Cerro Chenque is the 212-metre hill that divides Comodoro Rivadavia in two and defines its geography. A path leads to the summit — it is a 30-minute walk at a moderate pace — and the view from the top takes in the Atlantic coast, the Patagonian plateau stretching inland, and the city below with its oil derricks, the port, and the industrial installations that have accumulated over a century of extraction. It is an unromantic panorama, but it is honest, and it makes the scale of the oil industry visible in a way that the museum cannot quite achieve.
The hill can be windy in the extreme — Comodoro is one of the windiest cities in Argentina — so dress accordingly. The walk up is straightforward on a calm day. The name comes from the Mapuche use of the area as a burial ground, and the hill retains a certain gravity from that history even as it has become a recreational area for the city.