El Calafate

The purpose of this stop in Patagonia was to see the Perito Moreno glacier in the Parque Nacional de los Glaciares, and what a fantastic glacier it is. We spent all day yesterday in the park, starting off with 2 hours along the boardwalks for views of the glacier.

Perito Moreno glacier

We saw two big blocks and many smaller ones fall off the glacier and into the milky white Lago Argentino. After a packed lunch, we took a boat across the lake and spent about 2 hours walking on the ice in a safe part of the glacier, the part that is contained by the valley. The ice hiking wasn´t too difficult and I think the best part was being able to see into the superblue holes in the ice.

We arrived the day before in the mid-afternoon and only had time to arrange yesterday´s excursion and to take a short 2 hour horseback ride in the outskirts of El Calafate.

Horsebackride near Lago Argentino

The horseback ride was very enjoyable. My horse, Lucero, was a little bit lazy and liked to hang at the back of the pack. This gave me an excellent view of my mom´s horse, Gringo, who was suffering from a bout of diarrhea. In addition to the beautiful scenery, we saw an big owl and some other birds. One of the stable´s dogs that was along for the ride ate a baby chick of some bird. I saw it get cornered and scooped up into the dog´s mouth. : (

All the trips in El Calafate are for the entire day, so we are spending the day in El Calafate until our mid-afternoon flight leaves for Ushuaia. I have had my fill of tacky souvenir shops and am blogging solo.