Three Month in Argentina - 3,000 Miles in a Rental Car

Before I get into the meat of this blog post, I wanted to make one last mention about the release of the short story collection THE UNLIKELY TWINS AND MORE STORIES.

Click on this link to find all of the platforms where the book is available.

Everything related to books and writing going forward can be found at this website and blog.

On November 29, 2023 in Bariloche, we rented a car and over the next 30 days drove in a 3,000 mile semicircle mostly through the Patagonia region of Argentina. The area we covered was too difficult for me to show in one map with any detail, so I have included two. It would put everyone to sleep if I attempted to explain the specifics of this experience. In this and the next post, I will include some of the highlights.

The first map below covers the section from Bariloche to San Luis and the next map covers the second half of the journey from San Luis to Mendoza (the wine country of Argentina) and the return south to Bariloche to complete the loop.

The first day we drove south down the eastern edge of the Andes on Route 40 which is part of the Pan-American Highway that begins in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and extends to the southern tip of Argentina. We were on our way to the small resort town of Esquel which is the white dot above Tecka on the first map.

On the second day we set out on a very long drive of about six hours, more or less, straight east from the western border of Argentina to Trelew on the Atlantic Coast. The dotted horizontal line across the second map divides the Rio Negro Province to the north from the Chubut Province to the south. This trip involved rugged mountains, cliffs and rock formations all across this section of Patagonia.

The drive to Esquel with the snow-capped Andes in the distance.

Five of the many scenic views on the drive from Esquel to Trelew. This is an arid region. As you can see in one of the photos, it looks like rain but the rain never made it to the ground. We experienced this same phenomenon for hours.

From Trelew, we drove south down the coast a couple of hours to visit the Magellanic Penguin colony at Punta Tombo before turning back north to follow the Atlantic coastline to Puerto Madryn, Viedma and Bahía Blanca. The photos from the penguin colony speak for themselves. There were more than a thousand. They nest in burrows which they have dug in the ground. If we are friends on Facebook, you might have seen some of these pics. These penguins are small and cute, weighing in at less than ten pounds and standing, literally at about 28" (70 cm).

After visiting the penguin colony, we drove north to Puerto Madryn where we spent a week, then to Viedma and on to Bahia Blanca where we spent another week before beginning to move away from the Atlantic Coast northwest and eventually west toward Mendoza. This would take us through the great pampas region of Argentina. Again, massive and mostly flat with short grass prairies and low shrubs. Our overnight stops along the way included Santa Rosa, Rio Cuarto and San Luis which is the final stop on the first map above.

Not many photos from this section of the country, but the best sightings were of many Greater and eventually Lesser Rheas which were in many family groups along the way. These flightless birds are relatives and very physically similar to the ostrich.

One shot and a funny name for a store.

We arrived in Mendoza on December 17. The next and final blog post from Argentina will cover our visit to Mendoza for Christmas and our drive south back to Bariloche.