The Glaciers - El Glaciars

Blaine, our friend, Tito Titus, and Glaciar Ghunther Pluschow
aboard the M/N Via Australis

One featured item in Southern Patagonia is glaciers. They are everywhere and very impressive. At first we had glimpses of them from a distance. As the journey progressed, we encountered glaciers in closer proximity. In fact, one cannot get a true feel for a glacier until its winds chill your body while a showery icy, mist rains on your face.

We had to be reminded that this was indeed summer in Patagonia. While on the cruise out of Ushuaia, we visited, in Zodiacs, a very blue thus ancient glacier with steep walls overhanging the fjord water. There we witnessed the glacier calve with the sound of a gun firing and the whoosh of the wind blowing across the water. The splash sent waves reverberating in the narrow fjord from which we viewed this cataclysmic event. We were coldly stunned by what we saw and experienced.

Glaciar Piloto y Nena calving.

This is not poor focusing; it alternated rain and sleet.

The best of the glacier watching was to come as we headed north on the Chilean Navimag ferry called Evangelistas from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt from February 7 -11. This was a trip of over 1000 miles from Southern to Northern Patagonia through the inland fjords created by these same glaciers. Although the Navimag ferrys are essentially work boats carrying passengers and goods to inland ports, the captain took us to view several glaciers along the route. The most memorable is Glacier Skua. It is the most enormous glacier in Patagonia at approximately 50 kilometers wide and an incredible 140 kilometers long.

Glaciar Skua from the M/N Evangelistas about one mile away and up close.