13.0 Perito Moreno Glacier

After Torres de Paine our next planned stop was to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. We were doing this from the Argentinian town of El Calafate - the Glacier being in Argentina it made sense. So we had to cross back from Chile to Argentina. This was our fourth Argentina/Chile crossing and it is all very civilised and straight forward, though there can be queues if a bus gets in before you. We also had snow flurries at the border crossing and the useful Harley warning light telling us that it was Low Temperature; as if we hadn't already noticed.

El Calafate is on Lago Argentino which is a very big lake indeed and with a lovely turquoise blue colour. We were being hit by the winds again on the way in. It was a bit too difficult to stop to take photos and too windy too to take photos on the move.

The Glacier was spectacular and we were very glad to have visited and to have taken the boat trip. At its highest, as the Glacier hits the lake, it rises to nearly 70m above the lake surface and extends 120m below. Apparently it has just started receding having remained in a stable state from when records began (1917) to 2020. Not only was there the boat trip but also plenty of walkways which served both to protect the landscape and also give excellent views of the Glacier - all very well thought out to deal with 500,000 annual tourists. El Calafate is all about the Glacier. It is supposed to be approaching the high season yet our hotel was almost empty. Perhaps it's just the hotels we choose...