El Calafate and Peurto Moreno Glacier

I took 2 days to fly to El Calafate and back with one purpose in mind.  I was going to walk on a glacier.  My friend Greg gave me the [very good] advice to take the Big Ice tour, and sent me pictures from his trek a few days earlier.

I ended up running into a very nice French girl on the way to the airport, and we wandered around the little town of El Calafate with what was left of daylight.  It's a barren, windswept town that ended up being pretty cute.  We found a random and huge playground on the edge of the lake, and sat there enjoying the view and the freedom on the edge of the world.

The tour all-day affair that is run by only one tour company.  They picked me up very early in the morning, and I ended up sitting next to a girl on the bus named Megan.  She may be my Yankee doppelganger (blond, from NYC, got out of a crushing work schedule after 10+ years of work, could be mistaken for much younger, and backpacking and trekking for 5 months).  We stuck together all day, giggling in amazement that "We just walked on a glacier!!"

The pictures say much more than words ever could.  Such a massive sheet of ice is impressive enough that hundreds of visitors just come to see it.  We were lucky enough to walk around for hours on top, passing rivers, ravines and lakes wholly encompassed by the glacier.  It's awe inspiring.  

This is as close as most people get to the Puerto Moreno glacier

A view of the center and northern face of the glacier
The glacier actually divides two lakes

Then a boat ride to see the southern face of the glacier
To the dock where we'll depart for the trek to the glacier

Putting on crampons for the treck

Standing on the glacier
The shades of blue are out of this world
And my shoes are not recommended . . .

I'm walking on a glacier!!

A "small" river valley

Next to a lake in the middle of the glacier

A mini cave :)

Magnificence All Around

A bigger cave 

The beginning of a new river

A cheers at the end of the adventure, complete with glacier ice
We just walked on a glacier!

Next Stop:  Back to Bariloche (and then on to the Route de Siete Lagos)