Santiago del Estero travel guide

This quiet, provincial town makes a handy stopping point if you’re heading from the flat landscape of the Chaco to explore the northwest corner of Argentina but little of the architectural heritage of Argentina’s oldest city remains. There are, however, some comfortable places to stay, a couple of museums worth seeing, and the people are among Argentina’s most friendly and welcoming.

Santiago was founded in 1553 and was an important base for establishing other major cities in the northwest. As the other cities grew, Santiago was left behind and the town is now a rather impoverished older neighbour. It’s a bit run-down, with its plaza in a shambolic state of affairs, but it has a warm, laid-back atmosphere and the siesta here is legendary. The renovated bus terminal (Pedro Leon Gallo 480, T0385-4213746) has toilets, a locutorio, basic café and kioskos, as well as stalls selling food. A taxi into town from the bus terminal costs US$1, and this will save you an 12 block walk. However, if you find a taxi little further from the terminal you’ll avoid being surcharged by some taxi drivers. Mal Paso airport is on the northwestern outskirts of town.

On the Plaza Libertad stand the Municipalidad and Jefatura de Policia, built in 1868 in the style of a colonial cabildo. On the west side is the cathedral, the fifth on the site, dating from 1877. Two blocks southeast of the plaza is the Convento de Santo Domingo (Urquiza y 25 de Mayo) containing one of two copies of the ‘Turin Shroud’, but otherwise unremarkable. Six blocks east of the plaza is the welcome greenery of the Parque Francisco de Aguirre which stretches to the river, and includes the town’s campsite. There’s also a tourist office (Plaza Libertad 417, T0385-421 4243) .

The best museum is the Museo de Ciencias Antropológicas y Naturales (Avellaneda 353, T0385-421 1380, Tue-Sun 0800-2000, free) with the wonderfully eclectic collection of pre-Hispanic artefacts by brothers Emilio and Duncan Wagner, now sadly haphazardly presented and badly conserved. Amongst the stuffed armadillos, bone flutes, delicate spindles and board-flattened skulls, is a breathtaking quantity of beautifully decorated funerary urns, some rare bronze ceremonial hachas, and anthropomorphic pieces....read more