"Small town in Santa Cruz" a Perito Moreno Travel Page by barryg23

After spending many hours on Ruta 40, with only the unchanging scenery of the never-ending Patagonian steppe for company, even seeing a road sign was a major event. While the scenery in Patagonia is superb, it's nevertheless a remote and isolated part of Argentina.

So you can imagine what it felt like arriving in a real town, and realising there was something in Patagonia other than the vast emptiness to which we'd become accustomed.

Perito Moreno is a small place with a population of only a few thousand, yet it has hotels, shops, restaurants and even an Internet cafe. We stayed here overnight to break the long journey on Ruta 40 from Bariloche to El Chalten, and it was a welcome relief to have a break after 12 hours on a bus.

Perito Moreno is often confused with the famous glacier of the same name near El Calafate or Perito Moreno National Park, near the Chilean border further south. But the town is certainly very different to either of those places - it's little more than a pit stop on the long journey down Ruta 40.

All of these places are named after Franceso Moreno, an Argentine explorer who did much travelling in Patagonia and played an important role in the Chilean/Argentinian border negotiations of the late 19th century. In 1898 he rerouted a small river in this area so that it flowed westwards and joined the Deseado river. This was enough to ensure the surrounding area remained part of Argentina, and the town was named Perito Moreno in his honour.

Many people use Perito Moreno as a base for exploring Cueva de los Manos (Cave of the Hands), a remote UNESCO world heritage site, located about 3 hours to the south. Tours can be arranged in Perito Moreno to see the caves, and this is well worth the diversion if you have the time.