El Calafate/Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina

We didn’t want to risk another bus catastrophe so we booked a flight to El Calafate. We were there in a snap!

We got lucky yet again with a super awesome AirBnB host named Ezequiel. He’s actually a tour guide and had plenty of good tips for us. We stayed in a guest house on his property on the edge of town, and spent a little time with him and his family talking about our trip over tea. We could see the beautiful turquoise lake (Lago Argentina) from our front window. The lake was dotted with pink flamingos and swans with black necks. There was even a hammock in the living room! It was a lovely, relaxing place.

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The main attraction and reason for our visit was to see the spectacular Perito Moreno Glacier. The ice formation is approximately 97 sq miles and where it ends – the part we view – the avg height is about 74 meters (240 ft). That’s a smidge taller than the height of the Drop Tower (formerly Drop Zone) at Great America! It’s also only 1 of 3 glaciers in Patagonia that is continually advancing. Neither of us had ever seen a glacier in our lives so we were pretty excited to see one, especially one so grandiose!

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It did not disappoint. We spent hours at the park, first on a boat taking us slowly along the face of the glacier, then afterwards we walked for hours taking in the enormity of it. You could hear the flowing water within the glaciers rivers and waterfalls. We waited patiently for pieces of ice to fall and then listened for the big booming sound each piece made as it hit the water. The pieces falling looked small from where we were standing but in reality, they’re the size of cars, houses, and some even bigger still.

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Here’s us having lunch at the park ((CLICK TO WATCH))

You’d think a full day of staring at a block of ice waiting for it to melt would be boring but we could barely take our eyes off of it in time to catch the bus back to our house. It’s not something we will soon forget.