Argentina Guide
Neuquén and the Lake District
Villa El Chocón
Seventy-nine kilometres southwest from Neuquén along RN-237, on the banks of the picturesque Embalse Ezequiel Ramos Mexía hydroelectric reservoir, is the little oasis of Villa El Chocón. Small and trim, the town is a purpose-built company settlement originally intended to house the workers on the vast neighbouring dam, whose turbines supply up to thirty percent of the country's electricity. It's the Museo Municipal Ernesto Bachmann (daily 8am–9pm; $1) here that holds the town's showpiece attraction – a virtually complete, 100-million-year-old skeleton of Giganotosaurus cardinii, discovered 18km away in 1993. This fearsome creature puts even Tyrannosaurus rex in the shade: it measured a colossal 13m long (its skull alone accounting for 1.8m), stood 4.7m tall and weighed an estimated eight tonnes. Cono Sur run buses to El Chocón from the Neuquén bus terminal, but getting there and back in one day can be difficult, as departure and return times are inconvenient. If you find yourself stranded, the tourist office ( 
0299/490-1230; 8am–7pm) at the entrance to town can help you find family accommodation if necessary. On the hill opposite the tourist office is a dinosaur dig, which you can visit with a guide in summer ($25).
Three kilometres further south along RN-237, a left turn-off leads another 2km down to the shores of Embalse Ezequiel Ramos Mexía. Here, at the northwest corner of the lake, is the Parque Cretácico, where you'll find some huge, astonishingly well-preserved dinosaur footprints. Not realizing what they were, fishermen once used these as barbecue pits. The footprints resemble those of a giant rhea, but were probably left by an iguanadon – a ten-metre-long herbivore – or some kind of bipedal carnivore. Other kidney-shaped prints are of four-footed sauropods, and smaller prints were probably left by three-metre long theropods. Should you decide to linger, there's a pleasant campsite at Club Chocón Lauquén ( 0299/156-304909; $10 per tent plus $4 per person) with tennis courts and a swimming pool (open Dec– March). The only hotel in town is the Posada del Dinosaurio ( 0299/490-1200, 
www.posadadinosaurio.com.ar ; Price: $210-300), which has large, airy rooms and a decent restaurant.