The Old Patagonian Express (1979) is a written account of a journey taken by novelist Paul Theroux. Starting out from his home town in Massachusetts, via Boston and Chicago, Theroux travels by train across the North American plains to Laredo, Texas.

He then crosses the border and takes a train south through Mexico to Veracruz where he meets a woman looking for a her long-lost lover. He then takes the the train south into Guatemala and then El Salvador where he goes to a soccer match and is amazed by the violence. He then flies to Costa Rica where the takes the train to Limon and Puntarenas. He ended his transit of Central America in Panama where takes the short train ride across the isthmus. He then proceeds to Colombia and then over the Andes and finally reaches the cold, bare heart of Patagonia, the small town of Esquel. He endures harsh climates, including the extreme altitude of Peru and the Bolivian Plateau, meets the famous author Jorge Luis Borges in Buenos Aires and is reunited with long lost family in Ecuador.