Today we embarked on a full-day boat cruise of the huge glacial lake Lago Argentina. We saw several of its arms, several glaciers and some interesting rock formations, mountains and shoreline forest.

Google maps location (green arrow).

We left from Punta Bandera along Brazo Norte, heading towards Glacier Upsala. I can know where I took the image but not be completely sure what direction I was facing. I think this is Co. de les Fosiles.

Google Maps link

We have now gone on into Brazo Upsala and this is the end of Glaciar Upsala, from some distance away.

The scale of the mountains and the landscape is impressive, as you can see from the trees on the near skyline against the more distant mountain.

Here is some antarctic beech forest at the edge of Brazo Spegazzini (one of the glacial arms of the lake).

Google maps reference (green arrow)

Glacier Spegazzini.

Here is one of the many pieces of floating ice that can sometimes achieve dramatic shapes. This one came from Glacier Spegazzini and we are near the antarctic beech, image above, though now travelling in the other direction.

Another mountain peak from Brazo Spegazzini and the name is not given on the map (it would be just north of Glacier del Totalizador). Note that this is a colour image, not a black and white conversion.

Google maps location (green arrow).

Another view from Brazo Spegazzini but I’m not sure what direction we are looking here and therefore what mountain this is.

Here we were returning and passing through Boca del Diablo o del Inferno(Mouth of the Devil or the Inferno), a narrow passage where the wind was funnelling through.

Google maps location (green arrow).

This I think is Co. Puesto Alla La Diana. Observe the fantastic contortions in the rock formations (click the image if you like for a larger size).

Finally we retraced our path to be able to view the Perito Merino glacier. This is moving at an incredible two metres a day, fed by a huge ice basin. Large chunks are constantly falling off, so it stays in roughly the same place. Here is a large piece calving at the side.

After our boat cruise we came back around to view the Perito Merino Glacier from land, as you see above. Notice how close the edge of it is to the near side of the lake. Every few years the glacier fills up this gap with ice and creates a huge dam of the part of the lake further off to the left. Then after some time, the water pressure builds up so that the water breaks through in spectacular fashion. There are lots of good vantage points on land if you happened to be there at that precise time.

At night we moved to the remote hotel of Los Notros, in the national park beside the Perito Merino Glacier. We had a wonderful view of the glacier from the window of our room and the food at the hotel was also very impressive.