La Trochita

La Trochita (or The Old Patagonian Express) is the name of a 402km long railway system running from Esquel to Ingeniero Jacobacci in Patagonia, Argentina. It was constructed between 1916 and 1934 with the purpose of helping farming and towns in that area.

Although the entire length of track is still usable, the tourist train runs nowadays only from Esquel to Nahuel Pan (20km). They still use two of the original 2-8-2 Baldwin locomotives (while two other Henschels are stored for future repairs) and original 1st and 2nd class coaches. The century-old freight cars are used today only for maintenance purposes.

The trip lasted for about one hour, after which the locomotive was reversed and we came back to Esquel. During the return trip I decided to ride on top of one car in order to get a better camera angle. Somehow the conductor found out and he came very worried and agitated demanding me to ride inside. I managed to calm him down by explaining that I am a circus acrobat with more than twelve years of experience, but still he didn’t allow me to carry on 🙂

Ticket price equivalent to US$40.918 trochita919 tro920 tro921 tro922 tro923 tro924 tro925 tro926 tro927 tro928 tro

Tags:

Permalink|Comments RSS Feed|Trackback URL

B66AMA.com in press

The daily newspaper Evenimentul Zilei will keep a weekly journal of our trip here. Our trip was also presented (again) in 4tuning.ro, a Romanian car and tuning magazine. The article here.

Permalink|Comments RSS Feed|Trackback URL

More help from random people

We were some 100kms West of Bariloche, in Argentina. After more than one hour of heavy raining, our clothes got soaked (I must write a letter to Tourmaster asking what exactly is their understanding of a waterproof barrier) The cold temperatures felt even colder. We stopped for few minutes and, while discussing our options, a man came out of a house and invited us inside to warm up, dry the clothing and have a cup of coffee. His family car was a 1987 Dacia (still very popular there, same as in Colombia) and he was very happy with it – why I never hear such thing in Romania?

After that, we stopped in the first town and purchased some heavy duty rain suits.

Then the same thing happened again, two days later: we were in Caleta Olivia this time, asking for a place to work in a shop to change the oil. A guy was also there looking to buy some parts. His name is Christian aka Superman, also a biker and ex bodybuilder, and he invited us to his house to do the oil change, sleep and eat. Plus he extended the invitation for when returning. With more people like them, hostels will be soon out of business. Many thanks again to both families!!!914 help915 help916 help917 help

Permalink|Comments RSS Feed|Trackback URL

Moncopulli Auto Museum

After Osorno we changed our heading towards East, in order to get to Argentina. After 25km there is an interesting auto museum, some saying it is the only of such kind in Chile. The collection includes various cars, mostly American models from the ’40s-’60s era, with a focus on Studebaker brand. In addition to this, there are various other vintage articles exhibited there: radios, cameras, toys, camping gear and even a road simulator. In the backyard, the vehicles awaiting restoration can be also visited.903 auto museum904 auto905 auto906 auto907 auto908 auto909 auto910 auto911 auto912 auto913 auto

Tags: ,

Permalink|Comments RSS Feed|Trackback URL

Pablo Neruda National Railway Museum

From the bikers we learned about this museum, located in the city of Temuco. The museum was closed for repairs, since this year’s earthquake affected some buildings (lightly). However, we managed to find a hole in the wall and got inside to capture some photographs. The cars are located in the yard, showing various degrees of conservation and/or repairs, while all of the locomotives are inside the old depot. More info here.898 train899 train900 train901 train902 train

Tags:

Permalink|Comments RSS Feed|Trackback URL
Pages: Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next