From El Chaltén I had to drive southeast about seventy miles out to the main highway, Route 40, and turn north. So far so good. Little did I know that not only is the drive in this part of Argentina one of the longest and loneliest drives in the world, but they also haven’t gotten around to paving any of the roads out here, not even the main highway. I didn’t know it yet, but it would be about four days and several hundred miles before I saw another paved road. The pic below is Route 40. Just LOOK at that shitty road! And those crazy clouds.

After about a hundred fifty miles of the awful Route 40, I reached the turn off out to my next stop, Lago Posadas, about forty five more miles of dirt and gravel. This section of the trip is a bit thin and this post will be relatively short. I thought this would be a quick and easy stop with some cool sites to break up the drive to my next “major” destination. The whole drive out here though, I kept thinking, “Why did I decide to come out here?” Even by Holy Crap Adventures standards, this place is way waaay off the beaten track.

Finally, I arrived in the town of Lago Posadas, not to be confused with the lake, Lago Posadas. I had a hard time finding a place to stay here. There was nothing online. I had to just look on the map and start calling people. Luckily I found some people with a couple of cabins to rent. It was actually really nice, but there is absolutely nothing going on in town. One extremely small grocery store with about three shelves and a weird gas station that looks like a mobile home made from a shipping container. Thank Pachamama that the gas station was operational because I was empty. And thank goodness I had the foresight to buy groceries in El Chaltén because there’s nothing in the way of a restaurant out here either, at least not that I saw. Below is the main drag. The whole town in one pic.

I started my day of exploring with a short hike out to Arco de Piedra. When researching this place it sounded like a really popular destination, but to me it seems like the land that time forgot. It’s beautiful here, but it’s so remote and there’s no people, no activity, nothing. Just me and that gorgeous lake, well actually two lakes. In the pic below you can see the isthmus separating Lago Posadas from Lago Pueyrredón. The milky blue water in Lago Posadas comes from melting glaciers. Lago Pueyrredón flows west through Chile and is connected to the Pacific Ocean, hence the deep blue water over there.

It was a short hike out to the viewpoint to Arco de Piedra, but very much worth it. The shore of the lake is beautiful and I spent quite a bit of time walking to several different rocky points, including that one way out there in the pic below. The arc is apparently the lakes star attraction.

The whole road around both lakes is called the lake circuit, even though it’s an out and back deal, but next on my list was Cueva del Puma. I had no idea what I was in for with this one. There’s really no information online about it that I could find, other than it’s a petroglyph site. It was just a random place on the map that I spotted while researching. And there were no signs or anything out there so it was entirely a GPS hope for the best kind of thing, but I found it. Yay!

The petroglyphs were a bunch of ancient handprints. That doesn’t sound super interesting, but it will in a bit. I was pretty fascinated with them because I knew what was coming up later. I’ve since learned that these handprints are between 7000 and 9000 years old! And I have them all to myself. Awesome!

Next on my circuit, a site I had no idea about before coming here. The owners of the cabin I stayed in told me about it. I had to drive across that thin isthmus between the lakes and then west along the shore of Lago Pueyrredón to the Río Oro.

From there I parked my little rental car and started hiking up into the hills to Garganta del… admit it, you thought I was going to say Garganta del Diablo, didn’t you? Nope, Garganta del Río Oro. What an amazing little canyon with that blue glacial water flowing through it. I only wished it was possible to get down there and walk through it.

The views were almost better on the way back down. If you zoom in a little you can see the isthmus dividing the lakes in the two pics below. Except now I’m on the other side of it.

Hiking down the views of the lakes were just awesome! In the panorama below, you can see the isthmus and Lago Posadas to the right, Lago Pueyrredón extending into Chile to the left, and in the foreground is the Río Oro flowing into the lake. Fantastic!

Both of these lakes had waves you could surf on, thanks to the crazy wind. I realized this day that I can’t remember the last day I had without wind. It’s not “oh it’s windy today” kind of wind either, it’s “I’m going to have to lean at a 45° angle all day” kind of wind. Anyway, here’s Lago Pueyrredón from the isthmus.

The next day I hit the gravel road to get to my next stop. Not everything in this post is actually in Parque Nacional Patagonia, but this next bit is. I haven’t mentioned guanacos in quite a while either because they’re everywhere. They’ve been a constant presence for several weeks now though, so here’s a little reminder.

Also, I’m further from the mountains here, so it’s back to the flatter shrublands, but then suddenly it opens up into this amazing canyon. The next stop on my agenda is probably one of the most important archeological sites in Argentina, Cueva de las Manos in Cañadon Pinturas.

Visits are by tour only and I had about two and a half hours before the next one so I went on a little hike up to the other side of Cañadon Pinturas first. This canyon is stunning!

From the other side I could see Cueva de las Manos. It’s not actually a cave though. The site is along that whole mid section of that mountain. You can see some of the railings and the path if you zoom in.

Views from the top of the other side were really incredible. I had my lunch up there before hiking back to the site entrance. If the tours were better timed I would’ve spent a lot more time hiking around up there.

Next, Cueva de las Manos. I wonder why they call it that? Ha! Between this site and the small one out at Lago Posadas, I can’t help but wonder how many other sites like this are out there.

It’s not all handprints here though. There are a lot of pictures of guanacos and hunting scenes too. The handprints are apparently the oldest of the artwork at around 7000-9000 years old. The pics of guanacos and hunting are around 5000 years old, give or take a millenia.

Below is a wide angle of just one small section of the site. The amount of artwork on the side of that mountain is overwhelming though.

A few posts ago I saw some birds that I thought were emus. It turns out they are related to emus, but they’re called rheas and are very common in Patagonia. Anyway, below you can see some rhea prints amongst all the hands. They look like three fingered hands in the middle and top of the pic. There’s also one handprint at the site made by an ancient person with polydactyly (six fingers on one hand). Too bad the piano hadn’t been invented yet.

The geometric artworks are the most recent additions to the site, but we’re still talking 1500-2000 years old.

This one below is probably the best hunting scene depiction. This place is really off the beaten track too, but it’s a fascinating site and I’m glad I was able to stop here. The views from the site back across Cañadon Pinturas were spectacular as well.

That wraps up this short post. From Cueva de las Manos I drove up to the town of Perito Moreno to spend one night before moving on. I did find some paved road, but it was so potholed and treacherous that I found myself praying for gravel. We’re talking Grand Canyon sized potholes, no signs or markings, just drive slow and maybe your car will survive. Good luck traveler! Route 40 from around El Chaltén for about five hundred miles or so north is definitely one of the worst stretches of road I’ve driven in the world. There’s a lot of wonderful things to see here, but the drive is a NIGHTMAAARRRE! Anyway, here’s a cute armadillo to keep you company until the next post…