routa 40 / cuesta de la miranda - CLOSED until 2nd of april
 

to all you heading for the 40 in argentina - the cuesta de miranda is CLOSED until the 2nd of april, at least that's what i've been told not even 10 days ago.

the gap is about HERE, the road is under construction, you'd have to head all the way down to patquia and back up to chilecito, a detour of about 350 km.

we've only been able to pass towards chilecito with the help of locals and a lot of luck (and lack of brains), but not recommended the other way around (was only possible as we were going downhill)

Instead of continuing on Ruta 40, how about Ruta 76 heading West to Chile?
Does it go through? Thanks.
Heading North from Southern Patagonia via Bariloche. Came down through Chile, Carretera Austral so I don't know...

just take the 40 down to chilecito and then continue on the 74. no problem if you're heading for chile anyways, the stretch of the 40 down from the cuesta miranda is not too spectacular anyways (just my opinion).

can highly recommend the paso agua negra (mostly good gravel) into chile, leads into the valle elqui which is also nice (stop for a pisco tour at pisco elqui, distillery los nichos). so what i'd do would be 40 down to chilecito, then 74 to patquia and then the 150 via the PN. ischgualasto (you can do it if you want to, though nothing new to see if you've done spedro de atacama) - to the paso agua negra, into the valle elqui.

if you like gravel roads you'll have a good time at the paso agua negra, though they're paving it so hurry up ;)

you'll have to do the stretch from la serena to valparaiso on the panamericana though ... which is boring as hell and a toll road. but not much to see at this stretch anyways.