The long road...
The Ruta 40, or La Cuarenta (the Forty), is Argentina’s longest road, stretching from the southernmost point of mainland Argentina through to the Bolivian border, covering a massive 5224 Kms of the country. I guess it’s the Argentinian equivalent to the USA’s Route 66, and equally the stuff of legend and song. A considerable part of this road is unsealed roads, although we passed workers who are tarmacing sections of the road.
With starting our trip in the south of Argentina, we decided to travel from El Chaltén up to Bariloche on the Ruta 40, as there is no train and it seems that flights have to go through Buenos Aires to get anywhere else in the country which seemed protracted. We thought it would be a good way to see some of this huge country.
We booked with Chalten Travel, who are the only company to run buses through La Cuarenta from Chalten to Bariloche, prior to leaving the UK. It’s a two day trip, with a stay over in Perito Moreno and we left Chalten Travel to book our accommodation for that night. Big mistake, but I will come to that later.
We were outside the Hostel on our day of departure from El Chaltén in the rain, waiting to put our bags away as the drivers finished their coffee in the Hostel – buses never leave on time. We were finally allowed on the bus to find it stank of smelly backpackers, humid cheesy socks and stale human gases and no loo – and we were to be on this bus for 12 hours! The drivers made stops every few hours for loo and refreshment breaks – we were really out in the sticks so some of the stops were rather incredible – one was deemed our last stop for 3 hours, when I looked around all I could see was a bunch of bushes either side of the road – boys to right, girls to left!
Last stop for 3 hrs...
Really?
The un-sealed “road” has you bumping about, with stones hitting the chassis of the bus all the time, plumes of dust falling through the air in our wake. The drivers have a tough job and I didn’t envy them one bit, and you can understand why the bus isnt too new… it’s going to get trashed on this road! (But still worth cleaning the inside of the bus, though!) You get an idea of how vast this country is, tho, as we were passing through 1300km of it, and only in the last 500k did we really see more signs of life, having passed 100’s of kms of empty steppe. Amazing.
We arrived in the town of Perito Moreno – 4,000 population – at night. I don’t believe there is any reason to stay here other than as a stop-through. The “Hotel” we were staying in, Hotel Belgrano, organised through the bus company, was a DIVE.. The Kiwi said he’d stayed in some dives before when he was backpacking but this was really a hole! It was after 9pm and our bus left at 8am the following day so we had no choice… so we went out to find dinner then came back and tried to touch as little as possible – it’s the sort of place you come out feeling dirtier than when you went in, despite having a shower (I kept my flip flops (Jandals) on in the shower!!). It was probably built in the 60’s and appears to have never received any maintenance or cleaning since then. Crumbling walls, damp stains on the faded and worn carpet, peeling paintwork, stains on the doors I don’t want to even contemplate… So, make a note, NEVER, ever stay in the Hotel Belgrano in Perito Moreno! I don’t know what Chaltén Travel are thinking! Even calling itself a hotel is a cheek!Then on top of that the price – $190, no breakfast included.
Lake breaks up the landscape
The following day we are on a new, cleaner, nicer smelling bus with a loo and accompanied by Fernando from Chalten Travel who gave us information and details of the areas we are passing, which was very helpful and in English too which was even more helpful! Riccardo, our main driver, was stopping in some nicer places, where there was some decent food to be had and clean toilets – no bushes today, but we did have dogdy music playing! The mood of everyone on the bus was lighter, despite it being a longer day as we were travelling for 13 hrs, and the day more pleasant. By the end of the day yesterday we were wondering what on earth we were doing, why didn’t we fly to BA and then to Bariloche or somewhere nearer… BUT we were seeing a heck of a lot of the country this way, in the end we passed 1300km of Patagonia – that’s the thing about this country, that huge distance is just in one region of the country!!
Sun setting
It is a gruelling trip, but I would say do it! The landscape you see, the distance you cover helps to grasp the vastness of this country and the diversity of landscape.
But remember, do not stay at Hotel Belgrano in Perito Moreno!
(Prices quoted are Argentinian pesos)
