El Calafate

Perito Moreno Glacier advances two metres every day, and standing on the viewing platforms, you can hear it — cracks and groans deep in the ice that end in a thunderclap as a tower the size of an office block calves into the Argentino Lake below. El Calafate in Santa Cruz Province is the base for one of the few glaciers on Earth that is neither retreating nor advancing in net terms, a 250-square-kilometre river of ice that has maintained its equilibrium for decades while the rest of the world melts. The blue colour inside a freshly calved block, exposed for the first time in centuries, is a colour that has no equivalent name.

Perito Moreno is part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field — the third-largest freshwater reserve on the planet — and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 as part of Los Glaciares National Park. The glacier periodically dams the Brazo Rico arm of Lago Argentino, building pressure until the ice ruptures in a ruptura that draws thousands of witnesses; the last major ruptura occurred in 2018. Trekking directly on the glacier's surface is possible with crampons through guided operations, and the experience of walking across blue ice above a turquoise lake is one Patagonia's most disorienting encounters. El Calafate town sits on the southern shore of Lago Argentino, 80 kilometres from the glacier, and serves as the region's most accessible base for the full range of ice-field expeditions.