The glacier is about 80 km south west from El Calafate and our bus takes an hour and a half to get there. It is a big glacier flowing off the Patagonian Ice Field into Lake Argentina. For two or so hundred years up until about 2020 the glacier had been relatively stable, periodically retreating and advancing, but it now appears in full retreat. It is 30km long and the ice formation is over 250 square km.

We boarded a catamaran for a cruise back and forth along the face of the glacier, the captain rotated the boat around for some great up close views. A few bergs floating around too that needed avoiding.

A big lump of nearly clear ice was brought aboard for a close look. No idea how old this would have been!

The face of the glacier is 5km wide and averages a height 74 m above the surface of Lake Argentina.The depth of the glacier is around 170 m and it appears to be moving at about two metres a day.

If one pauses and listens the ice mass ‘groans and grunts’, regularly calving into the lake.

After an hour we returned ashore and ventured into the NP for some free time strolling around the board walks.

These provided some great views of the top and face of the glacier and the mountains behind.

Over the last hundred years or so the glacier has periodically closed the waterway and established an ice dam that has seen water levels rise by over twenty five metres. The dam eventually ruptures and the water level dramatically drops.

With the glacier now seemingly retreating this is unlikely to occur again in the current glaciation cycle, maybe human induced warming is also playing a role.

Lunch was at the restaurant, looking down on the glacier, and as always it was very tasty. As we left there was an opportunistic special tasting of some sort of whisky with a bit of ice.

The highlight though was the ice. It was from the glacier. The first time I have had a whisky where the ice was older than the whisky!

It was then back on the bus to return to El Calafate. We were dropped off in town for a look around and to check out the tourist traps. Of which there were plenty.

Dinner that evening was a taste of the local delicacy. BBQ lamb and roast veggies, preceded by a couple of empanadas. Quite a process this BBQ, pictures tell the story! Some folk dancing finished the night off.

We left El Calafate the next morning and headed south for the Torres del Paine National Park.

It is a full day road trip of about 370km, on for the most part Route 40, along the spine of Argentina. Will pick the story up in the next post.