The Perito Moreno glacier: Spanish reading (A2)
An A2 Spanish story about a day trip to the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentine Patagonia: how it dams the Brazo Rico, why the ice looks blue, and what a falling block sounds like.
El día que oímos caer el hielo del Perito Moreno
Reading for practice
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A girl describes her day trip from El Calafate to the Perito Moreno glacier. The guide explains that for many years the ice advanced until it closed off the Brazo Rico arm of Lago Argentino: the water rises, opens a tunnel under the ice and eventually the ice bridge collapses, though not every year. From the walkways they watch a huge block fall into the water and learn why such tightly packed ice looks blue.
El guía se llamaba Damián y nos habló durante todo el camino. Nos explicó que, durante muchos años, el glaciar Perito Moreno avanzó despacio hasta tocar la orilla de enfrente. Mi tía no lo entendió bien y se lo preguntó otra vez, y él se lo explicó con las manos.
Cuando el hielo llega a la orilla, cierra el Brazo Rico, uno de los brazos del lago Argentino. El agua de ese brazo no puede salir y sube muchos metros. Después encuentra un camino por debajo del hielo y abre un túnel. El túnel crece durante unos días y, al final, el puente de hielo se cae. Eso no pasa todos los años.
Bajamos del micro a las nueve y caminamos por las pasarelas. Para verlo mejor, bajamos hasta el mirador más cercano al agua. El frente del glaciar es una pared enorme de hielo azul.
De diez a doce estuvimos allí, casi sin hablar. A mi tía le encanta caminar, pero yo prefiero quedarme quieta y escuchar.
Y entonces lo oímos. Primero un ruido seco, como un trueno lejano. Estábamos mirándolo cuando un bloque enorme se soltó de la pared y cayó al agua.
Le preguntamos a Damián por el color del hielo, y nos lo explicó así: el hielo del glaciar está muy apretado, casi sin aire, y ese hielo tan compacto se ve azul.
Volvimos a El Calafate por la tarde. En el micro mi tía quiso contármelo todo otra vez, pero yo ya estaba dormida.
Ahora tengo una foto del glaciar encima de mi mesa. Cuando alguien me pregunta por el viaje, se lo cuento con el ruido incluido.
¿Y tú? ¿Prefieres la montaña o el mar? ¿Qué lugar quieres ver algún día? Si vas alguna vez a la Patagonia, cuéntamelo.
About this article
What you'll learn
Integrated A2 narration: clitic position with a conjugated verb, an infinitive, a gerund and an imperative, le turning into se, por and para, encantar/preferir/odiar with the infinitive, time prepositions, and the imperfect against the preterite.
A girl describes her day trip from El Calafate to the Perito Moreno glacier. The guide explains that for many years the ice advanced until it closed off the Brazo Rico arm of Lago Argentino: the water rises, opens a tunnel under the ice and eventually the ice bridge collapses, though not every year. From the walkways they watch a huge block fall into the water and learn why such tightly packed ice looks blue.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
sin protestar
newwithout complaining
After sin Spanish uses the infinitive, not a form in -ndo: sin protestar, sin hablar. The text has the pattern twice: me levanté sin protestar and casi sin hablar. In casi sin aire, sin is followed by a noun instead.
It is a compact way to say what somebody did not do: Salió sin decir nada.
otra vez
newagain, one more time
Otra vez is the everyday way to say "again". Vez is feminine, so it is otra and not otro. De nuevo means the same thing.
It comes up in every conversation: Dímelo otra vez, Otra vez llegó tarde.
de enfrente
newopposite, on the other side
De enfrente follows a noun and means "opposite": la orilla de enfrente is the far shore. The related phrase enfrente de goes before a place: enfrente del hotel.
It is the simplest way to point at whatever is across a street, a river or a lake.
algún día
newone day, someday
Algún día means "someday". Before a masculine singular noun alguno shortens to algún: algún día, but alguna vez. The last sentence of the text uses alguna vez.
The pair algún día / alguna vez covers plans and wishes: Algún día voy a ir.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
madrugar
madrugar
to get up very early
One verb replaces a whole phrase: madrugar is "to get up very early". It is regular: madrugo, madrugas, madruga. The related noun la madrugada is the small hours, before dawn.
