El Calafate, Argentina

In Calafate I went to Glacier National Park to see Perito Moreno. Out of 300 glaciers in the park, there are only two that are not receeding- Perito Moreno is advancing, and there is one other that is stable. This glacier was spectacular. It made Cerro Glacier in Chalten look tiny. First we took a boat ride almost to the base of the glacier, but because it is advancing so fast, you can´t get too close. Every few minutes you hear these massive cracking sounds that sound like thunder. Because sound travels slower than light, if you look after the sound, you typically only see the splash of where the ice fell into the water, but if you are looking when it happens to fall, you can see the ice break off. It´s a bit misleading, really, because some of the pieces look kind of small, but they make this huge menacing crash when the fall (either they are way bigger than they look, they are just that dense and heavy, or they are falling much farther than it looks). The glacer is about 60 or 70 meters tall from the water. We were insanely lucky because as we were staring at the glacier, a gigantic piece fell like a tree from the top and it looked like slow motion as it crashed into the lake. It creates a huge wave that really rocked the boat, and then for the next minute or so, huge chunks of ice keep popping up on the surface from where they fell under water. It was spectacular.
After the boat we went and walked all the way from the right side of the glacier to the left on a massive walkway that takes you up above the line of the glacier and you can see how it just extends for what looks like forever. You just stand there mesmerized for awhile because you can´t stop looking. That night, though, we came back to town and went for a fantastic meal at a little hippie place, Pura Vida, and had some Patagonian lamb stew to die for ... it was served in a pumpkin!
Other than that, I pretty much spent the time just wandering around, got a lot of errands done, and visited the nature reserve where the lake is full of flamingos ... the last thing you´d expect to see in the freezing cold next to glaciers, but there they were, pink as could be. All and all Calafate was pretty cool- like a little ski town but no skiing. Very outdoorsy and all well kept.