Driving in Argentina

[sculhane]

Hi,

Going for a 3-week ski trip from mid-Aug to early Sept. I like to drive around, so I was thinking about renting a car in Mendoza and driving South to Bariloche skiing a couple of days at places in between (and hopefully hit LL at the right time ). Questions are:

How far is it? I can't find an Argentina Mapquest online (is there one?)
What is the price of gas in Argentina?
How is the road (winding mountain road or flattish foothill a la I-25)?

Thanks,

Edit: Found this which has links to pretty decent maps (at the bottom of the page): http://www.argentour.com/mapas/mapas.html. Would be nice to have a Mapquest driving directions style website though...

Steve

[cj001f]

Would be nice to have a Mapquest driving directions style website though...

Why? Except it would be nice to see "slow for Police Checkpoint - pay bribe" on mapquest There's approximately jack shit in between Mendoza and the greater Bariloche/Lake District area (cept Las Lenas). Fly between them. Rent car in Bariloche - there are a number of smaller ski areas in the greater area, including on the Chilean side. Some may be worth it some not. Gas was more expensive than in the US, except in the far south, the roads are crap, drivers mad, and shit takes longer. Driving east of the Andes is like neverending E Wyoming on a local road with a car that won't go over 120kmh

It might be worthwhile for you to buy a guidebook......

[enlosandes]

My $.02 worth. The shittiest drivers in world reside in Argentina. I have found alot of rental cars have limited mileage. From Mendoza City to Bariloche is about 15 hours. Don't take Route 40 south of San Rafael unless you want more time and to be closer to the Andes. Make sure you fill up when you are at a half tank or less as a rule of them. Diesel translates to about US$2.00 a gallon. You should get a International Driver's License off the internet. They look more official.

[sculhane]

Don't take Route 40 south of San Rafael unless you want more time and to be closer to the Andes.

Enlosandes, thanks. Which road would you take from LL to Bariloche? It seems that 40 is the more direct way (and it looks like the bigger highway on the map)

Steve

[covert]

The RN40 is dirt and rural in the true argentine sense but there is touring potential in some places...

[rideit]

A little off topic, but last december I rented a car in Santiago, and we drove a few thousand KM's up and down the coast, up into the mountains, and deep into sierra dirt road/crazy ass passes.
Chile driving was refreshingly civil after so much time driving in Peru...If you can drive in Lima, you can drive anywhere!
The highways were immaculate, the petrol stops plentiful, (about $3.50 gallon?) The caribineros (police) almost non-present (and apparently unbribable, according to locals, which is both good and bad).
It was a great way to see a lot of the country, and we found ourselves in remarkable places as a result of just rambling. Sorry to go OT, I haven't driven in Tina, but it looks pretty civil in the south. Have fun, any way you travel!

[enlosandes]

Enlosandes, thanks. Which road would you take from LL to Bariloche? It seems that 40 is the more direct way (and it looks like the bigger highway on the map)

Steve

Don't have a map in front of me so don't remeber the route #'s, but Las Leñas to San Rafael, to General Alvear to Santa Isabella (be sure to fill up there), and bee line to Neuquen thru the pampas. From Neuquen, several options to Bariloche depending on level and views.

[sculhane]

The RN40 is dirt and rural in the true argentine sense but there is touring potential in some places...

Really? Wow. I just spent 15$ on a map and it shows RN40 as "Expressway" almost the whole way. I know the standards are different than here (maybe not in Quebec ), but is it really a dirt road?

I would very much like this to be a touring adventure, but not to the extent of driving 1000 miles on a dirt road OTOH, maybe the weather gods will be cool and things will be so good that I'll spend 3 weeks in LL...

Steve

[Tippster]

I heard you're better off going into Chile and driving south there, crossing over to Bariloche from the West, but that's all second hand....

