With a whopping 3000 inhabitants, PERITO MORENO is the most populous town in this part of the world. It's a typically featureless, spread-out Patagonian settlement, built on a grid system, and is of use to the visitor only as a base for excursions to places such as the Cueva de las Manos, or for its transport services: to Posadas, along the RN40, and to the Chilean border at Los Antiguos/Chile Chico. A wildlife refuge within town, the Laguna de los Cisnes - once the habitat of black-necked swans and flamingoes - is now all too frequently a swanless, dried-up reed bed, its precious water having been siphoned off for domestic and agricultural use.