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Corridor Southern Coast > Province: Chubut > Puerto Madryn

Tour to the Florentino Ameghino Dam

Karina Jozami

Jorge González

The Florentino Ameghino Dam lies on a twist of the Chubut River, dominating a colorful and quiet scenery that breaks up the monotony of the steppe.

The proposal was to get away from the sea and the steppe in order to enjoy a day of relax outdoors at the Florentino Ameghino dam. Mario, our guide from Flamenco Tour, knew the place very well because his father, who was a fauna ranger, had been raised in the small village by the dam.

With the morning sunshine, we traveled along Route 3 and crossed Trelew. After a while, Mario took a detour to show us some petrified trees recently discovered. We entered a field and went on a mini-hiking excursion up to the spot where there were several logs that had turned into rock. Amid the coirones and the wind, these traces of prehistoric Patagonia lie almost level with the ground.

We continued riding up to the Las Chapas stop and we finally got to the dam following a detour. When we got off the truck, a reddish ravine gave way to the greenness of the willows and the silent houses on both sides of the Chubut River.

A Quiet Site

Mario invited us to go down the steps used by the locals up to the village as he drove the truck along the dam roadway.

The rocky overhangs, vibrantly red, contain the waters of the Chubut Rivers for several kilometers and give shape to an artificial lake that covers 7,000 hectares. The 225-meter-long dam was designed by an engineer called Antonio Pronsato around 1943 and was inaugurated by 1963.

After visiting the camping site area, we left the hamlet behind as we followed the river course up to the kaolin mines, a pale pink mineral used to make pottery. We could not access the facilities because the men were at work, but we stayed near the river for a while enjoying the sunshine on the reddish walls.

A great diversity of animal life typical from Patagonia may be watched here: mainly the guanacos with their youngs or chulengos, the choiques and Patagonian hares.

At around noon, we approached Segundo's place, where we had some tasty empanadas for lunch and, after a long chat accompanied by guitar music, we went towards the wall. We crossed some long tunnels open in the rock until we got to the top of the concrete wall. From this strategic point, we could take some photographs of the reservoir and the village to keep a souvenir from our mild tour along its streets.