Glacier Perito Moreno

Two days ago now, I went to see Glacier Perito Moreno the most spectacular - and, admittedly, the most easily accessible - glacier of Argentina's Parque Nacional los Glaciers.

Getting Here: The bus trip from Bariloche was, well... long. South of Argentina's shimmering forested lake district the landscape gives way to Patagonia, which sheltered by the Andes and their rain-shadow to the east stretches out flat, dry, and unbelievably wind-whipped. Though I did occasionally spy a family of Guanaco llamas or a pair of rheas (a type of "Old World ostrich" to quote my guidebook), I spent the majority of the trip gazing maddeningly at what seemed to be the same farm house in the distance.

The afternoon of day two, in an attempt to fix the bus lavatory door, the driver accidentally yanked the handle clean off. Thus, for the remainder of the day we stopped every few hours - as that was the interval at which we encountered vegetation large enough to do ones business behind - for bathroom breaks. "Damas a la izquierda, hombres a la derecha," the driver would say standing arms outstretched in the middle of the road. We forgave him though, when just before sunset he slammed on the breaks, which wasn't that jarring considering that buses can only travel 20 km/hr on the unpaved road that is RT 40, leaped from the bus, and caught an armadillo by the tail. He further redeemed himself by stopping at regular intervals to let us take proper photos of the sunset. I didn't realized how much I missed the display of color and light the sun puts on - around the equator it is always in such a hurry.

I arrived here, a town called El Calafate that serves as the gateway to the parks southern sector, on the morning of Sunday, December 7th - day 3, bus wise. Though surrounded by snow capped mountains, El Calaftae sits on Patagonian sand, meaning that from anywhere in town - save the tree lined center - you can see and walk in a straight path to anywhere else. It does, however, sit on the edge of mineral rich Lago Argentino where flamingos stand one-legged in the baby blue water.

To get to Glacier Perito Moreno one must take a bus from El Calafates station one and a half hours toward the mountains. And there it is - sliding out from its mountainous birthplace, a sheet of ice that rises over 50 meters above the water in jagged teeth a thousand shades of blue. It crackles and speaks under the heat of the summer sun, and once let a piece of ice the size of a condominium come crashing down off its front face into the lake.

In environmental studies classes, they lecture of melting glaciers and sea level rise. Ive always found that difficult to fathom - the sea is a big place. But so is this, this one glacier in Argentina, not Greenland or Antarctica or anywhere "important" like that.

Speaking of climate change, I feel its time for me to do some sharing. This afternoon, I fly to Buenos Aires, and from there, on the 15th of December, to Fiji, meaning that one major portion of my journey is about to conclude. In my next blog, I shall attempt to put to words some of my "findings" on the subject, though I must warn you they are far from conclusions.