El Calafate - Perito Moreno Glacier

El Calafate is significantly more developed and touristy than El Chalten, and it's the closest city to Los Glaciares National Park. The park has 2,600 square kilometers of ice fields from which 47 major glaciers descend. The absolute "star" of the glaciers is Perito Moreno Glacier, which is 5km wide, 60m above the surface of the water, and has a total ice depth of around 170m. A series of stairs, walkways, and observation decks were constructed in 1988. Tourists had previously been permitted to descend to the shores of the lake, but after 32 people were killed over a twenty year period by flying chunks of ice created by the calving, observation was restricted to the designated vantage points. The constant movement and pressure of the ice causes stunning peaks and crevasses that take on a variety of incredible blue hues according to the density of the ice. The show was never ending as ice chunks “calved” into the lake below with resounding crashes similar to that of thunder. We also took a boat trip to get a different perspective of the enormousness of the glacier.