Boat trip – Thuesday 12.12.2023
So our planned tour to the glaciers in the area was scheduled for today. Yesterday we booked a 7-hour boat tour across Lake Argentino, which would take us to the three worth seeing glaciers in the area (Upsala, Spegazzini and Perito-Moreno). The Spegazzini Glacier was the highest, the Upsala Glacier was the largest and the Perito Moreno was certainly the most famous. We chose this boat tour because we not only wanted to see the Perito-Merno, but also the other glaciers. Neither of us found the mini-trekking on the ice, which many people do here to take advantage of the unique opportunity to walk on a glacier, that interesting, as we have both been on glaciers before and will certainly do so in the future or other times will hike on a glacier.
Since the bus for the tour came to pick us up at the campsite at 7 a.m., we got up at 6 a.m. and had a quick breakfast. Then we packed our things into the backpack, most of it being food for the long boat trip. At 7 a.m. sharp we were ready in front of the campsite and to our surprise the bus actually arrived at 5 after 7 and picked us up. We picked up a few other people from their hotels and then we headed straight towards Los Glaciares National Park.
After about 1.5 hours we reached the harbor and thus the entrance to the national park. Here we left the bus and switched to a boat for the next few hours.
After a few minutes the boat left and we finally set off. First we went further back on the lake for a while. As we sailed across the water, we were given some information about the lake and the surrounding area. In addition to details about the size and location of Argentina’s largest lake, we were also told that the unusual turquoise color of the lake was due to the many glaciers. The lake is fed almost entirely by glacier milk from the surrounding glaciers. This is caused by the enormous pressure that the ice exerts on the rock underneath and literally grinds it up. The finely ground rock does not sink directly and therefore the water remains in the turquoise color, which gives the lake its special appearance.
After just a few minutes we passed the first chunks of ice floating in the water and looking really interesting with their impressive colors. We took the boat up close to the large blocks of ice and were able to see them up close.
After slowly drifting through the ice field for a few minutes, the boat continued towards the first glacier. As we continued on our way we kept passing spectacular one formations and we couldn’t stop marveling and taking pictures. The ice was sometimes as big as a house and yet it swam around in such a calm and unusual way that it was simply fascinating.
We were soon able to see the first foothills of the glaciers and after a few more minutes we reached the impressive glacier edge of the Spegazzini glacier, which with a height of up to 135 meters is the highest glacier in this area and we were fine here too right up to the glacier. We were able to marvel at the really impressive ice wall up close.
When we had all taken our pictures and marveled at the strange landscape, the boat moved on again and we left the glacier again. The next item on the agenda was a short walk in the countryside, which would take us to a historic house in the area. After we got off the boat we went on a really short hike which lasted about 5 minutes. We walked behind a whole line of tourists and it almost felt like being on a cruise when the group of pensioners are left ashore for a few minutes.
Then we reached the historic house and received another lecture about this house from one of the travel companions. As she explained to us, it was a very special cabin.
Almost 150 years ago, when the border between Argentina and Chile in this then unpopulated region of the world was not entirely clear, Argentina started an attempt to colonize this region and thus produce residents who would thereby show the border. The many migrants who came to Argentina from Europe at this time were offered land in this area and if they lived here for more than 20 years they would be given not only the land but also Argentine citizenship. So many farmers moved to this uneconomical, rough and windy area to make a living with beef.
Before the 20 years were over, however, Perito Moreno came here and explored the area extensively. He then campaigned for the entire area to be converted into a national park, which happened a few years later. The farmers who had settled here up to that point had to give up their livestock farming and were either supposed to leave the country or switch to the tourism industry, which at the time offered little chance of survival as there wasn’t even a road into this remote area no tourists came.
As a result, many of the farmers were forced to leave the country. Since transporting the cattle by boat was more expensive than the meat the animals were supposed to bring in, many farmers simply left the cows behind.
In the following years, the cows multiplied rapidly because there were actually no natural enemies for them in the area. The puma, which is the only real predator here, can’t really do anything against the big cows. Since the many cows here hardly find any grass to eat in winter, they also eat the small trees in the region and so hardly any new trees have grown here for years and the forest is dwindling more and more. To solve this problem, the government ordered the shooting of wild cows at the end of the last century. However, since the cows are difficult to catch and there was no money available for this task, the hunters were offered the opportunity to keep and sell the meat of the animals they had shot, which was not necessarily a good income. Nevertheless, some hunters came here and tried their luck. Among them was a clever hunter who didn’t even try to find and capture the animals in the mountains. The clever man knew that the animals had to keep looking for salt because they couldn’t get enough salt in the lean grass. So he simply set up a block of salt and many animals automatically came to him. This meant he was able to earn quite a bit of money for the meat of the cows.
