Perito Moreno

Introducing Perito Moreno

Those who confuse this dull agricultural village with the jaw-dropping national park of the same name or the glacier near El Calafate might wonder why the only tourist attraction is cruising the strip on Saturday night. Perito Moreno is a brief stopover en route to the more inviting Andean oasis of Los Antiguos. It also makes a good launch pad for visiting Cueva de las Manos and Parque Nacional Perito Moreno. The main drag, San Martín, leads north to RP 43 and south to RN 40; it’s 128km south to Bajo Caracoles and 135km north to Río Mayo.

The town’s glory came in 1898, when explorer Perito Moreno challenged Chile’s border definition of ‘divortum aquarum continental’ (which claimed the headwaters of Pacific-flowing rivers as Chilean territory) by rerouting the Río Fénix, which flows through town, to Atlantic-bound Río Deseado. The river and the area remained Argentine, and the town took his name.

Last updated: Mar 2, 2009