The touristy ice-trekking in Glacier Viedma in El Chalten

Instead of paying for 800 Argentine peso for ice-trekking (called the Big Ice) on Perito Moreno (of which we enjoyed just standing in front to see ice collapse), we paid 500 for ice-trekking on Glacier Viedma. It is 5 times larger than the former. It is still a touristy expenditure. However, we have no crampons and know nothing about glacier, i.e. we can’t go by ourselves. Then we cannot escape from experiencing it without paying. So we “brush” our credit card easily in a touristy way and joined the excursion happening half an hour later, in our first morning in El Chalten.

 

After an hour of bus and boat trip on Lake Viedma, which was the same size of Hong Kong, we saw the glacier wall on water but were unlucky to see any clashes. Then we went on the rock, wore the crampons and stepped onto the glacier. It was like walking on a foreign planet with ice ever moving and changing shapes. It will be different landscape a few days later. The guides kept exploring and trying new route out of their experience. It was an interesting walking for two hours. Due to global walking this glacier was also receding. We kept seeing big holes with water melting into it. We heard that there were adventurous divers going underneath the glaciers and dived into the lakes.

We saw a wedding proposal in our tour group. For a bit a luxury, we had bailey with ice to end the journey. It is what a touristy excursion about.