The world’s third largest ice field (after Antarctica and Greenland) is located in southern Patagonia and feeds the Perito Moreno glacier. Our morning started with a 1,5 hour coastal walk to various viewing platforms around the front and sides of the glacier where we witnessed a pretty large chunk of ice fall off the glacier. Even small pieces of the super dense ice sound like explosions when they hit the water, so you can imagine that it was pretty loud and impressive. We thought for a second that the resulting wave might form a tsunami at the far end of the lake, but nothing quite that dramatic happened.
To begin our hike on the actual glacier, we sailed across the second glacier lake (the Perito Moreno is currently forming an ice dam between an isolated lake and the main lake system, see Fun Facts for more on that). We made a short stop at the base to equip ourselves with the required crampons (new word for most of us). Initially we were a bit weary walking with heavy steel spikes attached to our feet and jumping over some pretty deep, dark blue crevasses in the ice. But we built confidence as we went and it helped to learn that the ice is really compact and fairly stable so you really won’t slide in, especially wearing those crampons.
Our hike had a rather unexpected ending when our guide surprised us with a whiskey served with glacier ice (of course) and chocolates. Sipping whiskey standing on a giant block of ice is a pretty unique and delicious experience (this must be the real Ice Bar). From there we only had a short but steep walk down to solid ground.
