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.

Tags: train