Oh, weather. Why did you let me down? You’d been such a good friend until now!

Still, I suppose you can´t win every time, and after being incredibly lucky in Iguazu, perhaps it was only fair that I should see my second world-class natural wonder through thick curtains of rain…

Actually, an angry sky isn´t the only thing that went wrong as I set out to discover the 250 km2, 60 m tall Perito Moreno Glaciar, the whole purpose of my – and everyone´s – stay in the South Patagonian town of El Calafate.

A trip to Chile´s Torres del Paine for the next day proved more complicated to organise than expected, and as I ran around trying to book the tour, change money and buy myself a picnic, I caught the shuttle bus to the Glacier at the very last minute… only to realize that I was exactly 25 pesos short of change to pay for my admission ticket into the park.

Oops.

Trying not to panic, I noticed that the passenger sitting in front of me was reading a French guidebook. A compatriot! Surely I could appeal to his sense of national solidarity…

And this is how I met Michel from La Rochelle, a 69-year-old retiree who used to work as a professional diver and is now travelling pretty much full-time, making the most of every opportunity to explore the world, except for… diving.

Michel ended up not only lending me the 25 pesos I needed, but also keeping me company for much of the visit, entertaining me with the colourful stories of how he divorced his wife on an impulse, how he recently took up windsurfing, or how he was arrested and sent to jail by corrupt policemen at the beginning of his trip in Posadas (Northeast Argentina)…

And it was good to have company, seeing as the bus dropped us off at 2.30pm and came to pick us up at 7.30pm. Now, I´m sure that five hours to walk the 4 km long boardwalks winding around the glacier are welcome on a sunny day, but I must say that it´s a tad long when you’re caught in a rainshower!

Thankfully, the bus driver must have taken pity, because he came back half an hour earlier than planned and drove us back to El Calafate at record speed.

And the glacier itself? In spite of the grey clouds that obstructed our line of vision and hid the mountains in the background, it was an amazing sight.

The footpath allowed us to admire it from every possible angle, taking in the 50 shades of blue and white and the different ice shapes.

Every few minutes, a thunderous noise echoed in the park – the noise of the blocks of ice breaking and falling into the water, as the glacier pursues its endless calving process. This is an event in itself and it becomes something of a game for visitors to try to spot the falling icebergs before they hit the water, and to anticipate the crashing sound.

In summary, the Perito Moreno Glacier is an absolute must-see – just don’t forget to bring your rain jacket and a good book!

Have you ever been to the Perito Moreno or seen a big glacier up close? Let me know in the comments below!

If you would like to follow the rest of my adventures, consider subscribing to the blog to receive all updates by email, and connecting with Camille in Wonderlands on Facebook, where I regularly post snapshots and musings that haven’t made it onto the site.