Recipe for a typical Patagonia town

To make your very own Patagonia town, you will need:

- Lots and lots of corregated tin for the roofs

Tin, casinos, dogs, 4x4s and heat, heat, heat

- A handful of generic street names from the phone book of the next town (Libertador, 9 de Mayo, 25 de Julio, Boliviar, San Martin etc)

- A huge dominating casino or two

- At least two dozen stray dogs sprinkled around the streets

- A mix of monster 4x4s and battered old Fiats and Renault 7s

- At least one Al Anonima or Carrefour supermarket

Then, simply turn the heating up to the temperature of the surface of the sun in every cafe, bus, shop, taxi and hostel, et voila! You're cooked.

(Trees not required.)