The Wow Factor!

El Calafate is situated in a bowl in the mountains some 40km wide. Lake Argentino sits in the centre of the bowl at 25km wide and over 100km long making it one of Argentina's biggest lakes. The whole area was carved out by glaciers in the last Ice Age and many still drain in to it giving the lake that milky blue colour so characteristic of glacial run-off. El Calafate itself is a pleasant town that has seen rapid growth due to tourism particularly since the opening of the airport in 2000.

Los Glaciares National Park has the Wow Factor. In abundance! Today we continued its exploration with a boat trip on the Lake. We were driven 40km to the small port of Punta Bandera to embark on our boat, a modern catamaran that cruises through the water at 40km per hour, has covered seating capacity for 200 passengers and plenty of viewing room on deck. We were taken first to Upsala Glacier. This is impossible in winter because of the volume of icebergs, and even today, towards the end of summer, the spectacle was amazing.

Next we travelled to Spegazzini Glacier where the ice was funnelled around the mountain in a long, narrow track, before spreading wide as it reached the water in a cliff about 40m high. The icebergs here were no less spectacular, some translucent, others white, and yet others in dazzling shades of vibrant blue.

Finally we returned to Perito Moreno, whose 60m wall towered above us, as great chunks broke off and disgorged themselves into the sea with a roar and explosion of water, followed by a scattering of new icebergs across the surface of the water. Check out my video at the foot of this post which captures the moment when a wall of ice collapses into the Lake. Perito Moreno has the Wow Factor in abundance!