Trekking on the Transandine railway

Balancing isn't that easy

We decided to do a day’s trekking while we were up in the Andes, close to the border between Argentina and Chile. The previous day I’d been speaking to Maurice, who works in the expedition shop next door.  He advised that a trek along the Transandine railway would be really interesting, and the boys would love it.  

He introduced me to his colleague Andre, a man of 80 who is a legend in these parts.  He has worked here in Penitentes for 35 years, guiding expeditions up Aconcagua, and is an avid historian.  Apparently he lives in a modest house with just two rooms, one of which is wall to wall with books!  So with Andre’s help we were able to learn some fascinating background about the railway, which I shared with the boys as we walked along the railway the following day. 

It was ironic that we were starting at over 2,500 metres in Puente del Inca, not far short of the height we’d reached after climbing Volcan Lonquimay a week before! Across the valley, we’d seen Aconcagua in the distance, and we wondered how our friends Amy and Sarah, with whom we’d talked over dinner the previous evening, were getting on as they embarked on their Aconcagua expedition. (We later found they’d got there - very well done both!!)

But the boys got the hang of it
more easily than the adults

The Transandine railway runs for about 230 km from Mendoza on the Argentinian side, to Santa Rosa de Los Andes, and rises from an altitude of about 800 metres at each end to 3,200m, the height of the tunnel at the border.  It provided the vital final link for a 36 hour railway journey between Buenos Aires on the Atlantic, and Valparaiso, Chile, on the Pacific, considerably quicker than the 11 day alternative by boat via Cape Horn.  It was designed by the Chilian Clark brothers - it took over 10 years to design. The Clark brothers ran out of money in the building stage and handed the project over to the British to complete - we even saw the "Wolverhampton Corrugate Iron Co" imprinted on the panels -  and it opened in 1910 after a 30 year overall design and build effort. The locals had hastily constructed a road in the meantime, along a more direct track, impatient at how long the railway was taking. But the road was ill-conceived and poorly made, and in time was abandoned and rebuilt, following the railway thus endorsing the painstaking thought and design that had gone into the route that the railway navigated through this challenging high-altitude pass. 

When the railway was first built, and prior to the Cumbre tunnel being opened, travel companies would sell a 3 day trip from Mendoza to Chile, one day on the railway to Los Cuevas, 1 day on a mule across the very highest part of the crossing, and then one day on a train the other side.  The railway transported people until 1979, at which point the government apparently sold off all the passenger trains. It was used for cargo for a further 5 years. After this the only traffic it saw was a few years ago when descendants of the Clark family undertook a three week expedition to take a small tram, at great expense, across the original route.

So there was a sense of history as we progressed that day, enjoying some wonderful sights along these century-old tracks, and admiring the different types of tunnels and bridges against a backdrop of spectacular mountain views. 

A fine old bridge

.....although walking across it, with all the holes
and gaps, was a different matter

Some spooky tunnels

....and we pretended a landslide was happening

One family had parked an old bus here and
lived in it many years ago.

Not a bad view to wake up to in the morning

As we walked along one tunnel, in almost darkness, save for a few shafts of light creeping in where the corrugated iron walls had occasionally come apart, we saw a large bird flying just ahead, settling at the highest point in the centre.  As we continued our approach, it again flew away and landed 30 metres or so further on.  This repeated until we approached the end of the tunnel.  Then suddenly this huge white owl, who had nowhere else to go, swooped back right over us, retreating to the comforting darkness behind us.  This was the best we could do by way of a photo!

Not a National Geographic standard of photograph,
but it came out of nowhere!

We stopped for a picnic lunch, enjoying views of a little ranch and horses running freely at the foot of the mountains.  

After a while, a gaucho rode past, we'd been watching him round up horses. He pointed to his horse and asked us if the boys wanted a ride.  His name was Camillo Sergio Borque, he had the craggy, deeply-tanned look of a seasoned gaucho. The boys were in no doubt.  Louis shared his horse first of all and then Frankie rode the rest of the way back to Puente del Inca. It rounded off our day perfectly.