El Calafate and the Glacier National Park

Just to the north, we headed to another national park, but this time the Argentine side. In El Calafate, the main street, succession of small wooden cottages that are home to chic boutiques. Tourists are window-shopping in jacket and sunglasses, Megève is no snow, no skiing Chamonix. We are on Christmas Eve, and while in France it already agitated around ranges, we start in the Glacier National Park. Camping is not allowed at the foot of the famous Perito Moreno glacier, but we hope that the park rangers will have more to heart than Christmas Eve ... dislodge the fraudsters will go down within minutes of wooden walkways and here we are before the glacier 60 m high, 5 km wide and 15 km long! It's a mesmerizing spectacle ... we keep all eyes on these blocks of ice cracking, moaning, groaning ... and collapse. The crevasses are not white but blue, hence the strange blue-green of Lake Argentino in which they collapse.


There should be a religious silence to listen to the glacier ... but noisy groups borrow more gateways. Romain, a toddler of 3 years, a cold and repeating like a record derided "when is it going down? ". Ines, a bundle of joy to one and a half, groaned along with the ice blocks, frightened by the creaking ... So we decide to return the next day. December 25, we go out in the cold at 7am to give us our Christmas: a virgin Perito Moreno, silent and deserted! We enjoy this unforgettable hours, only facing the glacier, on a bridge closed to the public (second disobedience on Christmas Day, a fine example!). Back at 8am in the camper, to wake up gently and children with them rave about the performance of Santa Claus has to find their little shoes, even without fire, without a fixed address ...


But the Glacier Park can not be reduced solely to Perito Moreno. A boat trip one day also allows us to approach the glacier Upsala. What a sight! We glide in the middle of an unreal blue icebergs, to the foot of the glacier. We make a short stop at Lake Onelli. A forest of dead trees surrounds us, the earth beneath our feet is so thin that trees can take root and do not stand a long time to local winds. One sympathizes ... Onelli Lake, at the junction of two glaciers, icebergs is covered with strange shapes and colors ... No time to appreciate all the nuances, because the sky is covered already and will return by boat in the rain ... With, in our aperitifs, a piece of Upsala glacier!