After a week of taking Spanish classes and eating bife de chorizo in Buenos Aires, we flew south to El Calafate to see the mountains and glaciers of Patagonia. Early the next day, even before sunrise we departed by boat from Bandera Port to explore the nearby glaciers–Upsala (the largest in the region), Spegazzini (with the highest front wall @ 400ft) and Agassiz.
The glaciers in Patagonia are centennial glaciers, existing in the last hundred years, rather than the millennial glaciers of Antarctica (thousands of years old). The glaciers are formed in the Andes mountains–as snow accumulates in the valleys between the mountains, over time the snow becomes compact, forming into ice. The icefields of Patagonia are the source of the world´s third largest freshwater source.
By boat, we were pretty close to the glaciers and icebergs, able to see clearly the beautiful shades of blue reflecting off the sun along with the different textures of each glacier. It was spectacular. At one point the crew, pulled out a chunk of ice floating in the water so we could drink our Nacional whiskey with fresh glacier ice.
i dont see any penquins or polar bears. btw, as of this past week, polar bears are officially endangered.