Trans Patagonia

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Most of our travelling around Argentina so far has been by bus. They aren´t really any long distance trains here, but we´d read about an overnight train journey that crossed from East to West Argentina through Patagonia. Sounded good. So for over a week we tried to book tickets online, went into numerous travel agencies in different cities, all without success. Then the guy who sorted our flights out from Mendoza (Saint Francisco) also finally sorted out our tickets for this train (took 3 hours: 4 phonecalls, 2 emails, 2 faxes & a trip to the bank to transfer money).

It was worth all the bother. We had a great time, feeling like Michael Palin chugging at about 20 miles an hour through unpopulated desert and scrubland for hours and hours and hours, drinking beer and playing cards in the dining car, eating big fat steaks and drinking Patagonian wine before retiring to our own private sleeping quarters.

After a great sleep, we awake to the same view. The train is stationary, a problem with the engine, but after an hour or so, we´re off again. Soon there are snow capped mountains and lakes as we approach Bariloche. The train finally chugs into the station 3 hours late, but it was a fantastic journey on one of Argentina´s last remaining trains.

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