Perito Moreno Glacier, Los Glacieres National Park
We stayed two nights in El Calafate in the Sir Thomas Hospedaje. We visited the Perito Moreno glacier the day after arriving in El Calafate from El Chalten. This glacier is about 4 km wide and 70 m tall and is one of the few that are still advancing. Because the glacier is still advancing, its face constantly calves off massive icebergs and we got to see some fairly large ones while there. An interesting fact I learnt is that this glacier is on the other side of the mountain from the Dickson glacier in Torres del Paine and they're both branches of the Southern Patagonia Icefield. We also took an hour long boat ride that brings you close to the face of the glacier; the boat ride was surprisingly cheap at US $9 or so. While we were there, the glacier had advanced over the winter to partition the lake into two parts, which has recently been a rare occurence; it last occurred in 1988 and 2004. That night, we had an excellent dinner at Michelangelo, which is next to our hostel, followed by a large amount of gelato at M&M heladoria on the main street. Given how good the food tasted at Michelangelo, we were surprised at the restaurant's emptiness.
