La Trochita Patagonian Express

Nostalgia and history stimulate the visitor on this tour that makes of the Old Patagonian Express an emblem of the region.

Testimony of this are the numerous articles dedicated to it in different media in the country and abroad, as well as the affluence of groups who go on longer tours exclusively devoted to visiting old trains by means of special excursions, in many cases organized by international companies specialized on this well known attraction.

The excursion takes half a day and you leave from the station in Esquel, the final station of the original line that made combinations with regular passengers and cargo services in Ingeniero Jacobaci and Esquel.

In summer there are daily excursions that take two hours and a half to go and return to Nahuel Pan station. The formation includes the steam engine, a Belgium and American locomotive of the thirties.

The smoke column, the black colour of the locomotive and the narrow wagons heated with a salamander conform a postcard of universal tourist attraction.

After travelling along this winding rail in a capricious geography, you arrive at Nahuel Pan Station, around which live scattered some Mapuche inhabitants devoted mainly to shepperding and the manufacture of handicraft in manual looms that they sell in local fairies.

Every year in March, the Mapuche community organizes and develops its main religious ceremony called Camaruco, which convokes them at the foot of Cerro Nahuel Pan to invoke their god with rogatory activities related to different aspects of their life, needs and habits.