El Bolsón

El Bolsón is a city in the south of Río Negro, Argentina.

Hitchhiking out

South towards Esquel/El Calafate

From the main square (Plaza Pagano), you can walk south along San Martín a couple of blocks until you get to Belgrano. Turn left, and that'll take you out of town. (It's the same road that takes you to the Cerro Piltriquitrón and the Bosque Tallado.) There are no really good spots where the traffic actually slows much (like speedbumps or traffic lights), but once you get about a kilometer or so away from the center of town, you shouldn't have too hard of a time getting a ride.

Notes from EoinSheahan : I was dropped to Cerro Radal (along Ruta 40) by a lovely couple in my El Bolson hostel who offered to drive me that far. In hindsight, I would have been better staying closer to El Bolson, and hanging near a YPF petrol station, or somewhere on the near outskirts of town. I took a number of short lifts thereafter which eventually left me completely stranded in Epuyen for several hours, until I got lucky with a van of Uruguayan tourists going to Esquel. This goes for most of Patagonia, but you've really got to be careful about where people are offering to drive you to. Locals want to help, but they often simply aren't travelling large enough distances. Getting stuck in the wilderness between El Bolson and Esquel is very possible and if anyone offers to drive you as far as Epuyen, I would politely decline, unless you like total silence / nothingness / misery. I would imagine most other small villages in this area are similar. That being said, one of my drivers on this route left me in El Hoyo. There is a large YPF service station here, and you may find a truck driver going a long distance. However, this is important, speaking from experience: If you are looking to go to Calafate and end up hitching yourself a long-haul driver, you need to be extremely careful about which route the truck driver is taking, especially when it comes to Chilean truckers. It may seem logical that they would go Ruta 40 all the way south on their way to Punta Arenas. This is not the case. They generally switch to Ruta 27 after the town of Gobernador Gregores and then drive East to Ruta 3 (on the Atlantic coast) before continuing South. I had to find this out the hard way. Going via Ria Gallegos appears to be the only way to Calafate if you're relying on Chilean truckers en route to Punta Arenas. There are other motorists, of course, but Chilean truckers are the most likely to stop for a solo male, in my experience.