Argentina (V.) - Perito Moreno, the huge lump of ice

Ok, this is not going to be hard to guess: I didn't like Calafate.

It's a strange town, which to me felt like a sort of outdoor disneyland - or an outdoor-themed movie set, can't decide which of the two. Beyond the one main street, packed with tourists and overpriced unreal-looking outdoor equipment and souvenir shops, the town quickly dissolves into empty streets and eventually just waste-ground nothingness.

I suspect that there are actual real people living somewhere in Calafate, but I didn't see them - instead, I saw LOTS of huge dogs. Those seemed to be everywhere on the streets - especially around the restaurant tables. 

If you're stocking up on food for hiking in El Chaltén, don't try to go to the supermarket in the evening - you'll walk away empty-handed, with the impression that everyone just found out that the apocalypse is coming tomorrow and wanted to prepare for it.

We were in Calafate of course not for the town, but for the glacier, the Perito Moreno, in the southern part of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. And, unlike the town, is really worth a visit.

If it's one of the most famous Argentina's sights, it is so for a reason. Even though it's not one of the biggest glaciers, it's huge - and it's easily accessible for the commoner.

It's hard to do it justice on a photo, and saying that the glacier is some 5km wide and over 60m high hardly gives the same feel of immensity that you have standing in front of it. For an idea, you can check out the (tiny) size of the people at the bottom of this photo:

Another thing which makes Perito Moreno special is that, as one of very few glaciers, it's actually growing. Every day it advances on average 2 metres... 

... with "pieces" of the size of an average house falling off in front of you with the sound of an explosion.

The system of catwalks and platforms is long enough to get a good view of a large part of the northern face without having to elbow your way through the crowds.

Having been safely away for a few years in rural Uganda, I had been in blissful oblivion of some of the technological advances that our civilisation made in the meantime. The discovery of the selfie stick, for example, had been concealed from me until this trip, and it wasn't until Perito Moreno that I really witnessed it in action. Those are the moments that make me wonder about the direction the mankind is taking.

Perito Moreno thoroughly admired and photographed (albeit without a selfie stick on our side) we returned to Calafate and the following morning continued the journey south, direction Chile.

Argentina-Chile border crossing

Just like with Argentina (and Patagonia), fresh produce is not allowed into Chile, though the difference in how they check this is pretty striking. In Argentina, the keyword seems to be "relaxed". In Chile, not quite. At the border must declare carrying any products of plant and animal origin in a sworn statement (seriously, the form says literally "I hereby declare under oath..."), the baggage is then checked by detector dogs and if in doubt, x-rayed. I was under the impression that forgetting a tomato in your backpack might almost land you in prison. Accordingly, I declared my two carrots (which they then took away), and we successfully crossed the border into Chile.

And we're in!

More on Argentina (and Chile) here and here.