Chillin’ with Ice

Posted on February 23, 2020 by jfdowshen

[Before you read on, here’s a link to the post I had to re-create yesterday because I screwed up royally. It does have some relevance to today]

Glacier Glee

Started off right after breakfast toward the port on the Peninsula de Magallanes to catch a boat that would take us on a five hour journey through the northern part of Lake Argentino to see more, unique glaciers, ice bergs, and ice floes.

The map shows the general area we are cruising.

Our first stop is the Upsala Glacier, dead ahead. Also, on the left, are the heads of Congo and Bertachi. We can only get as close as about 1/4 mile since, not long ago a huge, unexpected cleaving of the glacier created a mini-tsunami that was over 25 feet high. Fortunately no boats were in the area or they would have been swamped. But we do get close to the others.

Another incredibly beautiful, unusual day with warm temperatures, little wind and bright cloudless skies.
Between glaciers we were awed by beautifully shaped and colored ice bergs and floes of ice. We collected some to chill drinks and for some to get their professional photos taken holding chunks. Pass. Remember that ice is 9/10ths the weight of water, so what you see is just 10% of the entire, humongous berg.
This guy is not creeping toward the water, but actually receding (see the lack of foliage ahead, where it had been). Receding like most of the world’s glaciers.
Just before reaching the enormous Spegazzini Glacier we see this one actually traversing the mountain with tears of longing for the lake far below.
The magnificent Spegazzini. The tallest of the area’s glaciers with wall soaring over 400 feet above the water. That’s a 40 story building you are looking at. Here are a few other views.

As we watch there was lots of calving activity along the wall, but no one gets any good photos. So, the captain decides to wait, engines off, for a big one to happen. We wait and wait…and wait, and barely a drop of ice falls. You can bet that an enormous, house-size piece broke off just as we got out of sight. Sated and exhausted at watching and jousting for angles, a lot of snoozing and snacking on the 45 minute return.

Once back in El Calafate, we stroll over to see the crowds attending the very loud music festival. It’s a happy crowd, spilling back into town, making a lot of merchants happy. We had another delicious, but slightly smaller dinner. We’ll leave you with a look at Marsha’s special treat before heading back to the hotel and packing for tomorrow’s flight back to big city civilization in Buenos Aires.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Let us know if you enjoyed the post!