Sheila writes:

Wow!.....we went to see the famous Perito Moreno glacier today. It's the most amazing sight you'll see - walkways criss cross the hillside right in front of the glacier snout - and you can see the 60m high face of the glacier really close to. It's not the biggest glacier in Los Glacieres National Park but it is by far the most interesting. It is still advancing, while nearly all the glaciers in the world are retreating (melting faster than they are accumulating) because of climate change.

The Perito Moreno spreads out from its confined valley across a large lake, spliting it in two, and effectively blocking the upper half of the lake and preventing it from draining. The water level in the 'upper' lake rises up to 30m behind the glacier ice dam until the height of the water causes sufficient pressure to break through and the ice dam and causing the ice to rupture and crash into the water. We didn't see that happening (it happens irregularly - and the last rupture event was in July 2008) - but we did see lots of chunks of ice breaking off the terminus and crashing into the lake, creating icebergs and great tidal waves. (Amazing when there are little tour boats taking cruises on the lake only 100m to the glacier face!). We took a boat cruise along hte northern face of the glacier - and got to withn 200m of bright azure blue/turquoise 60m ice cliffs - wonderful.

Back in the bus on our way back to El Calafate we were teated to a surprise cuppa and chocolate chunky toffee biscuit (so welcome after 3 hours in the freezing sleet staring at a glacier).

Clare writes:

Estupendo! Incredible to watch blocks of ice the height of 20-storey buildings rupturing from the glacier and crashing into the water... parts of them surfacing as brilliant blue icebergs afterwards. The sound had been described to us as cracking or creaking but it was more serious than that - more like gun shots and thunder! And even though there was a biting wind throwing sleet at us, it was worth spending two hours on the walkways and platforms just a few hundred years from the blue marbled face of it... and not just for the biscuit!