Introduction
In order to be efficient, we managed to do during the same day the transfer from El Chalten to El Calafate in the morning and visit Perito Moreno Glacier in the afternoon.
Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the most famous glaciers in the world, though far from being the biggest. It’s a 250 km² ice formation with a length of 30km. It is fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field along with 47 other glaciers. This ice field is the 3Rd biggest freshwater reservoir in the world.
Also, while most of the glacier are decreasing, Perito Moreno stand still and is not yet affected by the raising temperature of our planet.
Table of Contents
El Chalten to El Calafate
Getting to El Calafate
We had our transfer to El Calafate (pick up from hostel) already arranged so we just had to wake up, get breakfast and wait. Our transfer was at 7:30am. The Van arrived around 7:50am which is usual as the van is picking up passenger from 7:30 to 8am.
By 10:40 we were at El Calafate airport and 11:05am at the bus station where we headed out.
If you don’t have a transfer, you can also make the journey with CALTUR. But you will have to check with them the schedule and price.
Hostel in El Calafate
From there our hostel was just 5min walking. It was called Folk hostel. Cool hostel, huge kitchen, friendly staff, cosy common area and breakfast is provided
Getting to the Glacier
There are 2 daily departures with Caltur:
- 8am and return at 4pm
- 1pm and return at 7pm
As we started our day in El Chalten, we of course had the afternoon one.
There are no seats allowed on the bus. It’s a single decker bus with WC and heating/AC. During the ride, information and map went from passenger to passenger from the driver (take a pics of it).
Our bus left at 1:15pm. We arrived at the entrance of the national park by 2pm. Time at which a ranger came on the bus to ask us to pay the entrance fee to the Glacier. It cost 800 pesos per person and you can pay in cash to the ranger directly or by CB (you will need to get out of the bus and into their offices). Once everyone paid, the ranger went off and back to give us the ticket.
You will also receive a little flyer and a plastic bag for your trash.
We arrived around 2:45pm at the beginning of the trail.
Perito Moreno Glacier
There are a couple of trails to walk on in order to see all the glacier. Don’t worry, you have more than enough tome to walk them all.
Along the way, there will many viewpoints with key information. Take the time to look at the glacier and see some huge icebergs, parts of ice falling in the sea. Watch out for the splash or the noisy BOOOOM.
By 5:15pm, we had done all the trail. We then went to the main viewpoint and waited the bus. For us leaving at 6pm would have been perfect. As you walk around the glacier but after a couple of hours, well it’s fine and enough.
While waiting, we also saw a few condors flying around.
Our bus arrived at 7:22pm and left some 5min later. We were in the terminal by 9pm.
Video
“Better to see something once than hear about it a thousand times.” – Asian Proverb
