Perito Moreno is the pearl of Los Glaciares National Park. This pile of huge blue ice floes is located on the border of the Argentine province of Santa Cruz and Chile. The fantastic natural monument of the Argentine part of Patagonia is just one of the 48 glaciers fed by the southern part of the glacier located in the Andes.
The glacier, named after the explorer Francisco Moreno, is 30 thousand years old. The Perito Moreno has staggering dimensions: the width of its tongue is 5 km, the average height above the water surface is 60 m, the average depth is 170 m, the maximum is 700 m— The unique attraction is constantly moving: its average speed is 2 m per day, while it is constantly decreasing.
In the Los Glaciares National Park there are three viewing platforms from where you can watch how huge chunks break off from a block of stunning beauty every now and then and fall into Lake Argentino. The color of the ice depends on weather conditions and the degree of cloud cover and ranges from clear crystal and white to dark blue in cloudy weather.
If you are lucky, in Perito Moreno you can see how the huge ice dam of Lake Argentino breaks, on the opposite shore of which ice floes accumulate. This happens from once a year to once every ten years.
Useful information
The village of El Calafate, which is 78 km from the glacier, can be reached by plane. Here I also offer overnight stays in campsites and hotels, fishing and trekking. The journey from the village to Perito Moreno takes about 2 hours by bus. A popular option is a pedestrian crossing on the surface of the Perito Moreno: routes of a small crossing for 1.5 hours and a 5—hour journey “Big Ice” have been developed. Motor ships also go to the glacier, such a trip will cost 25 USD. The prices on the page are for December 2021.