Perito Moreno

When nature formed the great glaciers of Argentina, there were no political boundaries in southern South America, nor an area called Patagonia. Now of course, we refer to this land mass as Chile and Argentina and Patagonia is a term applied to the southern portions of each country. There are glaciers on both sides of the Andes, forming the Patagonian Ice Field, second only in size to Antartica. On the southwestern Argentine side, there are more than 300 glaciers, some of them in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, Glacier National Park, extends for 217 miles (350 km) along the Andes. The park also includes mountains, rivers, lakes and forests and reaches into the arid Patagonian steppes to the east. Among the steep, jagged granite mountain peaks Cerro Fitz Roy, also known as Chaltén at 11236 ft (3405m) and Cerro Torre at 10236 ft (3102 m). Flora and fauna include stands of beech trees, shrubs, mosses, orchids, red firebush, and guanacos, large Patagonian hares, hawks, red foxes, Magellan geese, black-necked swans, flamingos, woodpeckers, skunks, pumas, condors and the near-extinct huemel deer. The huemel is now protected as a national monument.