La Trochita

A unique tourist train

Fanatics of the trains worldwide come to this corner of the south of the province of Chubut to meet a jewell in the Argentine tourism: La Trochita or Old Express Patagonico, as is known it in the international agencies of tourism. A train that today constitutes a true museum piece, since its structure and rails on which it circulates are already a relic.

But not only the machine in himself is attractive and unique of other trains of the world. Its added value is the landscape it travels.

The steam of the Trochita dissipates in the clean sky of Patagonia. The wood wagons roll in a very narrow trail on asteppe covered with wild flowers and there it is lost between the imposing Chubut mountain ranges that frame it. In short, it seems like a toy train moved by the imaginative mind of a boy.

The excursion of this famous tourist train is made from the station of Esquel to the one in Nahuel Pan, in a convoy dragged by a locomotive. The wagons of tiny dimensions and the particularly narrow rails make it one of the few that survived the passage of time.

La Trochita, one of the few surviving trains of its class.

Some descendants of mapuches, dedicated mainly to cattle raising activities and making of crafts in loom, sell their crafts.

Every year in the month of March, its main religious ceremony, the Camaruco, summons them to the foot of the Nahuel Pan hill to invoke its God, Nguillatún.

In winter, when the snow paints the landscape withe, the passengers of La Trochita can throw logs into the furnace (called a "salamander") of the wagonto keep warm.

See Also
Gateway to the Andes in Chubut		La Trochita: A unique tourist train
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Patagonia		San Rafael Glacier: A brief escape from Esquel to Chile
Leleque Museum