Virtual Railfan Tour of Argentina 2004 - Patagonia narrow gauge finale

 


An Unusual Train Order
The day we arrived at Esquel we had a final runpast fairly close to the town.  One of our number walked back a little way from the train, stood with his two feet on the rails, dropped his pants and did his business.  Before he had finished the train whistled off and started to move.  He was forced to haul up his pants and run for the train, He managed to jump on the last car, Upon arrival at Esquel he found his wallet had dropped out of his pants,
The next day we had an excursion out of Esquel and return.  The train crew was given a train order which included:
"watch out for a pile of human excrement between the rails near kilometer XX. Stop there and search the area for a lost wallet,"
The engine crew dutifully found the "marker", and stopped the train. We all piled off and found the missing wallet with its contents intact.  

After this we did a number of non-rail excursions out of Esquel before moving to Bariloche.

Patagonia National Forest



A visit to a Welsh settlement. The only person we found who spoke Welsh was the town librarian.

Bariloche bus station

From Bariloche we had to return to Buenos Aires. The original plan was to take the train which involved a long day and overnight in an old sleeping car where the crew locked us in right next to a wooden kitchen car - on indifferent track. We decided to take an overnight bus which was very comfortable and was significantly quicker.
Our seats moved out into comfortable beds.

A Buenos Aires dog park

In Buenos Aires the jacaranda trees were in full bloom.

An end to a wonderful trip to Patagonia.









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