We gathered this a am for a 6:30 am breakfast, and a 7:20 departure to the southern entrance to the Park. Our trip today was to explore the Perito Moreno Glacier. The rest of the group would be exploring the glacier up close and personal, doing a Glacier walk with a mountain guide. Unfortunately, there is an age restriction of 65 ( I’ve been told it is insurance) so My partner, who had just crossed multiple mountain passes in the Andes was not allowed to participate! The two of us decided to do our own thing at the Glacier. 

Once we dropped off the rest of the group at the boat which would take them across the lake to the beginning of their hike, Flora our guide for the day together with Dan and I headed to the beginning of the boardwalk that had several balconies and view points for the entire Glacier face. This Glacier is still moving forward off the steep slope at a speed of about 1 m per day. However, because of the calving action at the face, it remains relatively stable.

As we walked through the fabulous boardwalk created for this trek, we got to see many vantage points for both the southern exposure, the land contact area and the northern exposure. Photo opts abounded!

Just after Dan had had a discussion with Flora about some of the garbage we saw, and had seen on our hikes, his water bottle falls out of his pack and over the rail! Well, within seconds, he reacted and retrieved his bottle, but not without some risks!!! ( especially to his ego!!).

The trail took us about 2 hours to complete, traveling up and down multiple steps to get to all the great viewing points.

Once we completed the trail, Dan and I decided to do the boat ride to the face of the Glacier. It’s hard to imagine a wall of fairly solid ice 50-75 m in height, and going a further 150 m below the surface of the water. While I have many photos, the one below showing a 4 storey boat dwarfed by the ice face puts it all into perspective.

Our boat captain was able to turn the boat on a dime allowing viewing from all sides of the boat, and great photo opts!

After about an hour of playing in front of the north face of the glacier, we docked and Dan and I headed up to the restaurant for a nice lunch while we waited for our tour family to return from their ice hike!  When we met up with them, we were able to see some of their pics, and heard that they even got a shot of whiskey on “Glacial” rocks while on the Glacier!  Sounded like they had a great time as well!

After some more viewing opts for the rest of the group, we boarded the bus and headed back to El Calafante. We regrouped around 7 for dinner, and headed out to a small family run restaurant that was just off the beaten track. Food there was absolutely amazing!
 

Dan even tried a local delicacy, Guanaco!

All in all, an amazing day topped offed with a wonderful bottle of Argentinian Malbec!  Life is Good!

Tomorrow we are off to Buenos Aires!  Until then!