Perito Moreno Glacier aka Middle Earth

They should have filmed The Lord of the Rings in Patagonia.

Can’t you see hobbits, orcs, and elves running up the mountains, fleeing across the lakes, and battling on the hillsides? I’m almost tempted to Photoshop fortresses and armies in to these photos… The dork in me was geeking out as we toured the Perito Moreno Glacier last week. We booked our tour with Hielo y Aventura, which included the bus ride to and from the glacier, an hour-long tour on the ice, and whiskey and alfajores after the tour.

When we first arrived at the glacier it was drizzling and cloudy, but it quickly cleared and blue skies and the sun made an appearance.We spent the first hour walking the maze of viewing decks that face the glacier. If you’re patient, which I am not, you can stand and wait for pieces of ice to fall from the glacier. Or, if you’re like me, you can simply wait until you hear the low grumbling of cracking ice, sprint to a good vantage point, and hope that the rupture hasn’t occurred yet. Thus was my strategy. It was not effective.As the clouds lifted, the peaks of the mountains became visible over the glacier. The mountains practically posed for pictures.After an hour or so, we got back on our bus and made the short drive to the dock for our ice tour. After a brief boat ride, we reach the shore adjacent to the glacier. By the time we got to the shore, the rain had returned and the sun had disappeared again.A short walk along the water brought us to the starting point of our tour. We were equipped with clamp-ons and we given a chance to get used to walking in them. Then began our tour!We spent about an hour and a half hiking up and down the glacial hills, peering down endless trenches, walking by glacier streams, and taking glacial selfies.There’s nothing like finishing a freezing cold glacier tour with whiskey with glacier ice and alfajores (cookies with dulce de leche; basically heaven in a little gold wrapper). I would have taken photos of our post-tour drinks and snacks if my fingers had not been frozen numb. After the treats we de-clamp-on-ed our shoes and walked back to the boat.Stunned, partially from the cold, but mostly from our exciting adventure, we got back on the bus and began our trip back to El Calafate.Cheers Perito Moreno!