Glaciers National Park - Patagonia, Argentina
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GURUGU
S 50° 28.135 W 073° 02.003
18F E 639560 N 4407382
Characterized by a barren but beautiful landscape that is pocked by 50 major glaciers and more than 200 lesser ones, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (Glaciers National Park) seems like another planet.
Waymark Code: WM18Q3A
Location: Argentina
Date Posted: 09/09/2023
Views: 2
While most glaciers are receding, Perito Moreno—the park’s enterpiece, and four times the size of Manhattan—is still growing; its imposing
3-mile-wide wall of ice rises 200 feet above Lake Argentino. You can watch in awe from viewing platforms as icebergs grumble, crack, and calve off the face to plunge into the lake, or you can strap on rampons and walk a surface wrinkled by icy blue crevices and crossed by snowmelt rivers. Mount Fitz Roy looms more than 11,000 feet over
Lake Viedma, which anchors the north end of the park. Argentines call it Cerro Chaltén, a mix of Spanish and Tehuelche for “Smoking Mountain,” which refers to the cloud ring around its sheer, granite summit.
Rising just across the border in Chile and at times visible from the park are the magnificent Torres del Paine peaks (see p. 1023).
Los Glaciares exemplifies Patagonia, among the world’s most sparsely populated areas. Santa Cruz Province, where the park lies, is almost as big as Texas but has a population of only 160,000. But you needn’t explore the End of the World under the same harsh conditions that Darwin endured when he visited in the 1830s. The handsome Hostería Alta Vista offers luxury and is 20 miles from El Calafate, the rapidly expanding and relatively charmless gateway to the area. This 155,000-acre working sheep farm, dating to 1910, now offers a sevenroom
antiques-filled inn, along with stables of horses that let guests explore their inner gaucho.
The only hotel within the park, almost touching Perito Moreno, is Los Notros. From every room, you can see—and sometimes hear—the glacier. Or try the luxurious 17-room Eolo, which was built in the style of an old Patagonian estancia in the empty windswept Anita Valley. A 7,400-acre property, it sits an hour outside El Calafate at the foot of a starkly beautiful mountain.
Where: El Calafate is 1,690 miles/2,720 km southwest of Buenos Aires. Hostería Alta Vista : Tel 54/2902-499-902; www.hosteriaaltavista.com.ar. Cost: from $475. When: closed
May–mid-Sep. Los Notros: Tel 54/2902-499-510; www.losnotros.com.
Cost: from $630, all-inclusive. When: closed Apr–Sep. Eolo Lodge: Tel 54/2902-492-042; www.eolo.com.ar. Cost: from $740, all-inclusive (peak), offpeak rates on request. When: closed May–mid-Sep. Best times: late Nov–early Mar for finest weather; Mar–Apr for fall foliage; Dec for a chance to help shear Alta Vista’s 22,000 sheep.
Name of Source Book: 1,000 PLACES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE - 2ª Edición
Page Location in Source Book: 989
Type of Waymark: Paisaje
Location of Coordinates: Glaciar Perito Moreno
Cost of Admission (Parks, Museums, etc.): 10000.00 (listed in local currency)
List Available Hours, Dates, Season:
8:00 a 18:00 horas
Ultima Entrada 16:30
Official Tourism Website: [Web Link]
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Visit Instructions:
Because of the vastness of many of the "non-localized" sites (Gobi Desert, Great Wall of China), waymark owners are encouraged to allow visits that reflect different perspectives and experiences.
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