perito moreno glacier

just visited the perito moreno glacier.
at 30 km long, 40 km wide, 150 meters high, and ice at the tip being 30 years old, this is one big piece of impressive ice. take a look at this photo to get a grasp of the size of this thing

here's another photo showing it slowly sliding down the mountain at 6 feet per day. you could fit whole cities on this thing.

also did a mini-icetrekking trip on the glacier. it was pretty laidback, and a tad bit touristy, but interesting nonetheless. guide taught us a lot about glaciers, about the continental ice shelf that runs along the argentine - chilean border on the andes, and about some of the other bigger glaciers in the area. there are about 300 or so glaciers in the area...i think that's the number he said? anyway, perito moreno, and a couple other glaciers are the only ones not receding like an aging dude's hairline. thanks to global warming and the car you are driving, the other glaciers are retreating. the one thing about this trek that is well worth the price of admission is the fact that at the end of the hike, towards the bottom of the ice where you end the hike, they set up a whiskey bar on the glacier for all to enjoy whiskey on the rocks with some 300 year old glacier ice. no fooling.

after that, while waiting for the boat to bring us back to the other side of the lake, we witnessed a chunk of ice crash creating a mini-tsunami. you are guaranteed to see some ice break off (sounds like an explosion), and hear it heave and ho, but this one was pretty big. it looked like this, and made one of the boats in the water go up and down by 600 feet....ok, that's an obscene exagerration, but it was a lot.

anyway, off to torres del paine in chile to do the famous 'w' trek. 4-5 days coming up without showering which means my underwear supply will last 1 week longer. werd.