Hitch-hiking south on Route 40, Patagonia, Argentina

From Bariloche I decided to hitch-hike my way south down Argentina's infamous Route 40 all the way to the bottom of Patagonia. Buses in Argentina are safe and comfortable, predictably getting you from point A to point B with a sandwich and hot coffee included, but they aren't much of an adventure and they aren't cheap either. Now that I was outfitted with everything I needed to bare the increasingly colder weather, I decided to hitch it and see what fate would bring. There is something about hitch-hiking that does the soul good. Hoping that something terrific will happen, then seeing it materialize; or, having nothing workout then laughing about it afterwards, either way works out to be a worthwhile experience. Riding the bus is just riding the bus.

In my case most everything worked out amazingly well. Argentina isn't the easiest place to hitch-hike, it seems that the vast majority of people in Argentina are distrustful even in the rural areas. Still, the rides that I did get were with terrific people. That's one of the great things about hitch-hiking; when you do get picked it is usually with the best people.

From Bariloche it was a tough and stubborn start on a gray day with spurts of rain coming and going. I took a local bus to get out of town then caught a ride with a cool guy who drove past his cabin to drop me off at Route 40. I stood there for a while as cars passed and a light rain started to come down. I was either going to get a ride or get wet. It turned out that I got a bit of both. Cars kept passing me and the rain kept falling. Finally a sweet German couple stopped to pick me up, taking me all the way to El Bolson. They had been living in Argentina for 50 years, meeting here as young missionaries. They didn't stay with that calling and ended up starting a fruit and vegetable farm. At 80 and 82 years old they were still farming. It was interesting and difficult to talk to them as Spanish was each our second language. Still we managed, and had a good two hour ride down to El Bolson.




I stayed the night in El Bolson, meeting up with my friend John who I met in Bariloche. It was a rainy day so I didn't see much of El Bolson. It is known as a hippy town with great beer. So I went out with John and some other from the hostel for some homemade brews before taking off the next morning.






The next day I had some terrific luck. As I was crossing the street to get to the south bound side of Route 40 a car passed in front of me so I threw out my thumb on a lark. The car immediately pulled off to the side, I had a ride just like that! It seemed so easy that I had my doubts, but the guy seemed alright and he asked me some questions that put me at ease. By wanting to make sure that I didn't have any drugs, arms, or anything else illegal I knew that he was just being helpful and equally trusting.

As it turned out he was an amazing guy, and we had terrific conversations for the next two hours, stopping along the way to appreciate the beautiful views. Ricardo, was on his way to the next city, Esquel to meet up friends for an asado, essentially an all out barbecue. My luck continued when Ricardo asked if I wanted to go to the barbecue and meet his friends. It was prefect I met some more terrific people an had a delicious meal with them. It was one of those experiences where you shake you head and wonder how the heck you got there. It was terrific. Just another testament to the good things that tend to happen when you put yourself out there.






















Richard returned that afternoon for El Bolson so I stayed at a hostel in Esquel. The next morning I caught one of the infrequent buses to the nearby Alerces National Park. This time of the year it starts to get very cold in Patagonia and there are few people visiting the parks in this part of Argentina. With few people visiting the parks many of the regular services were reduced or canceled for the year. Th highlight of the park other than the beautiful views is the forest of nearly extinct Alerces trees which are only accessible by boat. The boat would not be leaving for another 5 days so I was left to enjoy the views of the gorgeous landscape.

The bus going to the park only went 4 times a week and Monday's service only made it to the beginning part of the park. To get further into the huge park my only option was to hitch it. I was planning to camp a couple of days in the park then take the Wednesday bus back out of the park, but my plans changed when I met some more great people. After a surprising number of people passed me in this rural, mostly desolate area Hugo and Monica were nice enough to pick me up and take me further into the park. They were also visiting the park so we stopped here and there to appreciate the views. We had a good time together and made it to the part of the park with the best views. There we hiked to an incredible lookout over beautiful lakes and mountains. Since we had a decent look around the park and my transportation options were limited I decided to ride back out of the park with them. On their way back to Esquel they dropped me off at a small town near the park called Trevelin.























