<commit_before>---
layout: post
title: Picture Perfect Patagonia
description: "Hiking through El Calafate and El Chaltén."
modified: 2016-6-9
visitinfo:
    start: 2016-5-18
    end: 2016-5-21
tags: [South-America, Argentina, Hiking]
image:
  feature: /calafate_chalten/laguna_de_los_tres_with_fitzroy_pano.jpg
---

After our flight from Ushuaia, we wrapped up Vesper’s birthday with some pizza and beer in the small town of El Calafate. The big attraction there is the Perito Moreno Glacier located in the Los Glaciares National Park. We spent one day at the glacier before heading three hours north to El Chaltén for three days of hiking. These two places were insanely scenic, providing the picturesque Patagonia we expected in Ushuaia but happily found here.

## El Calafate

Our tour of the Perito Moreno Glacier included an informative guide, boat ride close to the glacial wall, and a few hours to walk along the viewing balconies on the shore opposite the glacier. We learned that the glacier is the third largest ice cube on the planet after Antarctica and Greenland, and it’s still growing! In addition to its size, the Perito Moreno Glacier is famous because every four years or so it has a massive rupture. The flowing glacier dams up a portion of Lago Argentino, which causes the water on one side to rise upwards of 30 meters, putting immense pressure on the ice dam. The water erodes away at the bloackage to form an ice bridge, which eventually collapses into an [awesome tsunami](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3486637/Perito-Moreno-glacier-s-ice-bridge-collapses-Argentina.html) of freezing water. Unfortunately for us the ice bridge had just collapsed in March (boo).

The foggy, rainy, and cold weather made our first viewpoint comical: we could barely see the glacier, and we definitely couldn’t see any of the mountains behind it. A vendor had photos of the view on a clear day so at least we got to see what it was supposed to look like. Once inside the park, we had a quick boat ride that went right up to the glacier. Being that close on the water allowed us to appreciate how impressively tall the wall of ice is.

<figure>
    <a href="/images/calafate_chalten/glacier_from_boat_pano.jpg"><img src="/images/calafate_chalten/glacier_from_boat_pano.jpg" alt=""></a>
</figure>

<figure class="half">
    <a href="/images/calafate_chalten/jagged_edge.jpg"><img src="/images/calafate_chalten/jagged_edge.jpg" alt=""></a>
    <a href="/images/calafate_chalten/boat_selfi.jpg"><img src="/images/calafate_chalten/boat_selfi.jpg" alt=""></a>
</figure>

<figure><commit_msg>link calafate/chalten post to ushuaia post<commit_after>---
layout: post
title: Picture Perfect Patagonia
description: "Hiking through El Calafate and El Chaltén."
modified: 2016-6-9
visitinfo:
    start: 2016-5-18
    end: 2016-5-21
tags: [South-America, Argentina, Hiking]
image:
  feature: /calafate_chalten/laguna_de_los_tres_with_fitzroy_pano.jpg
---

After our flight from [Ushuaia]({% post_url 2016-6-7-Ushuaia-Argentina %}), we wrapped up Vesper’s birthday with some pizza and beer in the small town of El Calafate. The big attraction there is the Perito Moreno Glacier located in the Los Glaciares National Park. We spent one day at the glacier before heading three hours north to El Chaltén for three days of hiking. These two places were insanely scenic, providing the picturesque Patagonia we expected in Ushuaia but happily found here.

## El Calafate

Our tour of the Perito Moreno Glacier included an informative guide, boat ride close to the glacial wall, and a few hours to walk along the viewing balconies on the shore opposite the glacier. We learned that the glacier is the third largest ice cube on the planet after Antarctica and Greenland, and it’s still growing! In addition to its size, the Perito Moreno Glacier is famous because every four years or so it has a massive rupture. The flowing glacier dams up a portion of Lago Argentino, which causes the water on one side to rise upwards of 30 meters, putting immense pressure on the ice dam. The water erodes away at the bloackage to form an ice bridge, which eventually collapses into an [awesome tsunami](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3486637/Perito-Moreno-glacier-s-ice-bridge-collapses-Argentina.html) of freezing water. Unfortunately for us the ice bridge had just collapsed in March (boo).

The foggy, rainy, and cold weather made our first viewpoint comical: we could barely see the glacier, and we definitely couldn’t see any of the mountains behind it. A vendor had photos of the view on a clear day so at least we got to see what it was supposed to look like. Once inside the park, we had a quick boat ride that went right up to the glacier. Being that close on the water allowed us to appreciate how impressively tall the wall of ice is.

<figure>
    <a href="/images/calafate_chalten/glacier_from_boat_pano.jpg"><img src="/images/calafate_chalten/glacier_from_boat_pano.jpg" alt=""></a>
</figure>

<figure class="half">
    <a href="/images/calafate_chalten/jagged_edge.jpg"><img src="/images/calafate_chalten/jagged_edge.jpg" alt=""></a>
    <a href="/images/calafate_chalten/boat_selfi.jpg"><img src="/images/calafate_chalten/boat_selfi.jpg" alt=""></a>
</figure>

<figure>
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