We’re both pretty weary from early rises, long bus trips and border crossings, so let’s keep this one short and let the photos do the work.

In a nutshell: though certainly a tourist excursion, the Perito Merino glacier experience really had a great balance of time, guidance, independence and silence… or better still, the echoing thunder of ice as it calves from the 210 foot face of the glacier and collides with the blue waters below.

After 2.5 hours of wandering the boardwalks and gawking at the ice, the boat crossing to the far shores brought us closer to the shearing face of the glacier, and ultimately to the start of the “minitrek” over a small corner of the glacier itself. It’s been years since I’ve been in crampons, and the crunch of ice underfoot is deeply satisfying… and perhaps delicious: the loose scree of ice pebbles that skate free from each shaving step of the crampons collect along the trails into streams of slush puppy.

The mini trek ended with a rather silly but friendly glass of whiskey, served, of course, over freshly mined glacier ice.

Salud!