Perito Moreno is a glacier in southern Patagonia near El Calafate, Argentina. It was named after Francisco P. Moreno. (I thought the "P" stood for Perito, which means expert in Spanish, but it does not. I just checked Wikipedia.) Perito Moreno is famous due to its spectacular scenary but also because it's one of the few glaciers in the world that is stable, meaning it's neither advancing nor retreating.
And we got to hike it!
Our trek started off on a 10 minute boat ride and an hour hike up the moraine to the glacier. The guides fitted and laced up our crampons and gave us a brief demonstration on how to glacier trek. You pretty much keep your feet wide so you don't accidentally poke a hole through your own feet and you stomp around making sure your steps are flat. We split into 3 groups and each group took a different path on the glacier so sometimes it felt like we were the only ones there.
We got to explore all kinds of glacier landscapes from erratic rocks to deep blue lagoons to being in the middle of a giant glacier. By giant, I mean that Perito Moreno is part of the ice field that contains 1/3 of the world's fresh water.
I don't have the words for how immensely beautiful it was so here are some pictures.
After stomping around for 5 hours, the tour treated us to some whisky on glacier ice! What a great way to end an exhausting hike.
-Priscilla
Wow what gorgeous scenery ! It looks like you're having a fabulous time! Was it the same difficulty as the Inca Trail or harder?
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't bad! An hour regular hiking, 3 on the glacier, and an hour back.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete