Lake Argentino

Lake Argentino is Perhaps the largest lake in Argentina. The reason I am saying "perhaps" is, it depends on how you define "large" - surface area, volume of water or whether it lies entirely within the country etc. Lake Buenos Aires may also be a contender for this title but half of it lies in Chile. So "Within" Argentina it will be smaller than Argentino!

Argentino lake area is about 1400 sq km. That is not actually very large - even Lake Titicaca in the Andes, a bit more to the north, is 6 times larger. Lake Baikal in Siberia is 20 times larger, Lake Superior in North America is 50 times larger!

But statistics apart, Lake Argentino is hauntingly beautiful - especially the color of its waters, deep blue to emerald green, was nothing like I had ever seen.

I only saw a brief green glint of it as our flight landed at the Armando Tola Airport in El Calafate, since I didn't have a window seat! And as we came out of the airport the road on both sides was bordered by drab, brown, arid hillocks, typical of the Patagonian landscapes. It's only when we turned in the drive-way of our hotel which was on top of a small hill that the sparkle of the waters hit me in the eye. It was late evening and sun was low in the west in an overcast sky causing the odd ray that had escaped through chinks in the clouds to make the water shimmer like emeralds. See the first photo.

For the next three days as we traveled around and on the cliffs overlooking the town of El Calafate, Lake Argentino continued mesmerizing us.

Lake Argentino was "discovered" by Valentin Filberg but he mistook it as a part of another nearby lake (Viedema) because the two are connected by a river La Leona that flows from Viedema into Argentino and so didn't name it. A bit later Francisco Moreno "found" it again and named it Argentino.

Actually it is quite amusing to read the accounts of these European travelers in the past centuries which claim to have "discovered" most of the world - North America was claimed by Columbus, Magellan claimed Terra Del Fuego, Bartolomeu Dias claimed Cape of Good Hope and so on. As if these were uninhabited regions and human beings were ignorant of their existence until the Europeans reached there! And to stamp their "ownership" the old names given by those who "discovered" them eons before, dwelt for millennia in the vicinity, of the lakes, forests, mountains and entire regions, were obliterated and replaced by European names. That's why Chomolungma became Mt. Everest and the peak of Chalten (A Tehuelche word meaning “Smoking Mountain", and once you visit there you will know how appropriate that is ) in Patagonia became Mt Fitzroy!

Anyway.

Lake Argentino is fed by several glaciers, the Perito Moreno glacier being the biggest of them

This second photo is of the glacier descending into Lake Argentino.

The quaint, beautiful town of El Calafate is on the banks of the lake and from the cliffs behind the town you probably get the best panoramic views of the lake - photos 3 and 4.

But it's a constant companion on the road if you travel around in the area say to El Chalten or to the glaciers like Moreno or Upsala, mesmerising you by all its different vistas. See photos 5 - on the way to the glaciers and 6 - returning from El Chalten.

and finally a bird's view from the flight as we left its shores to go to Ushuaia.