PATAGONIA-El Calafate

The main attraction for people going to El Calafate lies about 50 miles outside the town at the Pietro Moreno Glacier. Next to the polar ice caps, this is the longest continuous glacier in the world. It is part of the Great Southern Ice Field that extends west of the Andes along the Patagonian Santa Cruz region. It is also located within Glacier National Park. It is the third largest reserve of fresh water in the world. I have put a lot of pictures up of this glacier and many of them look the same but it was only to emphasize how enormous this thing it. You truly cannot comprehend how massive it is until you are next to it.

If you follow the glacier into the distance you can barely see it split into two frozen rivers running to the left and right.
The glacier is draining into Lake Argentinio on it's far left and right sides. But the middle section of the glacier actually extends over onto the land and it is at that contact point that you are continually hearing the cracking and seeing ice fall.
The next two pictures are of the glacier's contact point with the land. We were standing here because the cracking noises were the loudest and ice kept of breaking off as the day heated up. If you look at the next two pictures in succession you can see a piece of ice missing in the second picture...this missing chunk doesn't look that big but it was about the size of a suburban or two. In the picture below, the piece of ice that is still there is actually falling...i got the picture while in the air.
It you look at the dark indigo blue section of ice below...that is where the ice broke off. You can't image how great the colors are with the newly uncovered ice. As the ice continued to break off, we kept on hoping that we would see a frozen caveman or woolly mammoth stuck in the ice...perfectly preserved.



When you stare at this glacier and think about just how long it took for this to form, carve this valley and begin to melt...it makes you understand how we are just a speck in the time line of the world when compared to things like this.



We got in a boat that took us down to within 200 feet of the glacier itself. They won't get much closer than that because from the surface of the water the glacier rises to between 200-250 feet. If pieces break off and fall they can create enormous waves that can capsize the boat.