Cristina_2017 12 28_5736
The day starts at 7:30 am with a 40-minute drive to the Punta Bandera dock to take a boat on Lago Argentino to Upsala Glacier, a large valley glacier on the eastern side of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. Its higher portion lies in a disputed territory between Chile and Argentina. The glacier terminus is at Upsala channel of Lago Argentino. The Upsala Glacier is well known for its rapid retreat that has been ongoing since the glacier was first documented in 1810. The glacier showed almost continual recession up until 1999. The acceleration in ice motion during the two decades preceding 1999 may have been augmented by the release of backstress when the glacier retreated beyond the islands in Brazo Upsala. Another period of even faster retreat started in 2008. As of 2018 Upsala Glacier has retreated to such degree that it no longer constrains its tributary Bertacchi Glacier. The boat then drops us off at the Estancia Cristina, an Argentine cattle and sheep ranch located inside Los Glaciares National Park in Santa Cruz Province. It is here that we take a 4x4 for 45 minutes up a mountain, stop and continue up for another 20 minutes, reaching the summit around 12:30 pm. The ranch was founded in 1914 by Joseph Percival Masters, an Englishman who came to Patagonia with his wife in 1900; Estancia Cristina is named for Masters' daughter Cristina. Located on the coast of Brazo Cristina, a northern channel of Lago Argentino, Estancia Cristina still keeps the history of the Masters family alive. Its lodge has 20 rooms distributed over 5 buildings and it his here that we had lunch followed by a presentation of the traditional Mate, an Argentinean tea and a tour of the ranch. We then take the boat back to Punta Bandera and arrive back at the hotel at 8:00 pm.
Cristina_2017 12 28_5736
The day starts at 7:30 am with a 40-minute drive to the Punta Bandera dock to take a boat on Lago Argentino to Upsala Glacier, a large valley glacier on the eastern side of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. Its higher portion lies in a disputed territory between Chile and Argentina. The glacier terminus is at Upsala channel of Lago Argentino. The Upsala Glacier is well known for its rapid retreat that has been ongoing since the glacier was first documented in 1810. The glacier showed almost continual recession up until 1999. The acceleration in ice motion during the two decades preceding 1999 may have been augmented by the release of backstress when the glacier retreated beyond the islands in Brazo Upsala. Another period of even faster retreat started in 2008. As of 2018 Upsala Glacier has retreated to such degree that it no longer constrains its tributary Bertacchi Glacier. The boat then drops us off at the Estancia Cristina, an Argentine cattle and sheep ranch located inside Los Glaciares National Park in Santa Cruz Province. It is here that we take a 4x4 for 45 minutes up a mountain, stop and continue up for another 20 minutes, reaching the summit around 12:30 pm. The ranch was founded in 1914 by Joseph Percival Masters, an Englishman who came to Patagonia with his wife in 1900; Estancia Cristina is named for Masters' daughter Cristina. Located on the coast of Brazo Cristina, a northern channel of Lago Argentino, Estancia Cristina still keeps the history of the Masters family alive. Its lodge has 20 rooms distributed over 5 buildings and it his here that we had lunch followed by a presentation of the traditional Mate, an Argentinean tea and a tour of the ranch. We then take the boat back to Punta Bandera and arrive back at the hotel at 8:00 pm.