Despite seeing glaciers in Ushuaia and Torres del Paine we decided to stop in El Calafate to visit Los Glaciers National Park and to do a boat cruise on Lake Argentina.The first day we went in a rented van with friends we had met trekking on the W, Tanya and Marc Simon from the Netherlands and Susan and Dwayne from the US. We arrived early in the morning, along with the rain and wind, in hopes of beating the tour buses. As soon as we got out of the van, we could hear what sounded like a mixture between fireworks and thunder as pieces calved from Perito Moreno. Unfortunatley our timing seemed to be a bit off, which provided us with a source of comedy. Every time the glacier calved we seemed to be looking the wrong way! In the end, we were lucky enough to see a few pieces fall, which was incredible. We recovered from the rain and wind with the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted and a picnic in our van.
The highlight of our El Calafate trip was definitely the boat cruise on Lake Argentina. We visited Upsala, Spegazzini and a third smaller glacier. All three of these glaciers were incredible, but what was even more majestic were the huge icebergs floating in the lake. We were even lucky enough to see one roll, which was nothing short of amazing. In this photo you can see just how massive the icebergs were by comparing it to the size of the catamaran on the left.The photos from this experience are well worth viewing : http://picasaweb.google.com/lizhaske/GlacierTourOnLakeArgentina02?authkey=Gv1sRgCN-i6ZKj0IipKA#