Trevelin was a small town originally settled by Welsh immigrants. There is still a heavy Welsh presence with a number of people still speaking Welsh and teaching it in the schools. I made it to a nice hostel that overlooked the town then spent the rest of the afternoon taking a look around the quaint town.





That evening I met a guy from Argentina staying at the hostel, Marcelo. He was going to get dinner, but I told him I had plenty of food to cook so we ate together and I came to find out he was planning on driving the rest of Route 40 heading south. Perfect! We got along and he was happy to have some company so we set out to head south on Route 40 the next day.

We woke up early the next morning and made it back through Esquel to catch Route 40. The rosey glow of sun rise was a beautiful sight on the mountains and a perfect way to start the beginning of a long, bumpy road trip.








Route 40 is a road that stretches from the northernmost tip of Argentina at the Bolivian border all the way to the Straight of Magellan at the south, covering more that 5000 kilometers or 3125 miles. Route 40 runs along the western side of Argentina along side the Andes which mark the border with Chile. In Patagonia most of the route is still unpaved and desolate. At times we could see the snowy peaks of the Andes to the west, but most of the landscape was an eerily open and flat, stretching far off into the distance.

For the first part of our trip from Esquel to Rip Mayo Route 40 was paved. it was still somewhat desolate with far more desolate with rheas (similar to emus) and guanacos (similar to llamas) far out numbering people. Ranches, or estancias, were also few and far between. It was a beautiful, wind-whipped, solitary landscape.











From the small town of Rio Mayo Route 40 took a turn for the worse. Pavement turned into long miles of bumpy, jarring gravel road with up to an hour without seeing any cars pass to the north. Needless to say I was happy to be tagging along and helping Marcelo out with gas through this stretch of route 40. It was just us and the guanacos jumping across the road so I think we were both happy to have some company.












We finally got off the gravel for a little bit as we made it to our destination for the night. Marcelo wanted to visit Los Antiguos, a small Argentinean town on the border with Chile. We were having a good time together and I was happy to tag along with him so we spent a couple of nights there. The next day took a look around the small town checking out the views, Lake Buenos Aires, and one of the many fruit farms. The town was lined with popular trees that served as windbreaks from the gusts coming off the lake.















After a day of taking it easy we set off before sunrise the next day to make it to the “Cave of the Hands” national park, then to El Chalten by the end of the day. it was a beautiful sunrise over the plains then it was a gorgeous entrance to la Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands National Park) where Marcelo was also able to help me out. Argentina has an unfortunate policy of charging foreigners three times as much as locals to enter all of it's national parks. By traveling with Marcelo I was able to slide in as a local avoiding the discriminatory up-charge. Considering that it was also a UNESCO World Heritage site therefore partially supported and maintained through international funds I thought it was plenty fair, and good fun, to dodge the system.

The “Cave of the Hands” was so called for the thousand of hands painted on the cliff and cave walls above the valley of the Pinturas River. Most the hand paintings date back more than 2000 years while the oldest paintings are believe be as much as 10,000 years old. the hands were impressive as well as artistic while the valley was absolutely gorgeous. It was a great sight and good break from the road for an hour or so then we were back on the bumpy road!
Cueva de las Manos info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cueva_de_las_Manos
































The rest of that days trip was rough. Not only did we have a long way to go one a rough gravel road but we had car trouble. For the rest of the trip there was something wrong with the coolant system and every once and a while the antifreeze to spurt out and we would wait for the engine to cool down and add more water. This happened a few times, but somehow the problem went away and we crept along towards Chalten and civilization. Once we actually made it back to the pavement and services Marcelo stopped the car got out did a victory dance and stood on his car we were happy to have made it after envisioning a cold night on the side of the road.














Route 40 sign post