After the short (1 hour) boat tour to the South wall of the glacier, we boarded the bus again and continued on the winding roads upwards of the Magellan peninsula. Once on the top, we had almost three hours to wander around the “pasarelas” (walkways), that took us up and down to different levels of the front and sides of the glaciers.
The view was breathtaking! It was hard to try to find a way to connect this view of raw nature to something familiar. The closest we came was an “Ice Palace” scene from an animated movie. Nothing prepared you, not even the two previous excursions” for the impact of standing in front of the PERITO MORENO.
During the three hours that we wondered around, the weather changed frequently and with it the lights reflected by the glacier.
Turning your face to the North, you overlooked the Lago Argentino with the Cordilleras in the background.
Once in the Parque Nacional de los Glaciares again, we took the Safari Nautica excursion with a boat to get us close to the South Wall of the Perito Moreno. The day before we approached the North Wall and were not able to see the Southern front.
The Lago Argentino is the Southern most and largest lake of Argentina. It has an average of 150 meters of depth. The water of the Lago Argentino looks very milky, which are mineral deposits from the glaciers and gives it a turquoise color when sunny.The waters of the lake flow into the río Santa Cruz which flows into the Atlantic Ocean.
While walking on the shores of the lake a lonely ice patch with a funny arrangement of stones smiled up at me
The way the light hit the glacier allowed us the spectacle of beautiful, almost unreal shades of blue.
As the glacier advances,the front pushes into the Magellan Peninsula. It closes the South Wall off from the Lake Argentino. This causes a considerable rise in water levels. Every two to four years the pressure becomes to much and the glacier breaks, leaving a passage between open for the water to flow into the Northern arm of the lake.
The reason that most (if not all) tourists come to El Calafate, is to visit the majestic Glacier “Perito Moreno”.
A glacier is a frozen river. There are many different kinds of glaciers: dry ones, big, small, ending into a lake, retrieving and advancing ones. We heard so much information over the last two days about glaciers, that we are on overload. The most impressive fact for me was that thecompacted ice of the Perito Moreno (at the front) is about 400 years old.
a national park in the Santa Cruz Province, in Argentine Patagonia. It comprises an area of 4459 km². In 1981 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
and get on a boat to float around the Lago Argentino.
We started out by heading into the Brazo Norte (North Arm) and towards the Upsala Glaciers.
The closer we got, the more tempanos (icebergs) were floating past us. The captain of the boat already had warned us that the access to the Upsala glacier might be blocked due to a great number of tempanos that the glacier had calfed.
The photo above shows Glaciar Upsala in the distance. In the end, we were not able to go into that “arm” of the lake, since too many tempanos were obstructing the entry. We floated around the icebergs for a while thought to give all of the passengers time to take pictures.
The ice looks an incredible blue, because the snow gets compacted over hundreds of years on top of each other. That still leaves pockets of air that with the light appears in amazing shades of blue.
In front of the Glaciar Spegazzini.
We headed back out of the brazo norte and went towards the North wall of the Perito Moreno. What an incredible view! The backdrop of the mountains covered in snow, the lake in the front and the ice pillars over 70 meters tall are unforgetable.
Here a short video clip of our day long tour Around the Parque Nacional de los Glaciares
Berberis buxifolia, common name the Magellan Barberry, in Spanish Calafate, is an evergreen shrub, with shiny box-like leaves. The Calafate is native to the south of Argentina and Chile and is a symbol of Patagonia.
The Legend of the “Calafate” fruit (from Wikipedia):
En una tradición tehuelche se narra que hace mucho tiempo, los seres humanos y las aves de la Patagonia debían emigrar hacia el norte todos los inviernos por la escasez de alimento. En una toldería tehuelche había una anciana chamán llamada Koonex, que ya no era capaz de emprender el largo viaje, así que sus parientes le hicieron un toldo con pieles de guanaco, le dejaron utensilios y alimentos y se marcharon. La anciana se quedó sola y cayó en un sueño profundo
En la primavera siguiente, algunos pájaros que volvían del norte se posaron en el toldo de Koonek y oyeron cómo la voz de la anciana los reprendía por haberla abandonado. Ella les dijo que los entendía y que por eso haría algo para que nunca más tuvieran que irse y dejarla allí. Cuando el toldo voló, los pájaros pudieron ver que debajo ya no estaba Koonex, sino una planta espinosa de flores amarillas.
