The Moreno Glacier

When we left Ushuaia we went north to El Calafate. There we went to see a much bigger glacier -- very cool. We were only able to spend 1 day in El Calafate, but it was very fun. Sally and I went on a tour of the glacier that included a bit of a nature tour on our bus ride out -- we saw millions of birds, including condors and eagles. We also saw lots of of these llama like guys (I can´t remember what they are actually called, they are more endangered and more wooly than llamas).

This is Lake Argentina, the biggest in Argentina, it is attached to the glacier, so there are little icebergs floating in it that look like ice cubes :)

At the glacier we went on a hike to get close and watch it. Then we went on a boat tour and finally we went to the observation platforms. The Moreno Glacier is the only one in the world (take this statement with a grain of salt -- as it is a claim made by a tour guide -- and those are not always true) that is neither growing nor shrinking. It loses as much ice as it adds each year on average. It is quite impressive. It looks blueish, especially in areas that have newly broken off because of all the minerals that are trapped in the ice. After a chunk breaks off the oxygen in the aire oxidizes the minerals and the glacier looks whiter. The lines of dirt are from blowing dust and dirt from the mountains.