La Trochita

The line was part of the Argentine state's early-1900s plan to open up Patagonia by rail. Construction began in 1922, the rails reached El Maitén in 1941 and Esquel in 1945, and the finished route ran 402 kilometers from Ingeniero Jacobacci, in Río Negro. The steam locomotives came from Henschel in Germany and Baldwin in the United States; the wooden carriages were built in Belgium.

Paul Theroux rode it from Ingeniero Jacobacci to Esquel for the final leg of his 1979 travel book The Old Patagonian Express. Regular service ended in 1993, but the line was declared a National Historic Monument in 1999, and today the province of Chubut runs its steam trains for visitors, still pulled by the original locomotives ordered in 1922.

Most visitors board at Esquel for the run to Nahuel Pan: about 18 kilometers out across the steppe, a stop of roughly 45 minutes, and the ride back, around three hours in all. Each carriage is heated by a cast-iron wood-burning stove. Nahuel Pan is home to a Mapuche-Tehuelche community, with a museum of Indigenous culture that tells the community's own history and an artisans' house selling local silverwork, woodwork, and textiles.

From the other end of the line, El Maitén runs a less frequent departure to Desvío Ingeniero Bruno Thomae, also about three hours round trip, with a guided walk through the railway's repair workshops before departure and a stop on the bridge over the Río Chubut. Each February, El Maitén hosts the Fiesta Nacional del Tren a Vapor, Argentina's national steam-train festival.

Plan on a full day away from the lodge. The trains run year-round, with more departures in summer and during Argentina's winter school holidays; departure days vary through the season, so check the current timetable with the lodge when you plan your trip.