Spanish likes these dense verbs, and English has no single word for it.
el micro
el micro
coach, long-distance bus (Argentina)
In Argentina a long-distance or excursion bus is el micro, from micro-ómnibus. A city bus in Buenos Aires is el colectivo. In Spain the excursion coach is el autocar and the city bus is el autobús; in Mexico the usual word is el camión.
Transport is one of the topics where the word changes from country to country, so it pays to know several.
la pasarela
las pasarelas
walkway, boardwalk
A pasarela is a narrow raised walkway for people on foot. The word comes from pasar, "to pass". At the glacier the walkways keep visitors above the slope and off the ground.
The same word names a fashion runway: desfilar por la pasarela.
el mirador
el mirador
viewpoint, lookout
Mirador is built from mirar plus the suffix -dor: the place you look from. The same suffix gives el comedor, the dining room, from comer, and el recibidor, the entrance hall, from recibir.
It is on every tourist sign in the Spanish-speaking world.
la orilla
la orilla
shore, bank, edge of the water
Orilla is the edge of the water and covers a riverbank, a lakeshore and a seashore alike. La playa is a beach, and la costa is a whole coastline.
You need it in any description of water: a orillas del río, la otra orilla.
apretado
muy apretado
packed tight; tight; crowded
Apretado comes from apretar, "to press". Of ice it means dense and free of air; of clothes it means tight; of a schedule it means packed: una agenda apretada.
One word with three very different everyday uses.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
where clitics go: four cases
quiso contármelo
she wanted to tell me all of it
Before a conjugated verb the clitics stand separately: se lo preguntó. When the infinitive or the gerund depends on a conjugated verb, both positions work: quiso contármelo or me lo quiso contar, estábamos mirándolo or lo estábamos mirando. When the infinitive stands alone, the pronoun attaches to it: para verlo mejor. With an affirmative imperative they must be attached: cuéntamelo. The written accent appears only when the ordinary stress rules ask for it: verlo and contarme carry none, but contármelo and mirándolo do.
All four cases occur in this one text, so it reads as a map of the positions.
le turns into se before lo
se lo explicó
he explained it to her
When the indirect object le or les meets a direct object lo, la, los or las, it changes to se: not le lo explicó but se lo explicó. The order is fixed: indirect first, then direct. A second habit to notice: Spanish often uses le even when the person is named, as in Le preguntamos a Damián and A mi tía le encanta caminar.
Without the change you produce a combination that does not exist in Spanish.
para for purpose, por for the rest
Para verlo mejor
in order to see it better
Para plus an infinitive answers "what for": Para verlo mejor. In this text por does three other jobs: movement through a space (caminamos por las pasarelas, por debajo del hielo), a part of the day (por la tarde) and a topic (me pregunta por el viaje). That is not the whole list, but these are the uses a narrative needs most.
Por and para are the classic A2 trap, and examples from a text stick better than a rule list.
gustar, encantar and preferir take the infinitive
le encanta caminar
she loves walking
English puts an -ing form after "like"; Spanish uses the infinitive: le encanta caminar, prefiero quedarme, odio madrugar. Le encanta caminando is wrong. With gustar and encantar the verb stays singular, because the subject is the action itself, and the sentence often opens with a plus the person: A mi tía le encanta. With preferir and odiar the person is the subject: yo prefiero, yo odio.
This is exactly where a translation from English gives itself away.
time in a narrative: en, a las, de... a, por
De diez a doce
from ten to twelve
The text shows four different patterns. A month takes en: En enero. A clock time takes a las: a las siete de la mañana, a las nueve. A span takes de... a: De diez a doce. A part of the day takes por: por la tarde, and that works everywhere. In much of Latin America en la tarde is common as well, and in Argentina, where the story happens, people also say a la tarde.
These four patterns cover nearly every time expression a story needs.
background in the imperfect, event in the preterite
Estábamos mirándolo
we were watching it when...
A Spanish narrative works in two layers. What was already going on takes the imperfect: estábamos mirándolo, se llamaba Damián, yo ya estaba dormida. What happened and finished takes the preterite: se soltó, cayó, fuimos, bajamos. That is why one sentence carries both.
It is the engine of storytelling: the background first, then the event that cuts into it.
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