreno, which is stable. Anyway Perito Moreno is one of the prettiest and most visited, in particular due to its geographical location and easy access to the magnificent views... people come to see it from all over the world.

But why the name of Perito Moreno? If you come to Argentina, you'll see Perito (which means expert) Moreno in many places - there's a park with his name, further north, a lake, river, streets, etc...): He is buried in an small island in Lake Nahuel Huapi, see post above from Bariloche visit. He is some sort of hero in Argentina because he made a proposal to fix the borders between Argentina and Chile (early 20th century) at the highest peaks separating the countries, which are immutable. The chilean wanted to separate according to the water separation line, waters going to the Pacific to Chile, goint to the Atlantic to Argentina. He claimed that man could change the course of rivers but that the peaks were more stable and he saved quite a good piece of land for Argentina, some say some 50 kms more west than with the water line. And at least all the area around San Martin de los Andes remained argentinian. He was a researcher and explorer and lived with the indians (local populations before the european came) and apparently knew the geography and the land very well.

So... now I know what Perito Moreno stands for.. I thought is was 'perrito' which means little dog... silly me.
And I really hope to come back to this area one day... I still would like to do some trekking in the Fitz Roy area around Chalten, further north in the same park.

But it's not over... after the impressive views, I did some trekking on ice, on the glacier itself. That was the best part, really very special. We took a boat to the west section of the glacier, walked some 10 minutes and enteed the glacier some 200 m inland (his is possible because the glacier is more stable and moves slower in the sides), with special metal 'shoes' to grab the ice so as not to slide... a unique experience... great! Wait for the superb photos.... :-).

Tomorrow will be the last day of discovery... :-( it will be a tour to other three glaciers - Upsala (the biggest in this park with over 1000 sqkm), Onneli and Spegazzini (the highest apparently with walls f 100 meters)... I've never seen so many glaciers in my life!