January 21, Saturday – El Calafate, Argentina

Breakfast at the hotel was quite a spread. The Argentinians seem to like cakes for breakfast.

After breakfast we headed out on our tour to the Glaciers National Park.  Along the way we had great views of the lake and surrounding mountains...

and saw lots of birds of prey

a little songbird

and wildflowers.

The main attraction in the park is the Perito Moreno Glacier.  This glacier is one of the few in the world that is advancing. 

First order of business was a boat ride out along the front of the glacier. 

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We got fairly close and were able to see the beautiful blue ice and interesting, and often jagged, formations.

We managed to see (and photography) a reasonably nice size ice fall.

Ans we saw some people hiking out on the glacier.

The glacier crosses the southern arm of the Argentino Lake and comes in contact with the land mass facing the glacier.  This dams up the lake with water building up on the south side of the glacier.  It eventually starts digging through the glacier causing a bridge to form.  

We were able to see some of the layers of the bridge dropping into the lake. 

When enough of the bridge drops away the bridge eventually “ruptures” or falls.  This last happened in 2016 and occurs with fairly regular frequency. 

There were some very interesting rock formations along the lake.  To us non-geologist types it looked like lava flows.

After cruising along the glacier face we drove to an overlook where we walked along the glacier front. 

Lunch was at the restaurant in the park.  Then it was a drive back to town and later dinner.