The cold part of the world

After five weeks in BsAs, it was something of a relief to get away
from the hectic pace of the city. Patagonia feels worlds away from
BaAs; outside of Alaska it is the biggest area of untouched land I
have seen.

Flying in to El Calafate, a small town on Lago Argentina that is the
closest outpost to Argentina's Glacier National Park, the only things
I could see were lakes, snow-capped peaks of the Andes, and brown
earth wiped flat by glaciers as the ice retreated at the end of the
last ice age.

The main attraction here is the Prieto Moreno glacier, one of the few
advancing glaciers in the world and part of the world's third-largest
ice field (after Antarctica and Greenland). I spent nearly an entire
day here watching the glacier from across the water. Spending six
hours stating at a block of ice might sound dull, but I loved it. The
sensation was a little like watching the tides - from dawn through the
early afternoon the view continued to evolve as the changing light
brought out different colors and tones in the ice.

The glacier moves in the same way a river with whitewater does - it
advances at different rates over obstacles and changing terrain,
creating turbulence and motion at the surface. The frozen rapids of
the glacier can be unstable - I was lucky enough to see several
iceberg-size chunks dislodge from the main glacier and crash into the
water below.

For Day 2, I joined a tour and went out on the glacier itself,
trekking about for several hours. Despite feeling worn out from hiking
(and sun exposure), it was great getting close to the ice.