[BeanDip4All]

I spent the weekend scouring a bunch of guidebooks (when I wasn't doing econometrics!!) on the area trying to plan my trip down there the 1st week of sept... here's some stuff I learned about R40:

-it seemed to be becoming a sort of national source of pride... and did you know it's one of the longest roads in the world? I think they're trying (perhaps at least for tourism's sake) to lend it a little Kerouac/route 66 cache
-only 1/3rd or r40 is paved
-"pragmatic minded locals regard it as a tire-trashing obsticle course"
-bring a toolkit, food, extra tank of gas, spare tires, wind protection, headlamps, and one guidebook even suggested a bed, (!!)
- "frequent suicide bids by resident sheep are commonm so beware."
- you can camp roadside but there are a bunch of estancias on route
- I can get a lot more specific about certain stretches, places to stop if you decide to head south from Bariloche on the road... let me know
- all in all it seems like a pretty serious undertaking to be driving yourself around in Argentina, whether on Route 40 or otherwise...

Here are some other sites you can get info on:
www.ruta40.net
www.patagonia-argentina.com
www.ruta-40.com
www.hielos.com.ar

[cj001f]

Really? Wow. I just spent 15$ on a map and it shows RN40 as "Expressway" almost the whole way. I know the standards are different than here (maybe not in Quebec ), but is it really a dirt road?

They've been actively paving it in the past few years, including the far southern section (roughly Los Antiguous to El Calafate - a nice political payback project from Kirchner). Most of it is paved now, or well on it's way. This is the only rest stop on the Los Antiguous-El Calafate section:

A lonely drunken proprietor, a surly gaucho, and squalor - the 3rd window on the left is now the stable, instead of a bedroom.

The biggest hazard on RN40 is near terminal boredom, or the shittiness of the standard Argie rent-a-car. Nice to have done, really not worth the doing - any of it - save Bariloche to Esquel. There's a couple out of the way ski areas, some huts, and some good beer in El Bolson (the brewery allows camping!).

If you are looking for an interesting drive, with amazing terrain, rent a 4wd vehicle in Puerto Montt, Chile (should be an easyLan flight, connectin in SCL from Mendoza), take it on the 8hr ferry to Chaiten ( http://www.navieraustral.cl/ book ahead - looks like S, M, W, F ). Drive into Parque Pumalin, then drive south along the Carreterra Austral. 100x more interesting than RN40, plenty of ski terrain. A bit like British Columbia/Washington - wet, snowy. Two weeks you could have an amazing time, and a real adventure. Here are a couple pics I took:




that's the van/bus I took from Chaiten to Coyhaique, with only 20km on the odometer it sheared a suspension bolt from the constant abuse on the Carrerterra Austral. Those pictures are from early April, i.e. late fall. Winter would be awesome. There were 2, yes 2, other gringos in Parque Pumalin the 3 days I was there. This was good, they gave me a ride hitching. It's an amazing park - volcano's rainforest, beauty, and nobody there. The kitchen at Caleta Gonzalo cooks an amazing meal - all grown there. Off the beaten track, funky, still pretty local, one of my favorite sections of Arg/Chile. Possible to head to Barilcohe on the Argentine side and cross back over to P. Montt.(2-3 days of long driving). You'd have an interesting adventure to a part of the world most people don't go to, and if people don't value it will vanish under hydropower projects

Think of RN40 as a bit like a shitty I25, and the Carreterra as the Sea to Sky. Except for the Carreterra Austral, driving in Chile is 10x better than Argentina. There's one main highway/tollway running northsouth that's North American quality and plenty of fuel stops. Local roads are also better.

[klar]

all i know is that in the 3 days i´ve been here, i have been nearly run over several times because i fail to grasp when cars will turn as they do not tend to blink. taking a taxi i was impressed with how the driver managed to stay perfectly centred on the white line on a 4 laned street in the city. at traffic lights, apparently one starts honking before the light has even changed to ensure no one in the cars in front has fallen asleep.

[sculhane]

Thanks for the help...

After a bit of searching, I found the absolute most fabulous resource on the Route 40 and thought I would post here for anyone who wants to drive around in Argentina. It is a 13mb downloadable executable that has a great interactive map, tons of pics, mileage table and links to road condition website. Don't know if the info is any good, but it looks great (and most of it is English...)

http://www.turismo.gov.ar/eng/menu.htm. In the top menu, go Attractions - Active Tourism. In the Road 40 section, there is a link to download the file at the bottom of the page.

Damn, the internet can be great sometimes...

Steve

[shamrockpow]

You'd have an interesting adventure to a part of the world most people don't go to, and if people don't value it will vanish under hydropower projects

Isn't Parque Pumalin still owned by Tompkins? If so, then it's not going anywhere for a while (thank god).