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We will never be able to take a trip back in time to visit
those places talked about so much in history books. Never
the less the Trochita train offers this scenes. When riding
this train the passengers feel like they are reliving
what pioneers saw when they got here. .
600 meters above sea level and running
on railway tracts 75cm apart this old train goes thru
valleys, besides lakes, mountains and thru woods. Its
not particularly fast but the Trochita surely takes us
from El Maiten to Esquel.
Weather factors where considered when the decision to
cut the train’s trips short was taken. It used to
join Rio Negro and Chubut. Today only Chubut is the only
province that has the privilege to hear the echoes of
the Trochita coming. In the beginnings the purpose of
the train was other. It served as the only way to travel
between mountainsides, carry all types of merchandise
and at the same time transport cattle in wagons with very
old heaters. The train was renamed `old Patagonian express´.
The historical landmarks of this trip remain the same
but the trip was cut short for tourism purposes. It consists
of three main stations: Maiten, Nahuel Pan and Esquel
(165 kilometers of rail roads). The numerous curves in
the train trips remain a main attraction for the thousands
of foreign tourists that come for adventures in the Patagonia.
Mountain sheep and lots of other types of wild fauna are
always playing games around the path of the train.
In El Maiten a train garage museum exists showing old
train parts only handmade and manufactured here. You will
find a restaurant and a service area.
Close by there is an Indian reservation consisting of
thirty families. They call themselves `river turns´this
points out their location in the valley.
You also find Mapuche Indian descendants in communities
around the Nahuel Pan station. They plan out their lives
based on the products of farming and art works. In march
of every year a religious celebration consisting in chants
and offerings to the god Nguillatun take place on the
feet of Nahuel Pan Mountain.
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