December 25, 1999
Day 64 Christmas Day Moreno Glacier Tour
Merry Christmas!
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Our tour bus comes by at about 10am. It's a big van with about 30 people in it. The trip we booked for today is called "mini-trekking" since we will have the opportunity to walk on the glacier. It's a bit more expensive ($65) than just transportation to the glacier but offers a lot more.
The ride is about 80km of very rough road. It seems to take forever in this shaking bus, but perhaps we were getting to use to the LandRover. We first go to a point opposite the glacier where long wooden boardwalks lead you along the peninsula to where the glacier stretches.
It's an awesome sight.
The glacier is about 4km wide and between 30 to 60 meters vertical height from the lake. Every once in a while, you hear loud bangs or cracking and if lucky can see huge portions of ice thunder into the water. We spend about an hour here, eat a quick lunch and then reboard the bus.
We are driven to a jetty and board a small boat that will ferry us across the lake. We get good view of the glacier and the edge of the great Southern Patagonian Icefield from which the glacier spills.
At the other side of the lake, we hike with a group of about 20 people and two guides to the glacier edge. We are fitted with crampons, and with those spikes on our feet it's easy to hike over the crumbling ice. We also notice we have become unaccustomed to being in a crowd.
All over the glacier flow small streams that abruptly disappear in holes. Our guide explains that these holes go to the bottom of the glacier where the water flows down to the lake.
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At the end of the walk, we return to the lakeshore and reboard the boat for the return trip. The boat slowly sails along the glacier's edge, we watch for falling ice. Just before we boarded a large chunk fell. Back at the jetty our bus is waiting and we board and head back to El Calafate.
The bumpy ride almost makes Patrick sick, and when we are dropped off at Dos Pinos, he needs to lay down for awhile.
Later we go back to the same restaurant from last night for some hamburgers.
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