On Easter Sunday we set off at daybreak to drive up into Los Glaciares National Park in Patagonia which is about an hour’s drive from Eolo Lodge. We then boarded a boat to cross over Brazo Rico, an upper branch of the Lago Argentino that is partially blocked by the massive Perito Moreno glacier. This is a massive wall of ice that has descended from the Southern Patagonian icefield, and rises up to 70m in the air. It cracks, growls, and thunders throughout the day, as it slowly shifts downhill. Occasionally huge slabs of ice come crashing off its front face into the lake making a sound like a gunshot. It then echoes and echoes across the lakes and valleys.
After crossing the lake we put crampons on our boots, and hiked a wide circle across the top of the glacier, although on a map it was only a tiny portion in reality. It was very cool (in all senses of the word) and the blue colours were quite extraordinary. Apparently this is caused by the oxygen that is trapped during the making of the ice, and reveals itself through the colour spectrum. It is quite hard to describe the immensity of the glacier - its rather like looking at a vast city state sitting between two mountains but made up entirely of ice.
We then had a visual tour of the glacier from the other side of the lake by our expert guide, Pablo Michelangelo. Another European extract who family hails from Italy. Anyone who thinks Patagonia is populated by Spanish descendants has got it totally wrong! One of our guides the previous day was Juan Jones, whose family originates in Wales!
A very fulfilling trip to Patagonia, and today we are flying over The Andes to Punta Arenas in Chile for the next leg of Anson’s Voyage 2022.