PLACES THAT YOU CAN’T MISS in El Calafate

PERITO MORENO NATIONAL PARK

Only 30km from the entrance to Los Glaciares National Park, the footbridge area of the Perito Moreno Glacier is an excellent site to behold the beauty and splendor of its ice blocks.
Before reaching the first balcony, you will observe the plate with the statement of World Heritage of Mankind, granted by the UNESCO in 1981; and farther on, two informative stands about glacier processes and the formation of the Perito Moreno in particular.
Every viewpoint offers a new perspective. From the entrance of the footbridge area, walking down 400 meters to the lowest balcony, the closest to the front of the glacier. You were starting to feel tired from the ice hiking, that is why, take the advice from the guide to head always right, down the stairs, in order to have some rest. The intermediate balcony is the best place to appreciate the northern area of the glacier with a good sight of the Canal de los Témpanos and towards the left of this viewpoint is the second balcony, right opposite the glacier.

It is originated, as the other twelve Patagonian glaciers, in the ice field located to the West of the Province of Santa Cruz. Having a 14 thousand square kilometer surface, this huge mass represents the third largest ice mass in the world, after the Antártida and Greenland, and it forms the source basin of Argentina and Chile glaciers.

The ice tongues that go down towards the East enter the province of Santa Cruz through Lake Viedma, in the Northern area of the National Park, where the Fitz Roy and the Torre Mounts are located. The Upsala, the Speghazzini and the Onelli, among other glaciers, go down the Northern arm of Lake Argentino. These formations lie on the rock basement and end in a lake, characteristic that receives the name of calving glaciers.

Park of great paleontologic, archaeological and biologic value. There are eight lakes chained by an interesting fluvial system and guanacos herds (a member of the camel family lacking a dorsal lump).
Something you cannot miss during your visit in Argentina is the Perito Moreno glacier, which, together with other twelve glaciers, makes up the biggest sliding masses of ice and snow of Los Glaciares National Park. This 5-Km-wide glacier, which is 60 meters above Lake Argentino, continues in advance. Throughout the year, ice towers detach from the glacier and plunge into the water as small icebergs. Perito Moreno glacier can be reached from El Calafate. Sailing across Lake Argentino, among white and blue icebergs, you can see 50-Km-long Upsala glacier. Onelli and Agassiz glaciers can be admired after walking 1,5 Km from Onelli bay.

Even if the largest glaciers in the Park are the Viedma and the Upsala, the Perito Moreno is a large sized glacier located only 200 meters over sea level, which enables to reach its very front easily, not like the other glaciers, which can only be accessed after trekking or sailing for a while.

The Perito Moreno Glacier is the only glacier that maintains its balance, that is to say, all the ice mass it receives from its source basin in the winter is gradually lost in its front during the summer.