A day trip to Perito Moreno Glacier (Travel Diaries Day 28)

Our adventure in Patagonia started in El Calafate, a small town in the Argentinian south and the gateway to the incredible Perito Moreno Glacier.

El Calafate is located in the Santa Cruz province, in the heart of Argentinian Patagonia. The town itself is small and cozy, mostly built around tourism, but it has everything you need before heading out to explore the wild beauty that surrounds it. It’s named after the calafate berry, a typical Patagonian fruit that you’ll spot everywhere in the region. According to local legend, if you taste it you're sure to return to Patagonia.

Our first stop was of course, Perito Moreno!

Perito Moreno is one of the most iconic glaciers in the world. It’s part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field (the third largest ice mass in the world after Antarctica and Greenland!) and it’s one of the very few glaciers that’s still considered stable and not retreating like most others. The sheer size of it is hard to grasp: 5 km wide at its front face and around 70 meters high.

Fun Fact: Perito Moreno is named after Francisco Moreno, an explorer and scientist who mapped much of Patagonia in the late 19th century. Ironically, even though this glacier bears his name, Moreno never actually got to see it in person! Despite his groundbreaking work in exploring the region, he passed away before he could visit the glacier that now carries his legacy.

To get there, most people either take a bus tour from El Calafate or drive themselves, and we decided to rent a car for the day. It gave us full flexibility and, in the end, cost pretty much the same as a tour. After about an hour’s drive through the scenic, windswept steppe, we arrived at the national park entrance.

From here, you access a system of well-maintained walkways and balconies that give you panoramic views of the glacier from different angles and elevations. And wow - when we caught our first glimpse of Perito Moreno, it took our breath away. Absolutely INSANE! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. The glacier is massive and photos truly don’t do it justice. It was a gloomy, rainy day, but somehow that made it all the more dramatic and awe-inspiring.

We spent hours just walking along the different pathways, stopping at every viewpoint to stare in disbelief. What struck me the most was how alive the glacier felt. You could hear it groaning, cracking, rumbling, like distant thunder echoing through the ice. At any moment, huge chunks of ice might fall from its face into the water, and when it happens, it’s loud, intense, and wild.

Another fun fact! Unlike most glaciers worldwide, the Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the few that is still advancing, thanks to a unique balance between accumulation and melting in its specific climatic and geographical conditions.

We got extremely lucky in the afternoon: the crowds had thinned out, and right in front of us, the glacier put on a show. Massive pieces of ice calved off in several spots, crashing into the lake below, while we just stared, in astonishment and totally speechless.

During the day, we also took one of the short boat rides that bring you closer to the north face of the glacier. Being on the water, surrounded by floating ice, and slowly approaching the towering wall of blue and white ice was surreal. I swear it felt like I was standing in front of the Wall in Game of Thrones 🤣

This was one of those experiences I knew would be good, but it ended up being so much more than I expected. Patagonia had already started to blow us away, and this was only day one 💙