Why You Should Visit San Juan, Argentina

Whenever people hear "San Juan" they often think of Puerto Rico. For me, the words "San Juan" conjure up memories of the vast western, Andes Mountain, desert region of Argentina. I spent three weeks truly living in the remote desert of South America. I stayed in the apartments of local inhabitants and lived off the land. I was there in August, which is their winter. When the sun shone, it was warm, but when it hid away, the temperature plummeted and produced a chilly, Antarctic breeze.

San Juan isn't a place to go if you want a five-star resort hotel on the beach. Hot water was for tea and coffee, not for bathing. Beef came from cows, not supermarkets. The city and the outskirts offer a calm, serene and remote stay. Many of my hosts slaughtered their animals by morning, and cooked them up for my supper by night. There are no chemicals added, just pure, natural meat. Mate, a type of Argentine tea was also served nightly. It is drunk out of a special cup with a metal straw.

The landscape is an acquired taste for many people. The desert was back-dropped by the barren Andes Mountains and littered with sticker bushes. The purple mountains appeared nice from a distance, but a closer glance revealed just how barren and rugged they truly were. In this region, the Andes are not snow capped, majestic pyramids like the European Alps. Rather, they offer a calm portal to another place and time.

There is no time in Argentina. Eight o'clock means ten o'clock and ten o'clock means "whenever." Afternoon naps are the way of life, and late nights around a campfire with the town's inhabitants are a result of the second wind you acquire after siesta. Most of the houses on the outskirts of the city were missing a wall, or a door or a roof. The cold breeze blew through most of the churches during Sunday services and bitter gusts harassed us through the long, cold nights.

Though the picture I painted may not be one that a mainstream traveler might jump on, the city and its outskirts are the perfect retreat. Spiritually, the region offers seclusion, and artistically it offers purple mountains and desert landscapes. For the adventurous, there is non-guided hiking into the mountains. For those who want an escape from the hustle and bustle of twenty-first century life, then step back a few hundred years into the vast, spanning sands of the San Juan region.

The city center, as does the outer regions, offer many places to shop. Hand-made crafts, mate tea, leather and beef (though I wouldn't try to bring beef on an international flight) are among many of the items unique to the area. One can also purchase local wines and traditional clothing. Dulce de leche, similar to caramel, was another treat served to me on a daily basis.

The flight from Buenos Aries to San Juan was a perilous journey between mountain peeks. But upon landing, you truly are in another time and place. No tourists, no time, no modern conveniences in much of the region and no stress. It really is a place to temporarily forget. Children laugh in the foreground of stunning, fiery-red sunsets, and hospitality stretches far beyond the means of the people.

Lastly, San Juan presents a sky full of stars unseen to us in the Northern Hemisphere. There's no Polaris to guide you north, no Big Dipper or belt of a warrior. The black sky was painted white with countless stars and constellations unique to the land south of the Equator. Though San Juan is not as easy to get to as Rome or Cancun, it is worth the adventure, for those who want to be travelers and not tourists.