PICTURES / MAPS
| Location : |
Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Chile and Uruguay .
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| Land Boudaries Border Country :
| Bolivia 832 km, Brazil 1,224 km, Chile 5,150 km, Paraguay 1,880 km, Uruguay 579 km .
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| More informations on the bottom :
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INFORMATIONS MAPS
| Land Boudaries Total :
| 9,665 km .
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| Geographic Coordinates :
| mostly temperate; arid in southeast; subantarctic in southwest .
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| Area Total :
| 2,766,890 sq km .
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| Area Land :
| 2,736,690 sq km .
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| Area Water :
| 30,200 sq km .
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| Area Comparative :
| slightly less than three-tenths the size of the US .
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| Coast Line :
| 4,989 km .
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| Railways Total :
| 34,091 km (167 km electrified) .
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| Highways Total :
| 215,471 km .
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| Waterways :
| 11,000 km (2004) .
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| Ports and Harbors :
| Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, Comodoro Rivadavia, Concepcion del Uruguay, La Plata, Mar del Plata, Necochea, Rio Gallegos, Rosario, Santa Fe, Ushuaia .
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Map Esquel 1960,
Map Esquel 1961,
Map Esquel 1962,
Map Esquel 1963,
Map Esquel 1964,
Map Esquel 1965,
Map Esquel 1966,
Map Esquel 1967,
Map Esquel 1968,
Map Esquel 1969,
Map Esquel 1970,
Map Esquel 1971,
Map Esquel 1972,
Map Esquel 1973,
Map Esquel 1974,
Map Esquel 1975,
Map Esquel 1976,
Map Esquel 1977,
Map Esquel 1978,
Map Esquel 1979,
Map Esquel 1980,
Map Esquel 1981,
Map Esquel 1982,
Map Esquel 1983,
Map Esquel 1984,
Map Esquel 1985,
Map Esquel 1986,
Map Esquel 1987,
Map Esquel 1988,
Map Esquel 1989,
Map Esquel 1990,
Map Esquel 1991,
Map Esquel 1992,
Map Esquel 1993,
Map Esquel 1994,
Map Esquel 1995,
Map Esquel 1996,
Map Esquel 1997,
Map Esquel 1998,
Map Esquel 1999,
Map Esquel 2000,
Map Esquel 2001,
Map Esquel 2002,
Map Esquel 2003,
Map Esquel 2004,
Map Esquel 2005,
Map Esquel 2006,
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Esquel is a town in the north-east of the province of Chubut, in the Argentine Patagonia. It is located in the Futaleufú, of which it is the head town. The town's name derives from a Mapuche term meaning "thorn", which refers to the characteristics of the local flora, including several spiny bushes, most famously the Calafate (Berberis buxifolia).
The founding of the town dates back to the arrival of Welsh immigrants in Chubut in 1865. The settlement was created on 25 February 1906, as an extension of the Colonia 16 de Octubre, now known as Trevelin.
The city, the main town of the area, is located by the Esquel Stream and surrounded by the mountains La Zeta, La Cruz, Cerro 21 and La Hoya. La Hoya is known as a ski resort with good quality snow right through the spring. The Los Alerces National Park is 300 km north of the city.
Another important tourist attraction is the narrow-gauge train (with 75 cm between the rails), known as La Trochita locally and in English as The Old Patagonian Express, after the book by Paul Theroux. It is said to be the only narrow-gauge long-distance train in operation and the southernmost railway in the world. The first fifty locomotives were brought from Germany (Henschel & Sohn) between 1920 and 1922 and were originally modified to use fuel oil and steam. Later twenty-five locomotives were bought to The Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia. The train remains in operation and authentic thanks to the effort of the team of workers at Talleres Ferroviarios El Maiten, that make by hand a lot of pieces and parts. The trains now run between Esquel and the small settlement of Nahuel Pan, located at the foot of the volcano of the same name. Until 1991, the train ran all the way to the city of Ingeniero Jacobacci in Río Negro, from where trains ran to Viedma and from there to Buenos Aires, forming the General Roca railway.
According to the 2001 census [INDEC], the Esquel district had about 28,000 inhabitants, with one of the highest rates of growth in the province, mainly as result of the immigration of people from Buenos Aires, but also from other provinces.
The townspeople have been in a long battle to prevent a gold mine being set up nearby, with concerns that the metal extraction will contaminate the watercourse permanently and irreversibly.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
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