Los Glaciares National Park

Declared Natural Estate of Mankind by UNESCO, this park hosts one of the most spectacular landscape beauties in the world: the glaciers.
It covers 600,000 hectares and in it find lakes, forests, and hills.

The impressive Perito Moreno Glacier, the Upsala Glacier, and others are here.
Although they look still, these glaciers are in constant movement, and great blocks of ice of their sides fall constantly into the water.

Within the park, there are two great lakes: Argentino and Viedma Lakes.  

The Fitz Roy Hill is the predominant sight of all the surrounding landscape, it is part of a mountain chain of matchless beauty within the park.

Its fauna keeps endangered species such as the huemul, the hullín, the pudú pudú (midget deer), the guanaco, and others.

Perito Moreno Glacier

It is 80 km. away from El Calafate. It originates in the Patagonic Ice.
Length: 30 Km.
Area covered: 257km2.
Frontal Wide: about 4km.
Color: Ice is nothing but compact snow.  In this compacting process the internal structure of the snow molecules evolves and changes to give origin to a different material (ice), which new surfaces of light refraction reflect the color blue. Let's remember that every natural element absorbs a series of the colors in the spectrum and reflects another, just the one we can see.  Going back to ice, the more compact it is, the darkest the blue will be.

Upsala Glacier

Length :  60 Km (the biggest in South America). Area: 600km2. Frontal Wide: 4km, with walls that can be from 60 to 120 meters high. It is to the North East of the Argentino Lake (Brazo Norte).  This glacier can only be seen from the water.  One of the most interesting sights are the intense blue icebergs floating in the lake.

Continental Ice

The ice of the glaciers is produced by the compression of the snow due to its own weight.  So, in order for a glacier to be formed, it is necessary that there is a basic condition: that the amount of snow that falls during a year in a particular region, is bigger that the amount of eroded snow, and that the average annual temperature enables the conservation of the fallen snow.  The ice is attracted by gravity, and the influence is bigger, the steeper the slope is.

A glacier has two types of processes: sliding and internal deformation.  Both types are present in all glaciers, but the sliding is more important in the "warm" glaciers, and the internal deformation of  the ice is the main cause of movement in the polar caskets (Greenland and Antarctica), where the slopes are minimum.

Of course, sliding is due to gravity. This sliding is only possible in case there is water on the basis of the glacier, which, in the "warm" glaciers is originated by two causes: on the one hand, by the melting of the upper layers, that filters to the bottom; on the other hand, the base of the glacier, in rubbing the rock generate heat that helps to melt little amounts of water.

When a glacier is said to move forwards or backwards, it is only the front line we refer to, since the ice in all glaciers is constantly moving forwards, by sliding or deformation. The factor that makes the front of a glacier move forwards or backwards, is the relationship, whether positive or negative, between the amounts of ice coming from the upper watersheds, and the amount lost in the melting, evaporating, or separation in the lower watersheds.

El Calafate

Its name derives from the thorny, and bright-colored-fruit bush that grows all over the South Andes Patagonia. This picturesque town at the shore of the Argentino Lake, has come to be the most important tourist center of the province of Santa Cruz.

Leaning over the side of the plateau that surround it, it counts with a very mild micro- weather, which turns it into an oasis.  The Calafate stream, which parts the town, is a heaven of tranquility with its stony bed surrounded by willows leaning on its margins.

It is the closest town to visit the Glaciers National Park, and its famous Perito Moreno Glacier.  The buildings in Calafate have hip roofs to avoid the effects of the weight of the snow.  The flora of the area is the one typical of the woods of the Patagonic Andes, with a predominance of lengas and morello cherry trees.

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Distances from El Calafate
Glaciar Perito Moreno: 77 Km
El Chaltén: 217 Km
Ushuaia: 889 Km
Buenos Aires: 2787 Km
Puerto Madryn : 1388 Km
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The Chaltén

The Chaltén, is located in the Department of Argentino Lake, in the North margin of the Viedma Lake, in the confluence of  the De las Vueltas and Fitz Roy Rivers, in the area of the Viedma Zone National Reserve of the Glaciers National Park.

In this place you have a combination of the magic of the glaciers, hidden lagoons, ranches, the Viedma Lake, and the magnetic presence of the Fitz Roy Hill. The summit of its unique  and impressive shape is almost always covered by a cloud.

The town counts with barely 200 inhabitants, and it is 220 km. away from El Calafate. It is next to the Viedma Lake and its natural reserve.  It is an activity center for trekkers and climbers, and so it has been declared national capital of trekking.  The granitic needles of the Torre and Fitz Roy Hills form an impressive and spectacular landscape together with the Viedma, Upsala, and Moyano glaciers, which flow into the Viedma Lake of 106,000 hectares.