The house we were standing in front of was the man’s home in this area until he moved back to the city after a few years. But at least he had achieved a certain level of fame in the area thanks to his clever approach. Unfortunately, he didn’t manage to catch all the cows again and so there are currently almost 4,500 wild cows running through the beautiful landscape of Patagionia and involuntarily destroying nature. They not only eat away the small trees and prevent the forest from renewing itself through this behavior, but they also drive away the native animals, such as the huemul, which is threatened with extinction.
After this detailed story, we went back on the boat and drove on to the next glacier.
Here too we drove past beautiful chunks of ice floating through the water in different shades of blue.
Since it took some time until the next stop, food was served on the boat. Anna and I didn’t order any food, but rather brought our own food, which we then unpacked and ate. We had so much to eat that the people sitting next to us had to smile a little
So while we ate our food, we continued sailing across the large lake and could repeatedly see smaller and larger blocks of ice floating in the water.
After eating I took a short digestive nap.
After some time we got to see the Upsala glacier, which is the largest glacier in this region. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to go straight there because there had been a large landslide recently that triggered a real tsunami. The area is currently still tracked as the mountain threatens to continue to slide. This meant we could only view the glacier from a few kilometers away. Fortunately, I had already been able to see the huge ice field a few days ago during my multi-day tour on the Huemul Circuit and so I was probably one of the few people on the boat who had already seen the ice field up close.
Although we couldn’t drive all the way there, it was pretty impressive even from a distance. Here too, everyone took lots of pictures and only then did we move on.
Here too, huge masses of ice that had broken off the glacier floated through the water.
The last destination of our tour was the Perito Moreno Glacier, which is certainly the most famous, partly because it is relatively easy to visit and is one of the few glaciers in the world that continues to grow despite global warming. Here, too, we first took the boat very close to the glacier and were able to see some small chunks of ice from the glacier into the water, which is also known as “calving”. This happens because the glacier is constantly moving and more and more ice is pushed down from above.
After looking at the impressive ice for a few minutes, the boat stopped at a small harbor and we finally left it. From here we took a short bus ride up a small mountain, from where we could marvel at the glacier on walkways with viewing platforms. From up here we got a completely different view of the huge masses of ice that lay just a few meters in front of us.
Here we walked along the footbridges for 1.5 hours and looked at the glacier from different angles.
Not only could we see the ice, but we could also hear how the glacier was moving and ice flying into the water, which was really fascinating.
The time passed pretty quickly with this beautiful view and we soon had to go back to the bus, which took us back to El Calafate. After a long but very spectacular day, I looked out the window on the way back and looked at nature and reflected on today’s day.
Back in El Calafate, the bus dropped us off at our campsite. Afterwards we went to a restaurant by the lake for a delicious meal and ended a great day. Later we went back to sleep in our tents.
Next stop: Puerto Natales – Wednesday 13.12.2023
After yesterday’s beautiful tour, today was a less interesting day. For today we had planned to continue our journey to Perto Natales in Chile in order to continue from there to the Torres del Paine National Park. Since we didn’t have a bus ticket yet and we didn’t really know when the next bus was coming, we packed up our things after breakfast and walked to the bus station together. When we got there, we actually got a seat on a bus at 11:45. We still had just under an hour to fill out our entry forms online and make the final preparations. Since almost no food is allowed to be imported into Chile, we ate a few things in front of the train station and unfortunately had to throw away the rest.
Shortly after 12 we finally took the bus towards Chile. Not much happened on the 6 hour drive. The most exciting thing was leaving Argentina and entering Chile. After we got our passport stamp at the border and our bags were searched, we continued on the bus for a few minutes until we finally reached Puerto Natales.
From the bus station we walked to a campsite nearby and set up our tents there again. Then we bought something to eat in a supermarket and ate it.
Then we went back to the tent to sleep.
Preperations for the next tour – 14.12.2023
There wasn’t really much of anything spectacular going on today either. Since we were moving on to the next multi-day tour tomorrow, we had to do some organizational things today. After breakfast we first took a detour to the sea and then went to a supermarket to buy supplies for the next few days.
Then we cooked ourselves something delicious to eat, since we’ll probably be on the road a little easier in the next few days.
Otherwise, I had to get gas from an outdoor store and I asked the campsite if I could leave some things here that I wouldn’t need in the next few days.
Later we repackaged the food we had bought so that we could save a lot of packaging waste and therefore weight.
Afterwards there was dinner and I wrote the last words on my blog before I won’t have an internet connection for some time. When I was finished, it was time to go to sleep again, as we have to get up early tomorrow.
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