El Calafate and the glaciers park
Occupying over 600,000 hectares, Los Glaciares National Park extends from the arid Patagonian steppe to the Andes Mountain Chain, natural border with neighbouring Chile. From north to south, the National Park is 350km (219mi) long and contains a National Reserve of 180,000 hectares. Southern Patagonia’s ice field, the second largest after Antarctic’s, is worth a visit. It features over 47 glaciers, out of which the main ones are the Marconi, the Upsala, the Agassiz, the Moreno, the Onelli and the Spegazzini glaciers. It also contains over 200 smaller ones. Although, the glaciers seem to be static, they are in fact constantly moving, offering visitor never-ending entertainment. Once in a while, blocks of ice detach from the glaciers’ front and plunge into the lake’s milky waters with a deafening noise. This happens often with the Perito Moreno Glacier in the Argentino Lake located 80km (50mi) away from El Calafate.