Fitz Roy Hill

It is one of the most impressive granitic architectural structures on earth and one of the most  beautiful summits in the world. Its perfect rocky pyramid can be seen many kilometers before reaching its slopes. Its harmonious shape, which starts in the white glaciers lying at its foot, its game of hiding among the clouds, whether thick and gray or ethereal, has turned it into the "ideal" mountain to many climbers.

The Fitz Roy is the mountain with a richest history in the Patagonia, and certainly one of the most climbed summits.  Behind it lies the mysterious world of Southern Continental Ice, one of the biggest glaciers in the world.  The tehuelches, former inhabitants of the area, had named this mountain El Chaltén, which in their native language means, vulcano, due to the fact that they probably mistake the clouds by smoke.

Argentino Lake

With glittering white-greenish waters that cover an area of 1,600 km2, the 60 kilometer-long, and 20 kilometer-wide lake, is the deepest in Argentina, and the third in South America.  The white greenish color of the waters is due to the content of very thin dust produced by the erosion of the glaciers against the rocky bed, called glacier milk.  One of the great attractions is the Icebergs Channel, across from the Perito Moreno Glacier, full of floating blocks of ice.  It has two divisions: the North and South Arms.

You sail from Puerto Bander, to meet the huge glaciers Upsala and Spegazzini, dodging floating blocks of ice and you stop at Onelli Bay.  The spectacle is of immense beauty.  As it happens with most of the glaciers in the world, the blocks of ice that fall on the Argentino Lake are fewer each day.  This fact is evidenced by the bigger number of floating blocks that separate from the fronts.

Desert Lake

It is located 35 km. to the North of the Chaltén, this lake, originated in the glacial era, lies on a valley surrounded by steep slopes covered by a forest of the Andes of the Patagonia of huge trees.  This mirror of water of a lengthy shape was the main point of discussion in one of the latest border conflicts between Argentina and Chile.  It feeds from melt waters from the Andes, and it is hidden among the lakes and the highest mountains always covered in snow.

Cueva de las Manos _Hands' Cave_  ( Under Snails )

This cave is located at the ravine of the Pinturas River, 163 km. South of the town of Perito Moreno.  This place was declared Cultural Estate of Mankind on December 1st, 1999.  It was inhabited by some hunters at the end of the year 8000 B.C.  It paintings, the geographical environment surrounding it, and the archeological deposits, turn it into one of the most important places where you can find cave paintings in the Patagonia.

The cave is 24 meters deep, 15 meters wide at the entrance, and around 10 meter high, up to the start to the salient in the roof.  The roofs formed by the salient protect the paintings from the wind and the sun. It comprises 3 cultural levels, it is estimated to comprise from the year 7370 B.C. to the year 1000 of our times.

Los Antiguos

It is a little town, in a valley, on the South margin of the Buenos Aires River, on the shore of a crystalline river of the same name. The bird fauna of the region is formed by flamingos, storks, swans, ducks, and herons.  Los Antiguos is close to the frontier and to the Chilean town of Chile Chico.  There are characteristic watering canals that feed the plantations near the farms that produce fine fruit, particularly cherries, strawberries, and raspberry.

Torres del Paine ( Chile )

Torres del Paine National Park was declared World Reserve of the Biosphere by UNESCO, in 1978.   It is 113 km. to the North of Puerto Natales, between the Andes and the Plateau of the Patagonia. Torres del Paine National Park covers an area of 242,000 hectares, in the middle of which you can find the Paine Rocky Chain, formed by several Hills of up to 3,200 meters high, some of them with a very peculiar shape such as, the famous horns of the Paine.

This set of hills is surrounded by lakes and glaciers: to the North the Dickson and Paine Lakes and the Blue Lagoon. To the South, the Grey, Pehoé, Nordenskjold and Sarmiento Lakes. To the East, the Amarga (Bitter) Lagoon.  In the park, there are approximately 100 kilometers of circuits to visit by car, and several trekking paths, even one for the highly trained trekkers, that goes round the Paine massif.  Going through them, you can visit lakes, rivers, cascades, and glaciers of absolute beauty.

The park is located in an area of cold dessert weather in the lower parts, and a tundra weather in the summits.  This weather is very changeable during the summer, thus it can be sunny, cloudy, rainy, and even snow on the same day.  The highest temperature can vary between 25º C and 10ºC, while the lowest can reach below zero degrees.  In winter, the conditions are more extreme.  It rains and snows all throughout the year, though not more than 60 mm. a month. The highest and lowest temperatures can be around 12ºC and below zero degrees, respectively.