Perito Moreno Glacier - it won't disappoint

About 7-8 months ago I told you how slightly disappointed I was at the sight of Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand. Well let me tell you that its cousin Perito Moreno in Argentina is in every possible respect a better glacier. By a long margin.

Perito Moreno is located in the Los Glaciares Park in Southern Patagonia. The fee to enter the park is a hefty 25$ but worth every penny. Prepare yourself to let a few “Ahhhs” and “Ohhhs” as Perito Moreno appears on the horizon. Now that is a reaction I didn’t have when I first set my eyes on Franz Josef Glacier. Perito Moreno is a towering wall of ice about 75 meters high (at the point where it drops in water) and is immensely bigger than Franz Josef. There is no doubt about it: Franz Josef is knocked out in the first round.

The bus let us off close to the boardwalk right in front of the glacier. The boardwalk was fairly long and gave us access to different point of views. We also took a boat tour that brought us fairly close to the glacier. This allowed us to see the glacier from great angles. The boat tour was reasonably priced at 18$ per person.

If you visit Perito Moreno you should plan at least two hours walking between the different point of views. You’ll also want to spend time just watching the glacier and hoping that a piece of it comes crashing down in the lake. When this happens, the deafening sound is spectacular. It sounds as if an artillery shell landed somewhere close to you. Impressive.

Now should you visit Perito Moreno in winter or in summer? I’ll let Ania answer that question in a separate post.

My only beef with this magical day is the fact that the bus left for El Calafate at 2:30 pm. This left us with about 4 hours to enjoy the glacier. This may seem a lot of time to observe a big chunk of ice, but I can tell you that it is quite enthralling to watch the glacier and hear the creaking noises. Time went by so fast.

Perito Moreno was everything I expected. And some more.