Why this ride
From Perito Moreno it runs 857 km to El Calafate; allow about 13 h 29 of riding. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ruta 40 Argentina North to South: Perito Moreno to El Calafate
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 857 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 13 h 29
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Perito Moreno
Perito Moreno is a small town in the north-west of Santa Cruz province, on the edge of the Patagonian steppe, and it has nothing to do with the famous glacier except the name. Both honour Francisco Moreno, the nineteenth-century explorer who mapped much of southern Argentina and was given the title perito, expert, for his role in settling the border dispute with Chile. The town is a service stop with a handful of low houses, a plaza, a few guesthouses and a petrol station, set in dry grassland with the green blue of Lake Buenos Aires, the second largest in South America, not far to the north-west at Los Antiguos.
Read the complete Perito Moreno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Perito Moreno is where the day begins. Next is El Chalten.
2. El Chaltén
El Chaltén is a young town in a very old landscape. It was founded in 1985, partly to establish an Argentine presence in a region disputed with Chile, and today it is the trekking capital of Argentina, a small cluster of lodges, cafes and gear shops beneath the granite spires of the Fitz Roy massif. Fitz Roy, 3,405 metres, is one of the most photographed mountains in South America, a jagged tower that the Tehuelche people are said to have called Chaltén, the smoking mountain, because clouds so often cling to its summit.
Read the complete El Chalten write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
El Chaltén comes up about 644 km into the recorded legs. Next is El Calafate.
3. El Calafate
El Calafate is a small town on the southern shore of Lago Argentino, and it is almost entirely about one thing: the ice. Eighty kilometres west, in Los Glaciares National Park, the Perito Moreno Glacier pushes out of the Andes into the lake in a wall of blue ice about five kilometres wide, rising to some seventy metres above the water. Unlike most glaciers it is relatively stable, and every few years it advances far enough to dam an arm of the lake, until the pressure of water breaks through in a roaring collapse. Watching blocks of ice calve from the face and crash into the lake, with a sound like thunder delayed by a second, is one of the great sights of Patagonia.
Read the complete El Calafate write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 857 km.
Leg by leg
Perito Moreno to El Chalten
Perito Moreno → El Chalten is 644 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
El Chaltén to El Calafate
El Chaltén → El Calafate is 213 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.