Great trip for students: visit the Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate

After hearing many enthusiastic stories about the extraordinary natural phenomenon of Perito Moreno, me and Vincent, both doing our internship at AMAUTA Spanish School Buenos Aires, decided to travel to the south of Argentina , to El Calafate. This cute little town is home to one of the most impressive glaciers worldwide: el Perito Moreno. El Calafate has become a very popular tourist destination in Argentina since the opening of their international airport. Not only for young backpackers and travelers, but also for Argentineans and travelers from other Latin-American countries. No wonder, because this is something you won’t find in many other places around the world, especially not with the current climate changes. This makes the Perito Moreno one of the most stunning sites in South America.

After a day of walking and climbing in the small mountain village El Chalten, the day that we would encounter the famous Perito Moreno had finally arrived. Besides seeing it from nearby, we would also do a trekking of 1,5 hours on the glacier as we had booked an excursion that included a boat trip and mini-trekking and was supposed to amuse us all day. Unfortunately, this great plan was beaten to pieces when they told us that it was too dangerous to continue our journey to the harbor, because of too much ice on the road. Too bad. As an alternative, we had a home -brewed beer in a cozy Libro Bar. Books Bar? Yes, indeed , a bar with a wall full of books, where you can read while enjoying a drink.

Luckily, the next day we had until 2 ‘o clock to see the Perito Moreno Glacier, and we even had the possibility to do the Safari Nautico, which brings you really close to the mouth of the glacier. Beautiful. Bizarre. Overwhelming. Fascinating. Unreal . Gigantic . Powerful. Words fail to describe this phenomenon. You just have to see it with your own eyes! After the boat trip we followed a trail and again and again our breath was taken away at every viewpoint. The big white/blue icebergs were beautiful in the soft blue water of Lago Argentino, the largest lake in Argentina. Thereby it doesn’t only look repulsive, but it also sounds very mysterious because you can hear pieces breaking off and splashing into the water with a tremendous force. What a noise! You can see gigantic chunks of the glacier floating in the lake. Perito Moreno is one of the few glaciers you can get close to that easy. Moreover, this glacier is different than others due to the fact that the ice is still growing (although losing mass at the same time) unlike many other glaciers in the world, that are decreasing in size.

From Buenos Aires, Argentina you can fly directly to El Calafate and from the airport it is only an hour by car/bus to the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares . If you want to travel after your Spanish course at AMAUTA Spanish School, our staff in Buenos Aires will be pleased to give advice and book the trip if you wish. But you can also easily arrange he tour yourself in el Calafate once you’ve arrived there. It’s also easy to find accommodation in El Calagate and the small town is full of restaurants, cafes and bars. A visit to Perito Moreno is something not to be missed!

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