The Ruta 40 experience

   This is the classic South American road trip.  Between Bariloche and El Calafate lies the wild expanse of Patagonia and only one road does it justice.  Chalten Travel will take you on this two day adventure, driving during the day so you can enjoy the every inch of these amazing views.  And at the end, they will also sell you the t-shirt.

   Ok, it has been a while since I last wrote.  Sometimes it’s easier to write when busy.  Trying to write when on a stultifying bus journey for two days saw me lacking inspiration.  Since then, no excuses, we’ve been mainly stuck indoors as we have enjoyed the authentic Lakes District experience, rain and all. 

   Route 40, despite Chalten Travel’s advertising, is not a good road trip.  60% of the journey is on slightly bumpy gravel road.  Not enough to warrant excitement but sufficient to make sleeping difficult.  There is a distinct lack of pleasant scenery.  In fact, Patagonia’s western expanse looks pretty similar to the east, only with unsealed roads, worse buses and fewer settlements.

   I cannot fathom why Chalten Travel split the journey into two days. I can only surmise they have a happy relationship with the one hotel in Perito Moreno where they stop overnight.  Unsurprisingly it cost over 50% more than our BA accommodation and we were in a shared dorm room rather than a private double.  Their suggestion that they want us to enjoy the scenery has a hollow ring to it when it the windows of the bus are caked with the dust of several thousand miles of gravel roads. 

   To give it its due, Route 40 starts well just out of El Calafate with a stop at the Hotel de Campo la Leona, just before taking on passengers from a connecting bus from El Chalten.  Aside from decent toilets and a handy café, Hotel de Campo la Leona has a display of information, photos and newsprint on the subject of its claim to fame as the venue for a month-long layover for Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and Ethel Place after their exertions robbing banks on the eastern coast.

   There was also an amusing toilet stop (OK, I know, clearly it was a slow news day) half way to Perito Moreno.  In the absence of any suitable alternative, all the buses on this route seem to stop at this one point, possibly the only stretch of road with a hill and a gully.  The hill is the boys loos and the gully is the girls.  This was the only loo stop where the girls didn’t have to queue for 20 minutes to use the bathroom. 

   As far as entertainment went, that was it.  Route 40 wasn’t an awful experience.  It’s just 40 hours of tolerable dullness that someone has chosen to market as a road trip.  If you do travel with Chalten Travel, be warned: getting stuck at Hotel de Campo la Leona (a la Butch and Sundance) was almost the authentic experience for Amanda and Nick, the Aussie/English couple we ended up sharing a dorm with.  12 minutes into the 15 minute pit stop our coach pulled away leaving them in the loos.  Fortunately the gentleman sitting behind their empty seats alerted the driver who reluctantly stopped the bus and reversed 100m back up the drive.  In the later pit stops it was clear the drivers had not learnt from this experience, but thankfully everyone else on board had. 

   It seems to be a part of the culture in southern Patagonia to get the bus moving quicker than everyone else expects.  In the previous week at Torres Del Paine National Park we were sitting in the shuttle bus when the “auxiliary”, not the driver but the guy selling tickets, slid across into the driver’s seat to get something and disengaged the handbrake.  Funny for us sitting in the bus: there was a Japanese bloke outside with a wonderfully expressive face.  But not so funny for the people loading their luggage at the back.  It was hard not to laugh at the auxiliary when told to “put the handbrake on!”  His response: “I can’t drive”.