Los Glaciares National Park is located along the border with Chile and covers an area of about 446,000 hectares. Los Glaciares is one of the largest protected areas in Argentina. This area became a national park in April 1945. And in 1981 it was included in the UNESCO list as a World Heritage Site.
In Spanish, Los Glaciares means "glaciers". And indeed nowhere else in this region of the Southern Hemisphere has mainland land and the kind of favourable conditions for the development of modern glaciation. More than forty per cent of the western area of Los Glaciares is covered by the perpetual ice and snow of the Patagonian Andes. The largest ice cap outside of Antarctica, consisting of forty-seven glaciers, has been found in the protected area.
Perito Moreno is the most famous glacier in Los Glaciares Park. It is about 50 metres high and 4 kilometres long. The glacier is 30,000 years old. Perito Moreno is considered one of the few remaining "living" glaciers in the world. It is named in honour of the Argentine scientist Francisco Moreno, in Spanish "Perito-Moreno" means "Scientist Moreno". The plateau itself represents the world's third largest freshwater reserve. According to scientists, the glacier has a special ability to maintain balance and not succumb to global warming.
Perito Moreno is a unique glacier also because its masses begin to form at an altitude of 1500 metres above sea level, and then descend from the mountains and fall into Lake Argentino. Thousands of tourists flock to the national park to see this spectacle. UNESCO has declared the Perito Moreno Glacier a world heritage site.
Specially for tourists is a mini-trekking to the unique walls of the glacier. Visitors are given special shoes for walking on the ice. During the walk you can see a variety of ice formations - small lagoons, cracks, drains, as well as the place of glacier disintegration. In addition, there is a walk around the lake. A boat takes tourists to a distance of 200 metres from the glacier so that they can appreciate the beauty of Perito Moreno.
At the foot of the Andes, on the shores of the lake is the town of El Calafate. It is named after the Patagonian berry. From it the locals make jam and all sorts of alcoholic liqueurs. The town is a stopping point for all tourists on their way to the glacier.
Due to the melting of glaciers within the park, a complex system of lakes has formed. There are about a hundred of them in total, the most famous being Argentino and Viedma.
In terms of flora and fauna, the park is mostly covered by sub-Antarctic Patagonian forests and Patagonian steppes. The forests of the protected area are home to more than one hundred species of birds, the most notable of which are the long-billed nandu, Andean condor, black-necked finch and spurred duck. Animals include Andean deer, guanaco, llamas, condors, Patagonian hares, grey foxes and pumas.
On the territory of the park in Puerta del Cañon, scientists have discovered the remains of ancient human settlements, and in the bed of the local river, which has long since dried up - the fossilised remains of dinosaurs.
Every year thousands of tourists from all over the world visit the protected area of Los Glaciares. The best time to tour the park is between October and March, as it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
