Spanish 101

"What’s her fuel?’ "Half, diesel; Half, tender loving care," was the immediate answer of Juan Luis Infantino, General Coordinator of the "Old Patagonian Express", heritage of humanity, only narrow gauge steam train remaining in the world. Aboard this museum on rails, this reporter from AA "Nexos" traveled with Juan Luis, an ideal voyage companion, in love, as his father and grandfather before him, with the train and its trip, built, maintained and survived with immense dedication.

I got on the train at the station at Esquel, an oasis city on the edge of the Argentinian Andes, as if I stepped in a time machine. Both the passenger and freight wagons, have seen generations of passengers since 1922. My imagination runs like Maradona in the World Cup. Who will I accompany on this historical trip? Will it be Carlos Gardel on the way to sing in the city of El Bolsón? Or Evita Peron on the way to Junín de Los Andes? In the center of the carriage, I was happy to see the wood stove, still with its box still full of that indispensable heat in the tough southern winter. I look around in vain for some foreign skier. Oh, I said to myself, traveler from the northern hemisphere, everything has its time. Eliana and Victor, college hitchhikers from Comodoro Rivadavia, bring me up to date on the democracy of the heating system. Every passenger has to help out with wood in accord with climate demands. Such politics coincide with our philosophical conversation as we drink mate, admiring the wild wonders of the Cordillera, far away, always dressed in white.

Leaving Esquel, we soon found ourselves with a panoramic view of the town’s suburbs, above the first of so many embankments and cuts in the terrain, just like great canals, in the railroad’s track. Even being a city traveler in respectful silence before the immensity of the Patagonian beauty, I lost count of the building difficulties over those 402 kms. Due to the characteristics of the terrain the constructors had to overcome water divides, ascending and descending by the sides of valleys, having to tackle 626 bends, some even up to 180 degrees to help the braking of the locomotive in the deep ground depressions. Among the works of greatest endeavor are the bridges over the rivers Norquinco, Chubut and Chico; the latter outstanding for its extension of 105 meters, without intermediate supports. A little distance away, the tunnel of Cerro Mesa was bored through 108 meters of granite rock. All was done with immense effort, given the pick and spade were the only work tools. Only now and then was dinamite used to overcome the resistance of the hardest rocks. As we came to this part of the story, Juan Luis whispers with a look lost in the Andean horizon, "on the tracks some left their health, and even their lives."

Nahuel Pan Station, ideal town for a day trip from Esquel, appears like the waiting-room to the majestic Patagonia. A Dutch couple get off the train to buy some regional woven cloths in the "Artisans House", handicrafts of the native Mapuches. Some poplars, like a close knit family, wish to shade each other faced with such flatland ahead. Before me sat Juan, on a trip from Rosario, antique train fan. "Who doesn’t need to drink water," he explains. And more so in these golden prairies, says I. From then on, our locomotive stops every 40 kms. to fill up with such a precious liquid. Just like us humans in our constant thirst.

Again traveling at the tourist speed of 45 km per hour, each wagon following the black heavenly smoke, our iron horse brought deep into the prairie of the silent mystery of the unspoilt scenery. Perfect visibility allows us see near and far an incredibly blue sky descending to a horizon of endless hills with infant trees. The playful flocks of sheep make us visualize the reason for so many turns in the tracks: thousands of tons transported in these same wagons for anonymous sweater or scarf in the latest fashion in Buenos Aires, London or New York.

Later the automobile came to the Patagonia. Later, she brought her friend, the road. Like in the whole world, trains lost track as little profitable. So, in 1993, the Argentinian government decided to no longer sponsor the "Trochita." Luckily enough, the Old Patagonian Express had many admirers who protect it like a living thing, not a dead museum antique. And since the heart has reason that reason has not, that is how the "Trochita" was saved. People united, the mass media, and the Government of the Province of Chubut, made possible that from the beginning of February, 1994, the train continued to function from Esquel to Los Maitenes once a week with almost daily tourist trips during the summer from both stations. The Mayor of the city of Esquel, descendent of the early Welsh settlers, summarizes our story, "The Old Patagonian Express is a priceless jewel, we are all proud of."