El Calafate: the Perito Moreno Glacier
El Calafate is a popular destination in Argentina, but seems to be entirely a tourist town, with expensive hotels and restaurants and not much to do. The main draw of the area is the famous Perito Moreno Glacier in the Los Glaciares National Park. For me, it seemed like this was just about the only thing to do in the area. There were a few tours to other less accesible glaciers as well.
Visiting the glacier involves taking busses with about a thousand other tourists to the park, where they have built a series of boardwalks to give good views. There’s also an optional boat you can take to approach the face of the glacier more closely. For a bit more money you can trek on the glacier with crapons.
It’s definitely a spectacular view of a glacier, and I was told that depending on whether it is cloudy or sunny the glacier appears a totally different color. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when I went (which is unusual) and the glacier was bright white. But I’ve seen a lot of photos of this glacier where it appears a really rich shade of blue, and apparently this is how it looks on an overcast day when the sun is more diffused.
I think it’s worth visiting, but given the distance from other places in Argentina I’d recommend combining it with a trip to El Chaltan, a town a few hours away on the bus that has a lot of really excellent hiking available. I actually skipped El Chalten, which is almost sacrilegious according to a lot of people I spoke with. But having just finished “the W” trek I was in the mood for a break from hiking and decided to move on directly to Bariloche.
Check out more pictures of this amazing glacier:
