Sleeping ice in Calafate

“A scotch on the rocks from the glacier itself: incomparable...”

Calafate is a small city in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz from which you can access Los Glaciares National Park and, in particular, the imposing Perito Moreno Glacier. It is a huge mass of frozen water that rises in the Southern Patagonian ice field and converges in the Rico arm of Lake Argentino.

There are several tours to take from El Calafate, such as the Torres del Paine crossing, visits gourmet estancias, excursions to El Chaltén, to name just a few; but for me it all focused on Big Ice.

It consists of a three-hour trekking through the lateral forest of the glacier, to then enter fully into it and start a four-hour walk on the eternal ice. 

Once I had my air ticket, after a key talk with a friend fan of southern Argentina, who convinced me that it would be a unique experience, I booked the expensive adventure scheduled for the day after my arrival in Calafate.

Since my predilection in travel is usually cities rather than nature itself, I must admit that the view of Lake Argentino from the plane as it was about to land led me to foresee that I was in for days of amazement at the beauty that the place had to offer. The water mirror was of an emerald green that contrasted with the ocher of the Patagonian steppe, and the tributaries meandered arbitrarily through the plateau almost as if it were a child's drawing.

After a stroll through the anodyne city center, I did some shopping to assemble my lunch box for the next day, left my backpack ready and set the alarm to wake me up at dawn, since I had hired a transfer to the port to sail to the southern shore of the lake.

When I opened my eyes it was ten to eight in the morning. Confused, I looked at my phone to make sure of the disaster. I had overslept. How could that be possible? Well, the alarm clock had been set for 6:30 in the evening, not in the morning. What an incredible mistake, and what despair!

While I ran to get dressed, I arranged for a cab to take me directly to the port (probably one of the most expensive transfers I have ever paid for) and coordinated with the agent of Hielo & Aventura to wait for my arrival.

By then I was already thinking that during my visit to El Calafate I would only see Lake Argentino and the walls of the Perito Moreno from the walkways, and not discover the glacier from the inside, as it is believed to have happened to Francisco Pascasio Moreno, in whose honor the famous glacier was later named.

However, with coolness and good sense I made the decisions to arrive in time to that blessed port, and so it happened.

Once I joined the tour group my muscles and mind relaxed and from the outside deck of the little cruise ship I was able to admire the colossal natural monument.  

The visit guaranteed a magnificent experience, with views of the huge mass of ice walking on it safely, thanks to the crampons provided by the guides to tie them to your boots so as not to slip.

What a relief and what a joy to be there, discovering lagoons of a deep turquoise color, entering enormous crevasses where the pools of water shone in an electric blue and surprising me by entering caves and sinkholes of unusual shapes. The immaculate white that surrounds you there expands to the horizon, so that its union with the clear sky of the sunny day stuns you, making it difficult to understand reality, because it feels like having landed on an unknown planet.

At noon we stop on an ice ridge with a panoramic view of the extensive albino mass and have lunch, taking advantage of the break to regain energy.

The hours went by in a way as dizzying as the experience itself, until it was time to return after another long hour of walking through the forest. When we reached the shore of the lake, the same cruiser was awaiting us to take us back to the port, this time with a glass of whiskey genuinely "on the rock", that is, with natural ice from the place.