Los Menucos

Los Menucos is in the 25 de Mayo department in southern Río Negro. It is a key town on the Línea Sur and the main link to the Alto Valle: 220 km from General Roca, 370 km from Bariloche and 500 km from Viedma. It has 4,244 residents (2022 census). Its name comes from the Mapuche word for the marshes or quagmires that used to be here.

What to see

• The plateau: the town sits 803 metres above sea level on a semi-desert steppe plateau.
• The salt lagoon: a hundred metres from town.
• Fossils: 140-million-year-old reptile remains and large petrified trees have been found in the area, a sign that this was a tropical forest before the Andes rose.

Getting there

From Bariloche, along National Route 23 (about 368 km). From General Roca and the Alto Valle, take provincial route 6 to the junction with provincial route 8, which leads to town. From the south (El Caín and Chubut, Gan Gan), also along provincial route 8.

History

It lay on one of the indigenous trails linking the Las Manzanas region with the coast, used for centuries by Tehuelche and Mapuche peoples. In the early 20th century it was settled by indigenous families from central Buenos Aires (the “azuleros”) and La Pampa (the “salineros”). The first general store opened in 1906, and in 1911 work on the railway to Nahuel Huapi, led by engineer Guido Jacobacci, reached the area: for a time the station was the end of the line.

Distances: 220 km from General Roca · 370 km from Bariloche · 500 km from Viedma