Kyle Berg

I went with Niko and his parents on the tour of the glaciers Spegazzini & Upsala. As we set off on the boat on Lago Argentino, I kept staring at the beautiful turquoise color of the water. As I looked at the mountains surrounding the lake, I couldn’t believe I was actually starting my trip! Lago Argentino is enormous and it took an hour or two just to arrive at Spegazzini Glacier. Along the way, we jumped back and forth between the heated comfort of the cabin below and the vistas with the frigid temperatures above (it was much colder on the lake with the winds). Along the way, we gawked at the floating white and blue icebergs that were small in comparison to what we would see a few hours later.

It´s impossible to describe the immense dimensions of a glacier to someone who has never seen one up close. Television simply does not do justice to their size. Spegazzini is the tallest in Argentina and measures over 100 meters in height. Our boat parked in the cove for a few minutes while everone took pictures and stared at the wall of ice. While the glacier was impressive, my favorite sight was the mountain just to the right of the glacier. There was only black soil showing as its glacier had obviously been retreating during the past few years. There were 4 or 5 tiny streams flowing down the mountainside from the melting snow and ice above while the summit was shrouded in clouds.

Next we sailed back to the fork in the lake and headed the other direction toward Upsala Glacier. While Upsala is the largest in total area, it is not nearly as impressive as it is more wide and long that it is high. What was impressive along the trip was the beauty of the icebergs we saw on the way to Upsala. I have no idea, but some of them must have been 60 feet high or more just above the water! Many were a bright blue color and came in all shapes and sizes. Each one was a work of art.

Afterwards, we docked for lunch and a break. The four of us ate wind on the lake really made us tired. On the way back I slept the majority of the time. I woke mediocre food at an overpriced restaurant, but were glad to have something warm to eat and a chance to rest. The cold and the just in time to catch the first break in the clouds all day. I hopped outside to snap a picture with me and the Argentine flag with a mountain and Lago Argentino in the background.