Calafate’s Lago Argentino

We landed in El Calafate, Patagonia in the early afternoon and took a shuttle to our hotel. We booked our hotel last minute and were only able to get reservations at a hotel on the edge of town. While this wasn’t the most convenient location, it certainly was beautiful. The view from the hotel (below) was pretty spectacular, looking out over part of Lago Argentino (Argentine Lake). Lago Argentino is the largest freshwater lake in Argentina and the third largest lake in South America (we visited the largest lake in South America, Lake Titicaca, during our last trip to South America). Lago Argentino covers 566 square miles and feeds the Santa Cruz River which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The entire lake lives within the boundaries of Los Glaciares National Park, and there are several glaciers on Lago Argentino, including the famous Perito Moreno glacier.

I took the photo above because you can see icebergs out on the surface of the lake. Yep, that’s right. Icebergs. Its hard to determine how large they are, but remember, you can only see approximately 12% of an iceberg above water. The remaining 88% hides below water. According to the International Ice Patrol (not making this up), an iceberg under one meter in height and five meters in length is a “growler”. Most of the icebergs we saw on Lago Argentino were probably “Bergy Bits” – 3.3 to 16 ft in height and 16 to 49 feet long (at least what we could see above the surface). Unfortunately the naming convention for icebergs stops being cool after that, the boring “small”, “medium”, “large”, and “very large” names round out the list.

If you ever find yourself in El Calafate, do yourself a favor and take a trip to the edge of Lago Argentino. While you’re checking out the icebergs, you’ll probably want to see the flamingos as well. But that’ll have to wait until next time.