The experiences start before you even board-when departing from Pretoria, Rovos Rail travelers are granted exclusive access to a private lounge, where Champagne and canapés greet them-and a strict “no cellphone” rule is maintained for your own good. This extravagant railway has been traveling throughout Africa for over thirty years. The seats are bare-bones (literally, they’re the original wooden benches), and there’s a modest snack cart on board, as well as a wood-burning stove to keep the carriages warm in the cold months-but for scenery this vast and this epic in a place so remote, it all contributes to the overall sense of adventure. In 2006, however, the government brought La Trochita back as a tourism attraction, with two options for three-hour roundtrip sightseeing tours one between Esquel and Nahuel Pan, and the other between El Maitén and Desvío Thomae. Originally planned as a connection of the mountain town of San Carlos de Bariloche with the port cities of Puerto Deseado and San Antonio Este on Argentina’s Atlantic coast, the train served as a lifeline for freight and adventure-seekers for much of the 20th century until it fell into disuse and disrepair in 1993. La Trochita (affectionally known as “the Old Patagonian Express”) is like stepping back to a bygone era. ![]() ![]() It’s hard to find a passenger train in South America, and even harder to find one this historic.
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