Ruta 40: Road trippin' on Argentina’s mother road

Still relatively little-known outside the continent, Argentina's Ruta 40 is one of South America's great road journeys. For those in the know - intrepid road trippers, adventure-seeking motorbikers, or the admirably/certifiably ambitious cyclists - it's a journey that feels epic in every dimension.

Even the 'modest' 1,500km chunk through Patagonia is a serious undertaking. Google reckons you can do it in 18 hours. You can't. Well, you could, but you'd be missing the point entirely. Such is the variety, beauty and sheer scale of the landscapes it stitches together, you'd want three or four weeks to do it properly.

Like Route 66 in the States, this is Argentina's 'Mother Road'. It unfolds over 5,000 kilometres, stubbornly following a course broadly parallel to the Andes and nearly the entire length of the country, from the Bolivian border to the southern reaches of Patagonia. 

Along the way, it passes 20 national parks and climbs to 5,000m above sea level in the north.

The road traces the path of an ancient long-distance trail known as the 'Camino Inca', used by indigenous peoples long before Spanish colonisation. Just as Ruta 40 does today, the trail connected scattered communities - enabling trade, communication and cultural exchange across impossible distances.

During the colonial and post-independence eras, this route became a means of uniting disparate parts of an emerging nation spread across vast, wildly different landscapes: desert, jungle, icy southern waters. Remote communities, to whom their equivalents at the other end of what we now know as Argentina must have seemed a universe away, were loosely tied together within national borders.

Building a highway through this terrain was a formidable challenge. Engineers struggled with mountainous areas, deserts and plateaus riven with gorges. Weather and funding limitations didn't help. Ruta 40 was officially designated a national route in 1935, though the road wasn't consistently paved across its entire length - different sections developed at varying paces, resulting in a mix of surfaces from smooth tarmac to gravel and dirt. 

Some of that variety remains today, which is rather the point.

From the glistening mountain lakes and lush temperate forests of northern Patagonia, the highway threads its way 1,500km across infinite skies and wide-open steppe down towards the icefields, where glaciers creak, calve and crash into milky lagoons.

In between lies a land shaped over millennia by fire and ice. The Andes - the longest mountain chain in the world - draws a definitive line between Argentina and Chile. Deep within its folds are forests of some of Earth's oldest and rarest trees, some genuinely heart-stopping mountains, and, most surprisingly, one of the planet's southernmost winemaking regions.

Where the Andes peter out heading east, the immensity of the Patagonian steppe takes over - the 8th largest desert on Earth. The semi-arid steppe captures the imagination as desolate, lonely, seemingly barren, rolling ever onwards until it reaches the Atlantic cliffs.

But here's the thing: the steppe is actually a vast tabletop plateau riven deep with canyons and river valleys. Huge saline lagoons attract flamingos in their thousands. Ancient volcanic monoliths reach for the sky; grasses, cacti and hardy desert flowers cling low to the ground, many bursting into colour come springtime. It rewards those who look closely.

As the scenery changes, so does the wildlife. Austral parakeets squawk through the treetops in the Lake District; we've seen hummingbirds feeding in the rainforests. Out on the steppe, soaring condors, herds of guanacos, curious armadillos, stealthy foxes and those improbable flamingos are all possible sightings - if you leave Ruta 40 and head into the wilds with your guides. The luckiest may catch a glimpse of the elusive puma. We won't promise that one.

The southern reaches of Ruta 40 tell some of the human story of Patagonia too. Cave paintings speak of early hunter-gatherer communities following the guanacos across the steppe. In the Trevelin Valley you can follow in the footsteps of Welsh pioneers who crossed the Atlantic in search of new beginnings amid harsh realities. They're still here - a pocket of the valleys in the expanse of Patagonia. In modern times, winemakers, conservationists, guides and hosts bring their own colour.

Ruta 40 is not just tarmac (and a little bit of gravel). It's not just a road you drive down. It's certainly not the I-90 or the M6.

It's Argentine Patagonia, delivered slowly, bit by bit under huge skies, over vast distances. It's a morning spent peering at 9,000-year-old cave art in the enormity of the dry plains. It's a day walking to remote glacial lagoons below some of the continent's most beautiful mountains. It's the simple pleasure of sharing a maté under a blanket of stars.

You can have your kicks on Route 66. We're happy to go slow down Ruta 4-0.