The boat cruised along the De Los Tempanos Canal to enter the arm of Lago Argentino to our first stop, Bahia Toro. Lago Argentino is the third largest lake in South America. It is 37 miles long and between 8-12 miles wide. The depth varies from 100 to 3000 feet deep. It is the source of the Santa Cruz River which flows into the Atlantic.
The scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed going up on the top deck to watch as we sped along.
When we arrived at Toro Bay, we disembarked and followed our guide (bilingual explanations) on a walk through the Andean-Patagonian forest.
We started down the easy half mile trail to see the "grandfather" tree when she spotted some scat. There are fox and puma in the area and she guessed it to be puma. I'm not expert, so I didn't venture a guess!
At the grandfather tree, she told us it is an "evergreen" beech tree because of the moderate temperatures in the area. It is estimated to be between 350-400 years old and the diameter is about 8 feet! You can see the roots are exposed, but it is shielded from the strong winds in the area by the rest of the forest.
From here we continued our short circuit walk to the waterfalls. About 20 years ago, a glacial lagoon above the falls collapsed, creating an avalance below, destroying many of the trees below. The limestone waterfall formation is about 600 feet high and 325 feet wide. The area reminded both of us of the Alluvial Fan in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado!
Waterfall video https://youtu.be/3cv-wvcn2u8
Soon we were walking back along the shore to the boat for our next destination, Cerro Negro.
Again, we landed and were off!
This trail was about 1-1/2 miles roundtrip, and was more narrow with ups and downs and lots of tree roots to navigate around, but still easy.
Glacial stream
Cerro Negro video https://youtu.be/3u6aUwubkGQ
If you look to the top of the waterfall, you can see the glacier on top.
Cerro Negro below
The picture below is the same peak as the one on the left in the picture above. There is a snow ledge on the left side. An Italian priest, Alberto Maria De Agostini, visited, mapped and was the first to climb the black rock formation, Cerro Negro in the 1930s! It has an elevation over 7500 feet. He took many photographs of the area and they are still used today to reference the recession of the glaciers.
Again, back to the boat heading for the final stop of the day, Perito Moreno Glacier. During this next hour we enjoyed views of the scenery and had a chance to eat our lunch. As we got closer, there were several large icebergs floating in the water.
We cruised along the face of one side of the glacier before arriving at the Moreno floating dock which is at the foot way of a long series of walkways to observe the glacier.
We had about two hours to walk and explore along a series of metal "balconies". We took the shuttle bus to the upper parking then walked the yellow loop to the red loop to the blue loop back to the lower parking and boat. The glacier is 97 square miles in size! It's 19 miles long and is the world's third largest fresh water reserve. The terminus (or outside edge) of the Perito Moreno Glacier is 3 miles wide with an average height of 240 feet above the surface of the water and 320 feet below! Scientists estimate that the glacier is 18,000 years old! This area became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981.
From one of the lookouts we could see both sides where the glacier enters the lake. We could hear lots of "thunder" as chunks of ice were calving into the lake.
You can see where ice has fallen and it creates an ice dam. Part of the water where it is blocked by the ice has a higher silt concentration, so it is darker than the water that can still flow into the lake.
We were listening and watching and saw a huge section of ice collapse into the lake. Of course, you are never ready with the camera, but I did get a little picture of some of the splash up from it. It happened just outside of the ice dam in the picture above. It's really crazy because you hear the thunder noise, but when it hits the water, you don't really hear any splash.
Further along the balcony we stopped to look at the far end of the glacier when we saw something fall. A HUGE section of the glacier collapsed. In the video you can see it starting to move away from the glacier. It was awesome! https://youtu.be/cfofvh_iwps
All too soon we had to make our way back to the boat for the hour trip back to the port.
We enjoyed seeing birds and flowers along the way and I will make a separate post with flora and fauna of the area later. Goodbye to the glaciers!
Another hour in the van and we arrived back to the hotel around 6:30 - at least we were the first off.
We had that never-ending question, "what's for dinner?" so after a short rest we set out to find food. We ended up at Elgaita Pizza Bar. It had great reviews, the pizza was good, and like Tobey told the folks working there, "I came for the pizza, but stayed for the music." They played classic rock music and it was a fun atmosphere.
Tomorrow we have no plans, so we can sleep in - YEAH!
Glacial stream
Cerro Negro video https://youtu.be/3u6aUwubkGQ
If you look to the top of the waterfall, you can see the glacier on top.
Cerro Negro below
The picture below is the same peak as the one on the left in the picture above. There is a snow ledge on the left side. An Italian priest, Alberto Maria De Agostini, visited, mapped and was the first to climb the black rock formation, Cerro Negro in the 1930s! It has an elevation over 7500 feet. He took many photographs of the area and they are still used today to reference the recession of the glaciers.
Again, back to the boat heading for the final stop of the day, Perito Moreno Glacier. During this next hour we enjoyed views of the scenery and had a chance to eat our lunch. As we got closer, there were several large icebergs floating in the water. 
We cruised along the face of one side of the glacier before arriving at the Moreno floating dock which is at the foot way of a long series of walkways to observe the glacier.
We had about two hours to walk and explore along a series of metal "balconies". We took the shuttle bus to the upper parking then walked the yellow loop to the red loop to the blue loop back to the lower parking and boat. The glacier is 97 square miles in size! It's 19 miles long and is the world's third largest fresh water reserve. The terminus (or outside edge) of the Perito Moreno Glacier is 3 miles wide with an average height of 240 feet above the surface of the water and 320 feet below! Scientists estimate that the glacier is 18,000 years old! This area became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981.
From one of the lookouts we could see both sides where the glacier enters the lake. We could hear lots of "thunder" as chunks of ice were calving into the lake.
You can see where ice has fallen and it creates an ice dam. Part of the water where it is blocked by the ice has a higher silt concentration, so it is darker than the water that can still flow into the lake.
We were listening and watching and saw a huge section of ice collapse into the lake. Of course, you are never ready with the camera, but I did get a little picture of some of the splash up from it. It happened just outside of the ice dam in the picture above. It's really crazy because you hear the thunder noise, but when it hits the water, you don't really hear any splash.
Further along the balcony we stopped to look at the far end of the glacier when we saw something fall. A HUGE section of the glacier collapsed. In the video you can see it starting to move away from the glacier. It was awesome! https://youtu.be/cfofvh_iwps
All too soon we had to make our way back to the boat for the hour trip back to the port.
We enjoyed seeing birds and flowers along the way and I will make a separate post with flora and fauna of the area later. Goodbye to the glaciers!
Another hour in the van and we arrived back to the hotel around 6:30 - at least we were the first off.We had that never-ending question, "what's for dinner?" so after a short rest we set out to find food. We ended up at Elgaita Pizza Bar. It had great reviews, the pizza was good, and like Tobey told the folks working there, "I came for the pizza, but stayed for the music." They played classic rock music and it was a fun atmosphere.
Tomorrow we have no plans, so we can sleep in - YEAH!
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