Cuando maduraron los frutos, personas y animales notaron que se podían comer y que eran buenos. Por eso ya no fue necesario emigrar hacia el norte. Se cuenta que los tehuelches desparramaron las semillas del calafate (koonex en su lengua) por toda la Patagonia y que quien pruebe sus frutos ya no necesita irse.
As we were about to board the plane at the national Aeroparque in Buenos Aires, we noticed that we had a surprise stop over in Ushuaia. Althought this was going to add about 2 hours to our plane trip, I was excited, since Ushuaia is the Southernmost city in the world (well… looks like two other “places” (Puerto Williams and Punta Arena) are trying to claim that status) and in Tierra del Fuego.
Ushuaia (Spanish pronunciation: [uˈswaja], English: /uːˈʃwaɪ.ə/) is the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego. It is commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world.[2][3] Ushuaia is located in a wide bay on the southern coast of the island of Tierra del Fuego, bounded on the north by the Martial mountain range and on the south by the Beagle Channel. Its population is estimated today at about 64,000.[4] It is the only municipality in the Department of Ushuaia, which has an area of 9,390 km2 (3,625 sq mi).
The weather was just beautiful as we were descending across the Andes mountains. A few times it looked like we could just jump out of the airplane and land on the mountain top.
Not before long we saw the Beagle Channel and then to the left of us we saw the city of Ushuaia with a very short landing strip, that looked like to be on a man made ice extension into the water. To the left of us snow capped mountains, to the right of us mountains and under us water. Incredible….
All of the passengers clapped, when the pilot landed the airplane safely on the ground. Touchdown in Tierra del Fuego.
Flying almost to the end of the South American continent and walking on the Perito Moreno glacier has been on my list of places to travel for a while now. It looks like that it will become a reality in a few days. I will be heading South to the Santa Cruz province, fly into Calafate and hopefully be able to do a Mini-Trekk on the ice.
The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. The terminus of the Perito Moreno Glacier is 5 kilometres (3 mi) wide, with an average height of 60 m (200 ft) above the surface of the water of Lake Argentino, in Argentina. It has a total ice depth of 170 metres (558 ft). It advances at a speed of up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) per day (around 700 metres (2,300 ft) per year), although it loses mass at approximately the same rate, meaning that aside from small variations, its terminus has not advanced or receded in the past 90 years. At its deepest part, the glacier has a depth of approximately 700 metres (2,300 ft).
The Perito Moreno glacier as see on Google Earth. It shows nicely how the glacier advanced and cuts Lago Argentino into two different lakes.
When I lived in Argentina as a teenager and arrived “famished” at home from school, Valeria (who helped us clean and cook) waited for me many times with some freshly baked empanadas.
After many years, my mom had moved away and then back to Buenos Aires, the two of them connected again. Valeria was so kind to make her famous empanadas for me again today and allowed me to film her.
I don’t have any memories that go beyond the 10 years that I have lived in Jacksonville, Florida. There are no “old” friends that I run into randomly on the streets, no old teachers or people that went to school with me. There are no places that I can have a memory of to have visited with my father…
When I come and visit Buenos Aires all of that changes. There are memories for me on many streets, restaurants, stores, neighborhoods and areas. There are “traditions” that allow me to follow in the footsteps of my parents and grandparents.
My father took me to the restaurant the first time I visited Argentina, when I was 12 years old. He told me the story that even my grandfather (who had moved back to Germany) and my grandmother (who I had never met) used to come in the 50’s to this restaurant. Since then I have been back many times with my own children who are now growing up in the USA.
When you look around the restaurant, NOTHING seems to have changed. The same dark wood paneling, the same coat of arms of the different provinces of Argentina, the same hanging plants, the same mozos (waiters) in their white jackets and black bowties… and most importantly the same Bife de Chorizo with “air puffed” potatoes.
Tradition and memories do matter! Everything tastes better with them.
San Isidro holds many memories for me. Libertador… Via Flaminia… Plaza de San Isidro… Barrancas…
Today my mom and I strolled around San Isidro and visited the Cathedral across the famous Plaza de San Isidro and then walked to the Museo Histórico Municipal General Pueyrredón, which I had never been to before.
Museo Histórico Municipal General Pueyrredón
It is said, that General Pueyrredón met with General José de San Martín under this Algarrobo tree to plan the campaign to liberate the countries of South America.
The look of these two cats, lazily enjoying the winter sun, sums up our stroll through San Isidro today.
