Upsala Glacier & Estancia Cristina

The next day, we did our second glacier experience to Upsala Glacier. It involved another boat trip with an early-morning start.  We stopped briefly to take pictures of the sunrise.

The boat was large and there were several groups onboard. The crossing was really rough. One of our participants, Peter, was very prone to motion sickness. He had enough drugs to see him through, but someone else on our boat was not so lucky.

The lake in front of the glacier was loaded with icebergs from the glacier’s calving. They were huge and the boat allowed plenty of time for everyone to take photos.

Then we went around a peninsula to Estancia Cristina, a ranch.

Apparently back in the early 1900’s, if you wanted to settle on Argentinian land and ranch it, and proved that you could succeed, you got the land for free. So some guy in Britain convinced his bride that this was a good idea. They ended up living in a tent for 2 years before being able to build their first permanent structure.

I was cold and the wind was relentless. If my new husband had told me we would be living in this God-forsaken piece of land in a tent for two years, I would have told him where to shove that idea.

Yet, they created a sheep ranch. They even built a boat with plans from a magazine on how to build a model boat. It floated, until it didn’t. They burned down the forest to make some grazing land for the sheep – which made for some interesting landscape because the stumps of the trees never decomposed because it’s too windy and cold…

Our ranch tour included a visit to a museum Estancia Cristina housed in a barn and a 4×4 tour of the ranch and led us to a viewpoint of another terminal lake of Upsala Glacier. At the viewpoint, the wind was blowing full force. It was no better once back at the lowlands of the ranch where we toured the museum and grounds. The young lady leading the tour was so enthusiastic about the area – I thought she was as loony as the two Brits.

We got to sit up front of the 4×4.  Here, it crosses a soggy road near the lake:

And here we prepare to cross a “bridge”.

Notice no tripods?  It was blowing a gale out there!

I haven’t mentioned anything about the food! Let me say that meals were enormous. Wine was provided for all dinners and NatHab was not restrictive and often we were offered wine with our lunches. Argentinian beef cuts were less “trimmed” than what we would find in the USA. Portions were massive though. Lots of lamb on the menus, not so much chicken. My favorite restaurant meal was in El Calafate where they cook dishes in old plough blades that have been reconstructed into cooking pots.

Wetlands and Perito Merino Glacier

We started the morning of our last day in El Calafate by going to the nearby wetlands. I didn’t expect all that much from this outing but Zapa had a lot of knowledge of wildlife of the area and here it really made the experience. I was amazed at the amount of waterfowl and general birdlife there was that morning.

Perito Merino

Our last glacier experience was Perito Merino – saving the best for last. This is a very pristine glacier. It is clean and brilliant white on top, and has a sharp terminal face. There is very little moraine to dirty it up. It ends to meet a peninsula that divides it between a lake and a fiord, most often the ice blocks this section off. But over time, the water works its way through and creates a tunnel, until that portion of the glacier finally collapses to allow the lake to flow out through the fiord. We missed this collapse (called a Rupture) by one week. Sometimes it is 6 years from Rupture to Rupture.  To view a YouTube video of the March, 2016, Rupture – click here.

Our walk was on boardwalks and viewpoints built on the peninsula across from the glacier. The government has obviously spent a lot of money on the mile and a half of walkways.  We frequently heard and saw the glacier calving.

The glacier views were stunning!

The Adventure Continues>>>